Alexander in Antarctica

First BELATMOS winter aerosol measurements

2012-01-24T11:35:00.005+01:00

As mentioned in the blogpost before, the TEOM-FDMS and the aethalometer collected data during last winter, at least from end of February to mid of April. This is something very interesting because the two instruments collected data when there was really no emission of aerosols for energy generation (only wind power and batteries) or from station operation. This makes them valuable data with information on real background concentrations. In addition, these data are special because they were sampled without any direct maintenance/attendance of personnel. Measurements in Antarctica with these kinds of instruments are done normally at stations with overwintering personnel. The data I am reporting here are nevertheless preliminary and several quality assurance steps have to be applied. This is in particular important because the TEOM-FDMS and the aethalometer are measuring near their detection limits.

The average of the total aerosol mass concentration measured by the TEOM-FDMS was 0.85 microgram per cubic meter with a standard deviation of 1.03. For the moment slight negative values are still accepted because of the general low aerosol concentration and because of the detection limit of the TEOM-FDMS, which is around 1-2 microgram per cubic meter. I have to make additional checks to justify if negative values are skipped or not. For the winter 2011, 12% of the data are negative, but almost all just between 0 and –1.0 microgram per cubic meter. That the standard deviation is higher than the average means that the average total aerosol mass concentration was not – from a statistical point of view – different from zero, neither definitely positive of negative. To be able to determine this further, a longer time series will be necessary. Another possibility is that the integration time for determining a TEOM-FDMS sample would have to be longer (meaning more mass sampled on the filter before the data value is taken). However, I set the integration time already to 2 hours.

Another possibility is to cross check the TEOM-FDMS data with data from the other aerosol instruments. However, the aethalometer measures the strong absorbing particles, amounting only to a small part of the total aerosol mass. The arrival of the new instruments this season will provide more insight. In particular the Laser Aerosol Spectrometer measuring the size distribution could prove valuable to check the aerosol mass concentration measurements. By integrating over the number concentrations of all measured size classes, and assuming a certain mass density of the particles and a certain shape, it can be cross-checked if either data is reasonable. The winter aethalometer data shows an average of 5.2 nanogram per cubic meter with a standard deviation of 5.4. This means that we are really measuring near the detection limit and a longer time series is necessary to be able to make statistically sound statements how much absorbing particles (or black carbon) there are in Antarctica. However, concentrations between 0 and 10 nanogram per cubic meter would be the expected level.

The images above show the state of the shelter for the aerosol instruments after the winter (no power, heating for 7 months), after cleaning and letting it dry, and an image of the interior of the aethalometer. It shows the filter tape on which the samples are collected. On the right one can see some darker spots. These are the old samples, and the tape is drawn further when a certain absorbance is reached. The snow and ice inside the shelter freightened us a bit if there was damage to the instruments. But it appeared that this was not the case, luckily.

The departure for this season's expedition comes nearer. I will fly this Friday from Brussels via London to Cape Town, South Africa, and the flight from Cape Town to Antarctica is scheduled for Monday evening. So, the next news will come from Antarctica (or from Cape Town, if the weather conditions delay the flight to Antarctica).

The BELATMOS measurements have restarted

2011-12-23T15:32:00.004+01:00

Since mid-November Princess Elisabeth Antarctica is again operational. On the special website of the station (www.antarcticstation.org) you can follow the story. Erik, the engineer also responsible for taking care of the scientific equipment, restarted our instruments already. The TEOM-FDMS, the aethalometer, and the Brewer ozone spectrophotometer are operational again. The TEOM-FDMS and the aethalometer collected data also during winter, at least as long as electricity was there. This is something very interesting because the two instruments collected data when there was no station activity and when there was really no emission of aerosols for energy generation (only wind power and batteries). Data of this kind is rarely sampled in Antarctica. In one of my next posts I will tell a bit more about these data. The forth instrument, the Cimel sunphotometer, will arrive these days at the station and if weather allows, it will also be installed soon after.

The ozone spectrophotometer did already its first measurements, from 13 December onwards. On 14 and 15 December, the values for total atmospheric column ozone were really low, between 220 and 240 Dobson Units, before climbing the next days higher (see bottom image). On the image in the middle it can be seen that it fitted to the overall pattern of total ozone in the Southern Hemisphere. That image is a composite of measured total ozone values from observation stations worldwide (World Ozone and UV Data Centre), to which also our instrument contributes. The area of lowest total ozone was located on 14 December over East Antarctica and Dronning Maud Land. The black spot depicts the approximate location of Princess Elisabeth station. The upper image shows the UV index for that day. It is very high to extreme around local noon. These high UV values can be explained by the low total ozone values, the elevation of the station (1400 m) and the almost aerosol free atmosphere. They are also particular because the elevation of the sun (elevation above horizon) is not that high, although it is austral summer and near to summer solstice – on 14 December the elevation angle reached only 41deg. This is low compared to late spring, summer in our northern midlatitudes. And then the UV index in our region only rarely reaches values of 8/9. It means that the sun poses really a danger in Antarctica. Although the ozone hole period is over now in Antarctica, there are still large areas with low total ozone values, as can be seen in the middle image.

Merry Christmas and till soon

Next austral summer season about to begin

2011-10-26T16:15:00.002+02:00

The next Belgian Antarctic expedition is about to begin. The first team will leave Cape Town mid November 2011. This season, I will be again part of the expedition team, however, this time towards the end of the season, from end of January to 21 February 2012. Nevertheless, there are many things to prepare right now.
Unfortunately, the power supply system of the station broke down beginning of Antarctic winter. This means that the first team arriving at the station will have to take care of a lot of extra things, and also to take care of the two Belatmos aerosol instruments – the aethalometer and the TEOM-FDMS – which are installed in the southern scientific shelter. It will have to be checked if they are in order and not damaged after the power failure and the long winter-over, and before a re-start they have to be warmed up slowly.
Engineers of the team will also take care to re-install the AERONET Sun photometer and the Brewer ozone spectrophotometer on the station roof. As they need sun for their measurements, they cannot measure during the dark winter months and only with arrival of the first expedition team, they can be re-installed. In addition, the Sun photometer has to be calibrated in Europe annually and travels therefore each season back and forth.

When I will be at the station, I will bring with me 4 new instruments, measuring UV-A, UV-B and total solar irradiation, aerosol total number concentration, particle number concentration in several size classes, and spectral scattering of the aerosol particles. I will give here a brief description of these instruments:
The Ultrafine Condensation Particle Counter (U-CPC) measures the ambient aerosol number concentration from 3nm to 3 micrometers diameter. It will be installed in the same container as the aethalometer and the TEOM-FDMS.
The Laser Aerosol Spectrometer (LAS) measures the aerosol size distribution in the diameter size range from 90nm to 7.5 micrometers (size classes can be adjusted). It will be installed in the container with the other aerosol instruments. A year-round operation is envisaged. The difference of the number concentration of the U-CPC and the integrated number size distribution of the LAS (90nm to 3 micrometer) will give an estimate of the nucleation and Aitken mode aerosol concentration (particles smaller than 90nm).
The 3-wavelengths nephelometer will measure the total scatter and the backscatter at 450, 525 and 635 nm. As the nephelometer will be installed in the same container like the aethalometer, they will probe the same air mass and therefore, a direct measure of the single scattering albedo will exist (ssa = scatter / (scatter + absorbtion) ). The single scattering albedo is an important parameter used in radiative transfer algorithms in satellite retrieval algorithms or in climate models
The irradiation sensors will be an UV-A radiometer (315-400nm), an UV-B radiometer (280-315nm) and a pyranometer for total solar irradiation (305-2800nm). The sensors will be installed on the roof of the station and year-round operation is envisaged.
In summary this means a lot of work, but all the instruments together will provide very nice data sets describing comprehensively the aerosol composition, UV radiation and total ozone at Princess Elisabeth station.

Something NEW: The COMMENT function of this blog should now work much better than before !

