AntarcticDoctor

Well, it’s final – the last of the summer personnel will be departing overland in a few hours time, as the weather is not conducive to flying.  Four of my winter team will accompany them, to bring the snowcats and equipment back to the base, and then we can settle in for the year.  It’s been a challenging time, but this is a new beginning, of sorts.

In the meantime I’ve begun what I hope will grow into a comprehensive collection of information about the base and our activities here.  Click on the page link for “SANAE IV – Physical Environment” for a brief overview and some aerial photographs.

It’s a busy time again, as the summer season draws to a close.  At the coast, the weather is worsening steadily, although we are still having very pleasant weather at SANAE IV.  The warmer weather and rougher seas created some trouble at our bukta on the ice-shelf – our ramp has been declared unsafe due to the deteriorating ice conditions, and so we were forced to divert all cargo that couldn’t be flown onto the ship 300km overland to Neumayer’s loading area.  Most of the summer personnel have now been flown off, leaving only the winter team and a few other essential personnel at our base.  With all this action, I’ve had little time to write, but I have used the improved bandwidth to add some pictures to my article “Icebound,” under the SA Agulhas category.  As always, there’s more good stuff to come!  We’ve also got an updated telephone number at the base, so haul out your address-books jot this down:  +2721 405 9428.  Normal South African rates apply.  Our new fax line is +2721 405 9432.

A few days ago we were treated to out first sunset in months.  Although the sun only dipped behind the mountains for a few minutes, it is the first time we have seen it below the horizon since mid-December.  Each “night” it is gone for a little longer, but at midnight we still have as much light as a heavily overcast day back home.  It is harbringer, however, of the months of darkness that await us.

First sunset – the peaks on the skyline are (left to right) Lorentzenpiggen, Grunehogna, Istind

The long silences on the blog may be disturbing to enthusiastic readers, for which I apologise by proxy.  We’ve installed a new satellite communications system at the base, which provides much faster data transmission (256kb/sec vs. the old 9kb/sec).  This is with an eye to future improvements in real-time data transfer for the research projects, telemedicine transmissions, and of course happier overwintering team members.  However, the upgrade has had the expected teething problems, which left us without much data capability for the last week.  We are now back online, but should you hear nothing but the sound of silence, you know why 😉

I’ve updated the post titled “Listening to Lightning” under the Antarctic Science category with a sound file and a bigger picture of the VLF antenna, so click on the link and check that out.  Once the take-over is complete and we have some time on our hands, I promise to continue the articles about the research projects.