Nobody there, but

2011-03-25T13:54:00.001+01:00

In the meantime, the BELARE 2010-2011 campaign has come to an end. The last team left on 24 February Utsteinen. They prepared the station for the winter conditions. Two of my instruments, the aethalometer and the TEOM-FDMS were left in operation mode in the southern scientific shelter. This is kind of an exciting test. First, there is no communication connection to this shelter yet, so we do not know really what is happening in there and if the two instruments are working. Second, aerosol measurements like this in Antarctica are usually done at locations where year-round maintenance is possible. Third, everybody is hoping that the power will be available the whole winter through. Taking all this into account, it will be a unique dataset if everything works out well and if we can retrieve the winter data beginning of next summer season.

A very good estimation if everything is ok is the knowledge about the power management system and if other instruments at the station, which are already connected to the Internet, are still working. If there is enough power available at the station, there is also power at the southern shelter as it is on the same power priority level. And as the aethalometer and TEOM-FDMS are robust standard monitoring instruments, there is no need for an increased concern. Until today there has not been a problem yet with the power provision at the station. However, as wind has been low at many days, apparently the diesel generators took over during periods of low winds.

At our institute, Andy has written a small programme that creates a so-called Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) forecast for Utsteinen (better: the nearest model grid point). Such an EPS takes meteorological analysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast and makes 10-days forecasts (see image above). The specialty of the EPS forecast is, to run the same model 50 times, but each with slightly different initial conditions, representing model uncertainties. The result is a probability distribution for the meteorological forecast values, giving medians, percentiles and extreme values. A narrow distribution for a parameter shows very good confidence in the value, and a broad distribution illustrates higher uncertainty.

We compared these EPS forecasts to measured values from the automatic weather station and it appeared that the tendencies for wind speed and temperature are very good. Wind speed is most often a bit overestimated and temperature mostly too cold – probably due to the unique setting of the station protected by the Sor Rondane Mountains, which cannot be resolved by the model. Although clouds and precipitation are very difficult to simulate, the EPS forecasts are useful the first few days for cloud coverage. Precipitation is most often largely overestimated. When I was at the station, during most predicted snowfall events, precipitation was detected by the instruments of the HYDRANT project able to measure cloud height and falling crystals or droplets. However, this precipitation mostly never reached the ground or it was much less than predicted. This is a phenomenon we want to investigate further, e.g., with additional monitoring instruments or with profile information on temperature, humidity and wind.

The last days

2011-01-31T17:11:00.004+01:00

Now my stay at the Princess Elisabeth station is almost over. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will fly around noon with the ‘Lydia’, (the plane we also came here) to the Russian air base Novolazarevskaya near the coast. There we only have a few hours before the large Ilyushin 76 will fly us to Cape Town in South Africa. About 12 of our team will leave Utsteinen and in Novo we will join other Antarctic expedition members from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan to fly together back to Cape Town.

Last Thursday and Friday we had a storm here – not of the worrying type, however, the wind speed was 15 – 17 m/s at the weather station 300m to the East. So, on our ridge, the wind speed was probably higher by about 4-5 m/s. There was a lot of drifting or blowing snow, from times to times accompanied by real snowfall and the visibility was really bad – the Utsteinen nunatak was for a long time not visible anymore. Now that the summer season reaches slowly the end, also the sun sets deeper and deeper behind the mountain ranges in the south. At some days this leads to nice views around midnight. This mountain range also influences strongly the upper air flow and sometimes we can watch the formation of large, impressive, cylindric clouds.

The ozone spectrophotometer which is installed now on the roof of the station is doing nice measurements. Besides the total column amount of ozone in the atmosphere, we can now also derive the UV index for Utsteinen, i.e., a measure of the probability of ultraviolet radiation induced erythema of different human skin types. On 23 to 26 January, on rather sunny days, the UV index reached up to 6, indicating a moderate intensity at which the skin burns easily. On the days of the storm, with a complete overcast sky, the UV index reached nevertheless 5. This only slightly lower index is caused by the very low and thin clouds, through which the shortwave radiation can easily penetrate.

Up there in the air

2011-01-23T22:28:00.005+01:00

The days of last week passed by with a very cloudy sky and with strong winds. The strong winds and dynamics in the upper troposphere can nicely be observed in the cloud formations. Over the nearby Sor Rondane mountains, there are now most of the time quasi-stationary mountain wave clouds. It is interesting to watch that other cloud layers move with the general wind directions, but these mountain wave clouds stay more or less always at the same place, i.e., that the advected air masses are lifted up at this region, cool down, form clouds, and then they are, like in a wave, transported downwards where they warm and do not form a cloud anymore. However, this region in the lee of the mountains where it is cool enough for cloud formation, stays more or less stationary, and the air masses are transported through it. So the cloud forms steadily new, but it seems as if it is not changing. A very similar cloud type are the lenticularis clouds, which form in a similar way and which we can observe here now every day. The image above gives a nice example of such clouds. In addition, the sun is now longer times hidden behind the mountains during midnight hours and the horizon then shows violet to red glow. Saturday night when there were less clouds, the moon could be seen.

The Brewer ozone spectrophotometer is now finally installed and fixed to the roof. The first good measurements were possible this Sunday, as we had finally a sunny day and the instruments makes best measurements when there are no clouds before the sun.

Since a few days the Princess Elisabeth station has been the base for some scientific flights with the Polar-5 in order to investigate the magnetic field of the Earth. Detleff from the German Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe and Daniel from the German Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI) and the pilot crew of the Polar-5 have been flying with this aircraft of AWI over the mountains and adjacent glaciers of the Sor Rondane mountains. With the maps of the magnetic field of the Earth made with the instruments installed in the Polar-5, they can derive informations on the tectonics of the Earth’s crust mantle and on the directions of cracks in the tectonic plates. The Polar-5 is a transformed DC3, adapted to the conditions in polar regions.

Finding the right orientation for the ozone spectrophotometer

2011-01-18T18:41:00.005+01:00

During the last week, we installed the Brewer ozone spectrophotometer on the roof of the station. As already explained in the last post, this instrument will serve to monitor very precisely the amount of total ozone in the atmosphere. It will not only help to monitor the evolution of the ozone layer, but it will also be valuable to validate satellite measurements of the ozone amount. The retrieval above highly reflective areas like the Antarctic is not always easy and therefore ground-based measurements are important.

In order to do its measurements, the ozone spectrophotometer turns with its optics always towards the sun. This is not that simple as it sounds. One essential parameter is the azimuth angle. This angle is defined as the angle between the North and clockwise going to the position of the sun. In the northern hemisphere this angle starts at 0 degree in the North and goes over 90 degree East, 180 degree South, 270 degree West back to 360/0 degree North. On the contrary, in the southern hemisphere the azimuth starts (as the definition stays the same, but the sun moves from East over North to West) with 180 degree in the South, goes back to 90 in the East, to 0/360 in the North, over 270 degree in the West back to 180 in the South. As the suntracker of the Brewer with its motor system is able to do one clockwise rotation of 360 degrees and then turning back to its starting position, the tricky thing with orienting the Brewer in the Antarctic arises with the transition point around local noon when the azimuth makes a jump from 0 to 360.

After some tests in order to find the correct positioning I found two possible solutions with the great help from Hugo in Brussels and Arjan in Delft. One possibility is to orient the tracker as in the northern hemisphere with its zero point to the North. At local noon, at the switch from 0 to 360 degree, the tracker makes a full 360 degree rotation. This setup has the disadvantage that there is some time lost due to the tracker’s rotation. And this just around the short precious time when one can get the best measurements in a place like Antarctica with its (mostly) low sun elevations. The other possibility is, to orient the tracker with its zero point to the South. However, as the software calculates the correct azimuths (starting at 180, not at 0), and the tracker counts its degrees clockwise, one has to set an internal offset of +180 degree. For the azimuths when +180 and the azimuth results in more than 360 degree (and, as the tracker’s rotation is limited to 360 degree), the tracker internally knows that it cannot move clockwise more than 360. So, it subtracts automatically 360 degrees. In this setup, it does not need to make a full rotation around local noon. This full rotation is then done around local midnight, when the sun is anyway too low for measurements.

Besides the instrument installation, there are many opportunities to make some nice photos of the clouds and the landscape here. Above, I put some new ones.

The measurements

2011-01-09T19:47:00.004+01:00

During the last week the measurements with the TEOM instrument started up. This instrument measures the aerosol mass concentration. It can be combined with special inlets which allow only specific aerosol sizes to enter the instrument. We are interested only in the smallest particles, below 10 micrometer or smaller and one of the images shows such an inlet. The TEOM measures the mass concentration with the help of an oscillating microbalance on which a special filter is mounted. The mass which is deposited on this special filter is measured via the changes in frequency of the oscillation of this microbalance. This kind of instrument is commonly used to measure the particulate mass concentration of fine dust in Europe or North America. Here, in the Antarctic we are not expecting high levels of the mass concentration. It is the aim to monitor this concentration over a long period in order to be able to detect if there is a change or trend in the concentration or not. If there is any trend, this would, e.g., indicate a change in the long-range aerosol transport or global circulation patterns. The image with the graph gives preliminary results of the first measurements of the aerosol mass concentration at Utsteinen.

In the coming week I hopefully will install the Brewer ozone spectrophotometer on the roof of the main station. The image shows me in front of this instrument. It will measure the total amount of ozone in the atmospheric column above us. For final installation it needs a very robust fixation to the rooftop. To monitor the ozone column amount in Antarctica is important because above Antarctica the ozone hole is still very large every year and the more spatially distributed precisemeasurements there are, the better a recovery of the ozone layer (what is expected to begin in the coming years) can be detected.

Besides our atmospheric composition measurements there is also research done on the biodiversity of life around Utsteinen, in particular species like cyanobacteria and lichens. This season, Zorigto Namsaraev from the University of Liege joined the expedition team (see also his blog antarcticabelgium.blogspot.com). He found already very interesting samples and it is possible to watch them under special microscopes. This brought us to the idea to put, just for curiosity, a used filter sample of the aethalometer under such a microscope. Soot or Black Carbon particles (what the aethalometer is for) are normally of the size of a few nanometer, maybe up to 200nm. Normally, for making nice images of these particles, special high tech microscopes are used, not microscopes for microorganisms of micrometer size. However, the image posted here shows besides the interesting aethalometer filter matrix a few dark spots, and these are very probable soot or black carbon particles, agglomerated together. Of course, I took a dark filter sample from the few days when the aethalometer sampled air enriched with exhaust particles from the tractors, skidoos or generators. Normally, the used sample spots are quite white and it would be very difficult to find traces of black carbon particles.

2011 has begun

2011-01-02T13:39:00.005+01:00

Since a couple of days we have strong wind from eastern directions now. Over the ridge the snow is drifting and there are more and more clouds. On Friday 31 December there was even light snow fall. Since Friday the sunphotometer cannot make useful measurements because of the many clouds. The nice image of the sunphotometer with the halo was taken by Stefan Kneifel from the University of Cologne. For the aethalometer on the other hand, the steady winds from eastern directions are very good because in this way it measures the pure Antarctic air – the concentrations of pollution aerosols are around the detection limit – and this is what we are expecting. If we are able to operate this instrument over several years it will be possible to see if there is a change in the concentration level. In the case when the wind becomes weak, the influence of the station is immediately seen. If in addition tractors, generators or skidoos are in operation, the amount of combustion particles the aethalometer detects is then of the same order as in suburban areas in Europe. The TEOM, which you can see built up in the shelter on one of the images, will give information on the mass concentration of all particles, not only the pollution aerosol particles.

New Year’s Eve and New Year itself were quiet days. For New Year’s Eve David, our cook, created again a delicious meal and we were sitting together this evening. The beginning of the new year we welcomed with champagne or wine. It is however difficult to have this feeling that a new day or a new year is starting. With the sun shining whole day round and in particular coming out behind the clouds at midnight – I did not have the impression that this moment was special. This is again an example that it is important to structure the days in Antarctica, otherwise you loose any feeling if it is now day- or night-time.

For the time being we are only 17 left at the station. The other 11 team members are with the meteorite seeking expedition. They went last Thursday with three tractors to the ice plateau, almost 3000m high and about 70 km away. 5 will stay there for three weeks, the others will return today or tomorrow. The weather conditions are harsher than at Utsteinen – with around 1500 m higher temperature will be at least 15 degC colder (but often even more ), wind is stronger, and the height is an additional issue (you have to breathe more, the tractor motors are getting problems…). In the meantime we occupy ourselves besides the normal duties also, e.g., with shoveling snow from the roof of the stations annex buildings, which is blocking some solar panels or creating too much weight for the roof.

After Christmas

2010-12-28T20:21:00.002+01:00

Now we are already halfway between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Christmas Eve has been a rather quiet day – everybody did his work but took it the easy way. In the evening there was nothing specially arranged. I missed this because at home I would have been singing together with my family around the Christmas tree and would have gone either in the afternoon with my children to church or to the late-night mess. But, we had a big Christmas dinner on 25 December. At 3:30 in the morning the traverse team returned from the coast with the 11 containers which they unloaded from the Mary Arctica. During the day on 25 we unloaded the most important things from the containers (mainly the food and instruments). There is also a Christmas tree standing now at the station. For the Christmas dinner David, our formidable chef de cuisine, created a delicious menu. We were sitting together until late. But it was really strange to have the sun shining at midnight – it was absolutely clear sky and it was so light – it was difficult to get this traditional Christmas feeling of the shining lights of the Christmas tree and the crèche and of all the other lights making the dark night so specially enlightened at our latitudes.

The 26 December was again an absolute Antarctic summer day – not any cloud appeared and wind stayed calm. After the Christmas dinner, everybody slept long. In addition, it was a Sunday, and on Sundays, the main works are resting. So, I took my time to relax and to read and to write emails or to skype with my family. This is really a huge advantage – via skype I can see my wife and children and they can see me and we can talk so easily to each other. This helps a lot to forget a bit the fact that I am for a long time so far away.

The last two days I started to set up the TEOM in the southern shelter. This instrument will measure the mass concentration of particles in the lowest atmospheric layer. There are three main components I have to connect with each other via several data cables, plastic or stainless steel tubings. It is not easy not to mess this up. Today Ilyr, one of our carpenters and mechanics, came and made a special waterproof and insulated hole in the roof of the shelter through which all the necessary tubings are fed. The next step will be to put a specially designed inlet on the main tubing of the TEOM on the roof. The whole inlet-system will then have to be fixed to the roof in order to withstand the winds. The weather is changing now slowly. There are more and more clouds – it started with cirrus clouds and now it is nearly overcast with altocumulus and altostratus clouds. The wind also returned and although the temperature is not too cold (around -8 degC), it is now markedly less comfortable to be outside. The images show me on the roof of the southern shelter, installing another inlet for the aethalometer, the sunphotometer pointing to the sun, and some very nice cirrus clouds.

Work and life at the station

2010-12-23T16:58:00.007+01:00

The last days I have been busy with setting up the first two instruments – the aethalometer and the sunphotometer. Besides of this there was an introduction in security matters for all new team members. This included a driving school with the skidoos. On Tuesday, Sanne our field guide, went with us and the skidoos into the field. We drove around the Utsteinen nunatak. From first view the area seems to be quite flat, no problem. However, the terrain reveals a lot going up and down, fields of blue ice, hard and soft snow, driving along a slope – we received a good impression how it feels like driving in Antarctica. If you go too fast – fast you’re grounded. In addition, we took ‘crampons’ with us to walk on the ice and up steep slopes. The whole time we had impressive views of all sides of the Utsteinen nunatak with its wind scoops of snow and ice. Together with a clear blue sky we nearly felt like tourists. On the image you can see the southeast side of the nunatak and a view on the station from there.

Just before the driving school started, I mounted on the roof of the scientific shelter the inlet for the aethalometer. The day before the wind was too strong to work safely on this roof. Now the aethalometer is in operation and if no failures occur, it can turn whole year round. On Wednesday I installed the sunphotometer on the top of the roof of the station. The day was perfect for this – no wind, comfortable temperatures, sun. Sun is needed for the correct installation of the instrument because for the measurements it has to point directly to the sun. It was a great feeling sitting there on top of the roof, plenty of sun, clear sky and wide views, warm – Club Med is nothing compared to this. However, there’s not much time to enjoy this – the instrument needs a bit special care until it is correctly adjusted. After all, today Thursday, both instruments are working and I can go on to the next instrument. And in the meantime Stefan, the colleague of the hydrological cycle project, and I went to the automatic weather station, which is installed a bit further away, to exchange its data logger.

Life at the station is distinctly different from two years ago. Sleeping in a normal bedroom and a normal bed instead of in a tent and sleeping bag makes much of a difference. Also, there are now toilets and washing rooms with showers. The toilets are sometimes closed because the bacteria need some time to recover and to become hungry again. For this period we have the Antarctic-style toilets (no need for a more detailed description). Having a shower in the evening is really great. There is enough warm water from the water heating panels on the roof. It is no problem to have every second day a shower. However, this does not include long-lasting showers ;-) Besides of this, the communication with the outer world is no problem anymore – internet and phone calls are nearly always possible. Tomorrow it is Christmas Eve – no plans yet. I suppose there will be a queue for the one ‘public’ satellite telephone. Others have their own satellite phone with them. We will see.

The first day at the Station

2010-12-20T20:23:00.004+01:00

Before we left on Saturday I visited the Kirstenbos National Botanical Garden near Cape Town. This fantastic garden is really worth visiting more than once. It is perfectly situated – in a natural amphitheatre where the Cape Town mountains form a perfect shelter against cold wind, but provide warmth and more than normal precipitation. The plants and trees you can see there are impressing. South Africa is the homeland of one of the Earth’s six main plant kingdoms.

After this visit I waited with the others in the hotel until we went to the airport. We left Cape Town Saturday night; the Ilyushin 76 took off at 23:30 local time. The machine was fully packed, about 10 tons of cargo and around 45 passengers with destination the different Antarctic stations in Dronning Maud Land – Germans, Japanese, Indians, Belgians and others. The flight took around 6 hours and we landed Monday morning at half past four, local time which is Greenwich Mean Time.

It was rather fair weather and the sun shining – uncommonly high already for this early morning for Middle Europeans. Wind was not strong. After unloading and repacking our cargo into the Basler-67, we left only two and a half hours later for Princess Elisabeth station. Everybody of us slept during the 90 minutes flight – tired from the Ilyushin flight and otherwise the cabin of the Basler is not pressurized, so that the oxygen content is lower. At Princess Elisabeth station the members of the team already there waited at the landing strip and welcomed us. The weather at Utsteinen was very nice – nearly completely blue sky, almost no wind and comfortable temperatures. At the sky some snow petrels swallowed along – nice to see.

That sunday I only took care of my cargo boxes and checked that the instruments had arrived in good condition. Towards the evening cloudiness increased and the wind became stronger and snow started to blow – you should be able to see this on the image, the slight white blur just above the ground.

So – what’s with living at the station: Sleeping is not anymore necessary in tents – however, who want to can do it. Maybe I will do this later. But for now, the comfort in the sleeping rooms is tempting enough – a real bed (no sleeping bags anymore), heated rooms, all stuff sorted neatly in the cupboard ;-) I sleep in one of the 4-bed rooms in the wooden annex of the station, sharing it with a colleague from Germany. In the main station, many things have changed – bath rooms and toilets can now be used for example. Water treatment is working and the bacteria responsible for cleaning up our waste water are scrutinized in a special lab.

It is really a good feeling to be back again. Seeing again this unique landscape with the Utsteinen nunatak and the variation between mountains and the flat white ice surface reaching to the horizon – this is really a very special place. In addition, the steady change of the interplay between the light, the snow and the mountains is so fascinating – at Utsteinen the eye will very rarely be bored. On the contrary to my last stay, now I will have sun (if there are no clouds) 24 hours. It is funny to see the sun disappearing behind the mountains west of the nunatak at around 22:45 and just 20 minutes later the sun appears back on the east side of the nunatak.

Departure to Antarctica soon

2010-12-17T17:45:00.002+01:00

Now I am in Cape Town, South Africa. I enjoy the last day before I will leave this saturday, 18 December, to Antarctica. I will not be alone on this flight - for the Belgium station there are 13 people - 6 scientists, the station manager, engineers, technicians, a cook and a doctor. Tomorrow we will be at the airport around 8pm and the flight will leave something between 9 and 10 pm. It will be a 6 hours flight with the Ilyushin 76, a great cargo transporter, to the Russian Antarctic Novo air base. After the arrival on sunday morning most of us will leave on the same day to Utsteinen, to the Princess Elisabeth station. Because we have a lot of cargo, a small group will stay in Novo for one day and will come to Utsteinen thus a bit later, with the remaining cargo.
I am really looking forward to be again in Antarctica and I am curious how it will be this time.

The next expedition to Antarctica begins soon

2010-11-26T12:52:00.002+01:00

On 15 December, I will again leave Brussels for joining the BELARE 2010-2011 campaign at the Princess Elisabeth Station, Utsteinen, East Antarctica. This time I will stay much longer than last time - approximately 7 weeks, until the beginning of February 2011. The plans for this season are to install some more instruments: the Cimel sunphotometer will be again mounted on the top of the station's roof; the aethalometer will be again installed in the scientific shelter and it should now be installed for over-winter operation; the first newcomer this season is a Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM), which measures the aerosol mass concentration; and the second newcomer is a Brewer spectrophotometer, which measures the total column amount of ozone in the atmosphere, the UV radiation, and the aerosol optical depth in the UV-B. The Brewer will be mounted on the station's roof and the TEOM in the scientific shelter.
Although I have already been two years ago in Antarctica at the Princess Elisabeth Station, this time it will also be very special. The stay is distinctly longer, it will be over Christmas and New Year's Eve, and there will be no dark hours, only towards the very end of my stay the sun will be sufficiently below the horizon that it will become darker for some moments. Personally, I have to deal with the circumstance that I will leave behind my wife and my two little children. I expect that it won't be easy, but there are now good communication connections and skype will help ;-)
Besides the above mentioned instruments, I will also help to maintain the automatic weather station and the magnetometer, both installed since the BELARE 2008-2009 campaign.
So, I will keep all readers of this blog up-to-date what happens this time at Utsteinen.

Instruments up and running

2010-02-01T13:18:00.006+01:00

Since this weekend, the BelAtmos instruments are running again. Irina has installed the Cimel sunphotometer on the top of the roof of the station. Together with Johan Berte she fixed the interface platform on the triangle-formed top. The final installation then was quite some work, because the instrument had to be leveled and then its orientation towards the sun had to be checked. For the perfect orientation to the sun, Irina put the instrument in manual mode and executed some special commands to direct the sunphotometer to the sun. Then there is the check that a small spot on the instrument is lit perfectly by the sun. If not, one has to correct either leveling or the azimuth of the pointing instrument. Normally, this procedure is re-iterated several times and Irina had to climb on the rooftop each time, perfectionizing the screwing and leveling – not an easy job. After all, the sunphotometer is put into automatic mode and carries out the measurements independently .

Finally, the sunphotometer has found its place at the Princess Elisabeth station, overlooking the area. The instruments to the right, on the main roof, are the ceilometer, the micro rain radar and the pyrometer of the Hydrant project of KU Leuven, all of them also installed by Irina. The aethalomter was also about to start up measurements in this weekend.

BelAtmos in 2010

2010-01-04T14:23:00.001+01:00

The summer has already begun at Utsteinen and since mid-November the Belgian station is again populated. Although I won’t be there this summer season, I would like to keep this blog up to date and describe the progress our scientific project(s) are making.

It would have been nice to be at Utsteinen also this season, but there are some personal, budget, and practical reasons why I will go to Utsteinen only the season 2010-2011 again. It would have been nice to see the station becoming fully operational and to revisit the Utsteinen nunatak and its surroundings. There are several things to be finished in the station (cabling, network, water cycle, communication satellite dish), what means that the base camp with its tents has been put up again and (almost) everybody is again living in a tent there. From the experiences I made last season, I would prefer, without hesitating, a tent over the sleeping rooms in the station (of course, time went by and the deepest temperatures during Antarctic night hours almost vanished from my memory).

This year, our collaboration partners of the University of Leuven, Irina and Nicole, will take care of our instruments – the sunphotometer, and the aethalometer. Themselves, they will install a new instrument, a micro-rain radar, besides their ceilometer and pyrometer. And they will service their automatic weather station. Its data reveals that the Utsteinen site is indeed relatively warm during winter – the hourly temperature averages didn’t reach the –40 deg Celsius. Irina will start on 03 January her journey to Utsteinen, and Nicole on 26 January. So, later in January there shall be more news.

afterwords 2

2009-03-02T11:21:00.004+01:00

First working day after Antarctica. Now life, structured by working hours, has started again. Besides work there is also a lot of things to be done in private life, this is the reason that I have no post-Antarctica depression. Simply no time for it... But by telling others how it was, what I experienced and by viewing the pictures again, I also reflect more and more on the time in Antarctica. It was really a special life we had there. You’re in a group, very very remote; the only way in and out are aircrafts which may come or not, depending completely on the weather of that continent. And if the weather is bad, there is not much to do around there, you’re simply stuck and you have to rely on your own. Add the cold and dry and harsh conditions and then you realize that it is really important to have good material (from clothing to tools, gear…), reliable people around you and the infrastructure of the station. If something bad happens (e.g. an accident, injury), you need a good doctor and luck as the next hospital is in Cape Town. It’s already enough when you think that when you need to fix that screw in a hurry without gloves, with a bit of wind and temperatures only -10 °C, the frostbite will grasp your fingertips. It is easy to forget this in the beautiful surroundings of Sor Rondane and Utsteinen. All the eye-catching moments, created by the changing light, clouds, reflectances by the snow and ice, the mountains and snow formations – the beauty is breathtaking and I often felt the uniqueness of this place.

It was a great experience and I am glad and grateful that I could realize that journey !

afterwords 1

2009-02-26T21:14:00.006+01:00

Finally, our return journey to Brussels went smoothly. On Sunday morning, after the storm, the weather was quiet, with a broken sky full off very interesting clouds and a lot of sun. The weather forecasts were favorable for flying, so that we only had to wait for the Russians’ flight planning. Soon we were informed that we would fly to Novo today, to continue directly to Cape Town with the awaiting Ilyushin. Our only question was: when exactly? Several groups in different stations (Troll, Neumayer…) had been blocked by the storm. All of them needed to be picked up and flown to Novo today. For us it would probably be sometime in the afternoon. So we had time again. Together with Irina, I took down her Ceilometer (which measures the cloud height) from the roof of one of the scientific containers. It had perfectly survived the storm, but it was nevertheless filled with snow. As there will be no power during winter, we had to put all our instruments back into their boxes for storage. A definite sign that the end of our stay had come. I benefited from the nice weather to stroll around a bit, to say goodbye to the scenery and all the places which had become so familiar during the three weeks. I took the last pictures of the fascinating mountain wave clouds, staring northwards into the wide open snow/ice fields, wandering around in and outside the station. Together with Gigi I made my last skidoo drive towards the magnetometer site in order to check if the solar panel tower had survived the storm. It had… No sign of injury . Via the Iridium phone my Japanese colleague confirmed that all the time the system had measured and continues measuring without problems. Good feeling.

In the meantime our take-off time was still not fixed. We had time to wait. Late in the afternoon we were informed that we were to be picked up by the Lidia at 8pm. David, our cook, prepared a delicious Tiramisu as a goodbye present, and at half past seven everybody was on the sledges of the Prinooth to be driven down to the landing strip. The Lidia arrived and then the great farewell scene started between us 16 who flew out, and the bunch of 13 staying at the station. What a hugging, wishing all the best, last personal words… After all that, our luggage and cargo was stored inside the plane and we took our seats. When the Lidia took off it was the last turn for us over the Utsteinen area. Outside it already became dark and we were all quiet, both reflective and tired. However, after a while the good mood and life came back and the flight to Novo passed quickly whilst talking or taking pictures of each other.

We arrived around 9:30 pm, local time at Novo. What a wind there… Temperatures were not very low, only around –7 °C, but the wind was really strong. We unloaded our luggage onto a long wooden sledge and either a sticker mentioning “carousel” (for luggage claim at Cape Town) or “storage” (for further air cargo at Cape Town) was fixed on each piece. Andrei from Novo station drove the sledge with a skidoo directly to the Ilyushin and together with two others we went to help him to load our stuff onto palettes, below the open cargo door of the big aircraft. When that job was finished we were driven to the kitchen tent where all the others of our group already were. The tent was crowded; all the other passengers from Neumayer, Troll, Sanae were also waiting for the departure of the Ilyushin. Dinner was still available, which was very welcome. Outside the hauling wind was shaking the tent and blowing the snow. Nobody wanted to wait outside. Besides meanwhile it was dark outside, but overall visibility was still good and ther was no doubt that the Ilyushin could take off. However, we still had to wait until half past midnight before the Russians started to pick us up by groups of 12, and drive to the Ilyushin by sledge. This way boarding went fast and nobody had to stay for a long time in the biting wind. Finally we took off at 2:30 am. Everybody tried to sleep.

One or two hours before arrival we changed our clothes. No more thick trousers, fleece jackets, but T-shirts, sandals and light trousers instead – what an “uncommon” feeling. The arrival at Cape Town went smoothly; we arrived at our hotel around noon (the time difference is +2hrs compared to Novo). What a great feeling to take a real shower, after 24 days without this comfort! My, in the mean-time, grown beard also came off. After that we all went out eating together; everybody looked so changed suddenly . My flight back to Brussels was scheduled at 8 am next morning, so for 7 others too. The others had one or two days or even a whole week more in Cape Town. During the afternoon I took the time to buy some souvenirs to please my family and to have a last drink in the sun on the waterfront. I was surprised to find out that it was no problem at all to be exposed that rapidly back to +30 degrees, it was even very pleasant instead. In the evening our group ate out in a very nice seafood restaurant and afterwards again it was time to say goodbye.

It was a short night and early in the morning we arrived at the airport. We had 11 hours of flight to London-Heathrow, most of the time half-asleep. The flight to Brussels was shorter than our stay at Heathrow. Once again it was time for hugging and saying goodbye to each other at Brussels Airport. The Antarctic group now dissolved and everybody was returning to their family and their normal live. I arrived in my apartment shortly before midnight. Oof... This was finally the end of the journey that started 33 days before. Doris was waiting for me and I told her the first bits of my experiences and she in her turn told me the first bits of what had happened during my absence. My little daughter was asleep, so I only caught a glimpse of her sleeping quietly in her bed. The next day and the rest of the week I would have time for her.

Back home

2009-02-26T15:18:00.002+01:00

Après avoir été retardé par le mauvais temps, je suis (enfin) rentré à Bruxelles.
Bientôt des nouvelles et surtout mes impressions.

Na vertraging te hebben opgelopen door het slechte weer, ben ik
(eindelijk) weer in Brussel.
Binnenkort nog wat nieuws en vooral mijn indrukken.

Directed by the weather...

2009-02-21T18:52:00.003+01:00

On Thursday 19th very bad weather was forecasted to arrive.
Normally I was supposed to fly out on Friday bound to the Novo runway,together with 14 others,
Given the forecast, this wasn't a certainty any more.
Ok, I have to admit that we were very lucky to have a sunny, nearly clear sky during the last 4 days; but bad weather precisely on our planned departure day... hmm...
The past few days maximum temperatures were around -15°C (-20°C at night in the tents), but in the sun it felt nice because of the low humidity level.
During the night it is also becoming nearly dark now, at least from 21:00 till 01:00.

The announced bad weather arrived on Friday, as predicted. It became more and more overcast, wind increased from hour to hour and snow started to drift around noon. The visibility was still good and our flight to Novolazaravskaya would still have been possible until around 17:00, but unfortunately the the aircraft's arrival at Utsteinen was only scheduled for 17:50...
Conditions worsened within 30 minutes, snow started to fall, the wind gusts enhanced up to 40 knots,
snow drifted, and the visibility decreased to 30m. There was no possibility for the plane to land, and halfway it had to turn back to base...

As in the meantime we had already taken down our tents, we installed ourselfs on the interior of the station. Looking from inside to the outside conditions, gave the good feeling that the station is well designed and built: cosy and warm inside and bending flagmasts, endless waves of drifting
snow over the ridge, visibility less than 20 to 50m, the sound of the wind, outside...
It was good to know that we didn't have to sleep in the tents...
That night I slept in one of the 4-bed sleeping rooms in the annex of the garage. It’s not heated and temperatures in there are somewhat below 0. But I slept a lot better than the other nights, probably because the temperature stayed constant and didn’t decrease.

Saturday morning the weather showed no change.
The storm was still raging, the snow was still drifting and the wind was hauling.
No improvement was predicted before the coming night.
This gave us the opportunity to continue work inside the station, to wait for the weather to improve, and for a possible flight on Sunday... or on Monday...
In the meantime the bad weather system also arrived at Novo, so that everybody is being blocked at the moment ;-)

Easy living at Princess Elisabeth...

2009-02-18T10:13:00.006+01:00

This morning all VIP's left from Utsteinen. They took off with three little aircrafts (a Twin Otter, a Basler and the third was an Antonov or a Dornier) from ALCI, the Dronning Maud Land flight operation organisation. All together they were 46: journalists, politicians, sponsors, scientists. Mrs Sabine Laruelle and Mr Pieter De Crem represented the government.

They were very lucky with the weather and I can imagine they will have the impression that life is easy here at Utsteinen.

The inauguration took place on Sunday in the early afternoon, on the roof of the garage, just in front of the station's tower. It was very moving to be able to attend this event.

The station had been metamorphosed and looked very nice, cosy, welcoming and warm at the inside. It was quite a difference with Friday or even Saturday late afternoon. The ministers were rather relaxed. In the evening it was really nice chatting in this pleasant ambiance. Our cooks did their utmost and prepared so much delicious food. Seen the wonderful weather, the adapted interiors and the marvellous food, the visitors might have thought that life at Princess Elisabeth station is easy. Luckily they were spared of the rough side of Antarctica.

This afternoon was a rather relaxed working day. It is difficult to retrieve the same pace and rhythm after such an event.

Kind regards,
Alexander

After the inauguration the work continues

2009-02-16T15:26:00.003+01:00

The internet connection at the camp has been interrupted since a week and is still not working properly. It should have been repaired today.
The media seemed not to have problems with their own equipment.
It's intriguing how dependent one can be from this service.
Communication is very important, especially in remote regions like this. For the moment the internet is working again, and everybody is happy about it. Not only for the publicity, with the inauguration on Sunday, but particularly for the possibility to send and receive messages to and from our families.

Today the weather at Utsteinen is perfect and calm with a clear sky.
Wednesday was a very cloudy,windy day with snowdrift in the morning. The snow was going everywhere and even if it was not too cold, it was around -10°C, the wind made it feel very uncomfortable.
With certain jobs, like screwing something for example or reading out the weatherstation's datalogger and writing the current weather data in the logbook, your fingers got frozen after only one minute. I was lucky to have this great thick "Arctic extreme" mittens in which the fingers warm up rapidly.

Thursday was a very bright day: only a few thin cirrus clouds showed up. It was the ideal day to carry out measurements with the sunphotometer. However, the wind was very fresh.
Although the sunphotometer and the aethalometer are running very well without necessarily standing beside it, I always prefer to watch the data coming in and watch if everything works well during these first measuring days.
In the evening the wind calmed down and the sky was clear. Air temperatures fell to -15°C and the ground temperature to -21°C. It was the coldest night so far. In the morning the vapour from my breath was frozen at the inner side of my tent.
It was a good idea to keep my toothpaste and skin protecting cream in my sleeping bag during the night... All the other lotions were frozen ;-) Nevertheless the tent is warming up during the day and things become usable again.

On Saturday we were mainly busy with the preparations for the inauguration of the station on Sunday. This was indeed a big job. Everybody was busy with tidying up the station, the garages and the space around the station. Work lasted till late at night.

Sunday brought,as if it was ordered, the brightest day so far: clear sky and almost no wind, the perfect weather for the inauguration.

Not only could I nicely demonstrate the instruments, but at the same time they did good measurements, which is not a certainty in atmospheric measurements. So, beside the great pleasure and warm feeling I had, to be able to attend the inauguration of the Princess Elisabeth Station, the scientist in me was also very satisfied with the nice measurements.

De authalometer - L'aethalometre

2009-02-16T15:22:00.006+01:00

De aethalometer is een meettoestel om de donkere deeltjes in de lucht te meten, de zogenaamde “zwarte koolstofdeeltjes”.
De werking berust op de lichtopname van deze deeltjes. Lucht wordt met een pomp door een filter gezogen. De koolstofdeeltjes blijven in dit filter zitten. De hoeveelheid licht dat door het filter wordt geabsorbeerd is een maat voor de hoeveelheid zwarte koolstofdeeltjes in de lucht.

Door deze metingen aan de zuidpool uit te voeren kan men een beeld krijgen van de hoe luchtverontreiniging van het geïndustrialiseerde gedeelte van de wereld de zuidpool beïnvloedt.

De zwarte koolstofdeeltjes dragen ook bij in het broeikaseffect omdat deze zonnestraling absorberen en zo de stralingsbalans van de atmosfeer wijzigen.

Il s'agit d'un instrument qui mesure les particules sombres dans l'air, appelées parfois le "carbonne noir".

Le principe de son fonctionnement se base sur l'absorption de la lumière par ces particules. L'air étant aspiré par une pompe passe à travers un filtre sur lequel ces particules fines se déposent. La quantité de lumière absorbée par le filtre est directement liée à la quantité de particules dans l'air.

En effectuant ce type de mesures, on peut mieux comprendre comment la pollution industrielle à l'échelle planétaire peut influencer la qualité de l'air au pôle sud.

De plus, le carbonne noir intervient dans le bilan radiatif puisque sa présence dans l'atmopshère influence l'effet de serre.

internet connection failure

2009-02-13T08:45:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately the internet connection at the station is down since Friday afternoon.
Only from time to time we can send e-mails via an iridium phone.
As soon as the internet is functioning normally I'll come back with some more elaborate news.
Kind regards,
Alexander

What happenned these last couple of days

2009-02-06T21:11:00.007+01:00

Wednesday morning started with a sunny sky, only a few clouds were visible. A fresh wind was blowing. For the afternoon, an overcast sky, strong wind and snow drift was forecasted.

Irina and I decided to install the solar panel tower that serves as the power supply for the magnetometer, in the morning. The location is about 2km from the base camp. The station and its wind turbines are still visible from out there.
The installation went pretty fast, as we almost finished the necessary digging the day before.

Yet, in about 20 minutes the weather had turned, it became very cloudy with poor visibility, snow started to drift and wind gained force. For safety reasons we had to return to the base rapidly. Due to this the tower was quickly fixed to its anchors, however without proper levelling. On top of that our skidoo refused to start during 15 minutes, probably because of the cold wind. We still could see the ridge with the station on it, but the changing visibility made us a bit nervous. Anyhow, we had gps and satellite phone with us. In the end the engine started and it took us 5 minutes we arrived in the kitchen tent where lunch was waiting. The rest of the day the weather was grey, overcast, with poor visibility, strong eastern wind together with snow drift. At night our tents were shaken up by the wind and our sleep was often disturbed.

Thursday on its turn showed again a blue sky, few clouds and only light wind. In that way we had enough time to install the solar panel tower properly. It was very warm, so that gloves and a second fleece jacket were almost not necessary. Weather in Antarctica can change so swiftly! During the afternoon we filled the large hole of the weather station. This took us longer than we thought and in the evening I was bound for an early and long sleep.

Friday brought many clouds but calm weather and we installed the other items for the magnetometer station. Unluckily, switching it on had not the intended effect - something was not working. Because this is a collaboration with the Japanese Institute for Polar Research, we phoned back and forth to check out possible reasons why the instrument did not work. But as the battery ran out of power and because there is a 9hr time difference with Japan (they also want to sleep at night) brought this to an end without solution.

That will be for tomorrow.

Picture of the magnetometer during test period in Dourbes:

Sky Picture from : Xavier Jubier

Installing scientific equipment

2009-02-06T12:15:00.018+01:00

Today, thursday 5 februari 2009, we will finally install the solar panel tower.
Unfortunately snow was forecasted for tomorrow, so that I'm afraid that the final installation of the instrument won't be possible.

The aethalometer arrived in good condition and all the test were ok.

Last Tuesday a scientific shelter was built, but before we can use it for the measurements, we have to make flanges, holes, in the roof.
This is to avoid that we measure the generators instead.

Also the cimel arrived well and safe and it will probably be installed next week on the roof of the station.

Till soon
Kind regards,
Alexander

finally arrived at Utsteinen

2009-02-04T17:32:00.004+01:00

Last friday, after 5 days of traveling, the party of scientists, station engineers, artists and myself finally arrived at Utsteinen.

Due to the bad weather, we were blocked two more days at Novolazarevskaya.
As, for flying, one depends a lot upon the weather, it is not unusual to be stuck for several days.
When we arrived, the weather at Utsteinen was grayish and cloudy with poor visibility. A big bravo for the pilots who decided to fly nevertheless.
In the end, everybody was very eager to arrive.

The first afternoon and evening at Utsteinen was dedicated to find out how the living at the base is organized.It is rather easy, mainly because the people who stay there or the ones who were there before, already arranged everything: the mess tent, the bath room, the toilets, the room for washing and drying clothes (these are often containers, not real rooms)...

Sleeping in tents is also far better than I thought: you have three or four layers of mattresses, or thermarests, a nice warm sleeping bag and if this is not enough, you also have warm clothes.
When going to bed, the temperature is around -10 degrees, but after staying in the tent for about ten minutes, it's already 10 degrees warmer. It gets cold during the night, but your body warmth is kept in the sleeping bag. During sunny days as we are enjoying now, in the morning the temperature in the tent is even between 10 to 20 C°.
This is time to get up... to warm to stay in a sleeping bag.

On Sunday and Monday we benefited from the perfect weather to put up the first of our scientific instruments: the automatic weather station. First we dug a cross of two times 7m, 80cm deep, 50cm wide. This was quite a heavy work, but the snow was not too hard and probably there is no more beautiful working place then this:in our back the station on the ridge, to our left flat snow as far one can see, in our front a mountain ridge covered with snow, and to the right the Utsteinen nunatak.
And all this against a perfect blue sky.
The automatic weather station is now ready to work. It gives a good feeling to have completed the first task.

To give in evidence that everything is well organized here, the cooks pleased all of us with duck and polenta in an olive/almond sauce,hmmm...
And if you want to give yourself another treat: washing away the sweat and suncream afterwards gives back all energy.
If the weather stays like this, the next autonomous station, a magnetometer, will also be installed quickly and with pleasure.
Until now I haven't experienced the extreme cold temperatures that are customary for Antarctica.

The real test for my equipment still has to come.

Have nice days,
we have,
Alexander

Interview deel 2 - Interview partie 2

2009-02-02T13:26:00.006+01:00

Voor een buitenstaander lijkt het klimaat op Antarctica de “ver van mijn bed show”, nietwaar ?

Op het eerste zicht misschien wel, maar… Al ligt het Antarctisch continent veraf, toch wordt het beïnvloed door allerlei chemische stoffen zoals emissies van natuurlijke aërosoldeeltjes, door vervuiling van lagere breedtegraden (verbranding van biomassa, vulkanen, …) en door de activiteiten op de wetenschappelijke stations zelf. De analyse van de graad van vervuiling in relatie met de luchtmassa’s die ze tot op Antarctica vervoeren kan ons heel wat informatie opleveren over de transportmechanismen die op globale schaal actief zijn in de atmosfeer.

Het Antarctisch gebied (zoals ook het arctisch gebied) is anderzijds, vanwege de grote gevoeligheid voor klimaatswijzigingen, de aangewezen plaats om globale klimaat te bestuderen.
Deze onderzoeksprogramma’s vinden namelijk plaats in een kader van een wereldwijde samenwerking. De waarnemingen zullen in internationale databanken geplaatst worden zodat ze kunnen gebruikt worden voor globale studies van het milieu. Alle waarnemingen van op de grond van chemische componenten, van straling en van de hoeveelheid fijn stof, zijn erg nuttig voor het valideren van satellietgegevens (die weinig zouden betekenen zonder deze waarnemingen van op de grond) en modelgegevens. De waarde van modelgegevens neemt trouwens toe naarmate deze meer vergeleken worden met echte waarnemingen en onder de controle van meer onderzoeksgroepen komen.

Pour les profanes, le climat Antarctique peut donner l’impression d’être des objectifs bien éloignés de son quotidien, non ?

Oui et pourtant … Bien que très isolé, le continent Antarctique est influencé par les émissions d’aérosols naturelles et par des pollutions de latitudes plus basses, (Feux de biomasses, volcans …) et par les stations scientifiques elles-mêmes. L’analyse de ces niveaux de pollution en relation avec les masses d’air qui les transportent jusque là, peut apporter beaucoup d’informations sur les mécanismes à l’œuvre à l’échelle planétaire.

D’autre part, la zone antarctique (de même que la zone arctique) est une zone très sensible pour surveiller l’évolution du climat mondial.

Il faut comprendre que ces programmes de recherches s’inscrivent dans une vision de coopération internationale. Les données que nous récoltons sur place prennent place dans des banques de données mondiales qui permettent de mieux connaître à l’échelle globale notre environnement. Que ce soient les données chimiques, radiométriques, celles sur l’abondance des aérosols … récoltées in situ, elles permettent de valider des données satellitaires (qui seraient bien peu de choses sans les données au sol) et les modèles. Ces modèles sont d’autant plus exploitables ensuite qu’ils sont confrontés à des données réelles et sous le contrôle de nombreuses équipes de recherche dans le monde.

Finally boarding

2009-01-28T15:19:00.004+01:00

Wij hebben zonet vernomen dat Alexander vanochtend eindelijk kon vertrekken naar Novolazarevskaya en we hopen snel meer nieuws van hem te krijgen vanop Antarctica.

Nous venons juste d'apprendre qu'Alexandre a finalement pu décoller vers Novolazarevskaya . Nous espérons avoir de ses nouvelles d'Antarctique d'ici peu.

Pictures from : Xavier Jubier

Still stranded in Cape Town

2009-01-27T15:09:00.006+01:00

Hallo,

At this moment I'm sitting in an internet cafe, the internet connection should be better.
Around 9pm we should receive the information on if we can fly tonight.
I hope we can... It's a bit strange feeling here, because we have more or less a touristy programme instead of our Antarctic work.

We had to put a maximum of material in the big flightbag that was already put in the Ilyuschin76TD. So, even if we would like to work a bit, it is difficult.

We are now enjoying the pretty setting of CapeTown, the hospitality of the people here and the many attractions the Western Cape province offers. We are a group of 7 (myself included) scientists (Beldiva, Hydrant, Belatmos), 2 experts for the electronics, 1 solar panel specialist, 4 artists, 1 person from International Polar Foundation, and a expert for water treatment.

We had already some highlights seeing penguins, Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. It was very exciting having only ocean in front of you and behind that is Antarctica...

Today we would like to go up to the Table Mountain.
This sounds like a very touristy, not scientific trip. But that's how it is - if there's bad weather in Antarctica: everything is messed up.

I'll see if I can send something this evening as soon as we know more exactly
what is going on.

kind regards,
Alexander

Stranded in Cape Town

2009-01-26T22:07:00.000+01:00

Here some news from Cape Town.

Unfortunately at this moment we are stuck in Cape Town due to bad weather in Antarctica.
We have to face this and do some excursions instead of starting our Antarctic station adventure.
Our resting time at the station runs out and the timetable gets very tight.
We will probably fly to Novo, early Wednesday morning at 3am , but it could also be
Friday or Saturday... Today we had to give our big backpack to the flight organisation that flies us to Novo/troll.
Now we're living from the few items left ;-)
Apparently, the Utsteinen station also has bad weather.

Meanwhile we already saw Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, wild African penguins
(brillenpinguine, ), ostriches and baboons.

Tomorrow we will probably go onto the Table Mountain.

A scientific mission ?

2009-01-26T15:32:00.012+01:00

Pendant le séjour d'Alexander Mangold en Antarctique, et en attendant des nouvelles de sa part, nous publions des extraits d'un interview qu'il nous a accordé avant son départ.

Pour ce qui est de votre mission principale, quels en sont les enjeux scientifiques ?

Ces différents instruments, tous très précis, sont destinés à rester sur place en permanence en Antarctique. Ils vont contribuer à long terme au monitoring de la composition chimique de l’atmosphère, de sa teneur en particules ainsi que de la quantification du rayonnement UV atteignant la surface.

Nos objectifs scientifiques peuvent se résumer à ce qui suit : Nous chercherons à estimer l’impact sur le climat des aérosols en étudiant leurs propriétés optiques, à établir des relations pertinentes entre ces propriétés et les masses d’air d’origine, à mieux comprendre les mécanismes de transport des aérosols et de certains gaz d’origine naturelle ou anthropique, à déceler d’éventuelles tendances dans la charge d’aérosols et à établir une climatologie précise de la radiation UV.

Tijdens het verblijf van Alexander Mangold op Antarctica en terwijl we op nieuws van hem wachten, geven wij delen uit van het gesprek dat we voor zijn vertrek met hem hadden.

Wat zijn de belangrijkste wetenschappelijke doelstellingen van uw hoofdopdracht?

De verschillende precisie-instrumenten zijn bestemd om langdurig op Antarctica te blijven. Ze zullen er bijdragen tot het opbouwen van lange tijdreeksen met waarnemingen van de chemische samenstelling van de atmosfeer, de hoeveelheid fijn stof (aërosol) en de intensiteit van de uv-straling bij de grond.

Onze doelstellingen zijn de volgende:

inschatten van het effect dat fijn stof op het klimaat heeft, door de optische eigenschappen ervan te bestuderen;
vastleggen van de relaties tussen deze eigenschappen en de oorsprong van de luchtmassa’s;
de transportmechanismen van de aërosoldeeltjes begrijpen;
vaststellen van mogelijke tendensen in de concentratie aan aërosoldeeltjes;
een precieze klimatologie van de uv-straling opstellen.

Route naar de Zuidpool - Départ pour le pôle Sud

2009-01-23T11:49:00.010+01:00

Vandaag 23 januari 2009 vertrok Alexander voor een driedaagse reis van Zavemtem naar het poolstation.
Op zijn route zal hij eerst langs Londen, vervolgens Kaapstad en vandaar naar de Russische Basis
Novolazarevskaya vliegen. Vanaf de Russische basis zal hij dan een "continentale vlucht" naar het Belgisch poolstation "Princess Elisabeth" nemen.

Interessante website :
Bezoek van een internaut aan de basis de Novolazarevskaya

Notre collègue Alexander s'est envolé de Bruxelles National aujourd'hui 23 janvier 2009 .
Cet intinéraire qui passe par Londres le fera atteindre la Cap en Afrique du Sud d'où il s'embarquera vers la station russe de Novolazarevskaya.
Depuis cette station, c'est gràçe à avion équipé de skis qu'il atteindra son ultime destination, près de 3 jours après son départ.

Site recommandé:
Visite d'un internaute à la base de Novolazarevskaya

Présentation - Wie ben ik?

2009-01-22T14:10:00.012+01:00

Bonjour,
Je m'appelle Alexander Mangold, je suis d’origine allemande et j’ai été recruté à l’IRM en 2005.

J’y ai rejoint le département « Observations » dans lequel je travaille à un programme européen de recherche entamé il y a plusieurs années déjà sur les aérosols et sur le rayonnement UV. (cfr rapport Vigilance Climatique ch2. p30 et suivantes)

J’ai eu la chance d’avoir été choisi pour séjourner en Antarctique du 26 janvier au 21 février 2009.

Le travail principal pour le quel je me rends dans ces terres lointaines est lié à un programme de recherche que l’IRM mène en association avec des chercheurs de l’Institut d’Aéronomie Spatiale, nos voisins sur le plateau d’Uccle, et de l’Université de Gand. Dans ce cadre-là, je dois installer les premiers instruments d’une série de dix. Ils devraient continuer de fonctionner, dès mon retour en Europe, automatiquement ou presque.

Comme mon séjour ne dure qu’un petit mois, je n’aurai vraiment pas le temps de « chômer ». En effet, je contribuerai aussi à l’installation d’autres instruments. Dans le cadre d’une collaboration avec la KUL, j’aiderai à l’installation d’une station météorologique automatique.

Ensuite, dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre notre institut, plus précisément notre département de géophysique et l’institut national japonais pour la recherche polaire, j’installerai un magnétomètre automatique, un instrument très sophistiqué qui mesure la variation du champ géomagnétique.

Goeie morgen,
Ik ben Alexander Mangold. Ik ben afkomstig uit Duitsland en werk sinds 2005 bij het KMI.

Ik maak er deel uit van de afdeling “Waarnemingen” waar ik nu reeds enkele jaren onderzoek verricht naar aërosoldeeltjes in de atmosfeer en uv-straling (zie ook “Oog voor Klimaat”, hoofdstuk 2 p30 en volgende).

Ik heb het geluk uitverkoren te zijn voor een missie op Antarctica van 26 januari tot 21 februari.

De belangrijkste taak die me naar dit afgelegen oord brengt, is een onderzoeksprogramma van het KMI, in samenwerking met onderzoekers van het Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimteaëronomie, onze buren op de site in Ukkel, en de Universiteit van Gent. In dat kader zal ik de eerste waarnemingsinstrumenten van een reeks van 10 installeren. Deze zouden, ook na mijn terugkeer, zo goed als volledig automatisch, moeten blijven observeren.

Omdat mijn bezoek slechts een kleine maand duurt, zal ik geen tijd hebben om aan “toerisme” te doen. Ik zal hier namelijk ook meewerken aan het opstarten van de waarnemingen met andere instrumenten. In zal bijvoorbeeld, in samenwerking met de KUL, deelnemen aan de opbouw van een automatisch weerstation.

Daarnaast zal ik er ook een automatische magnetometer installeren. Dit gebeurt in het kader van een samenwerking van ons instituut, meer bepaald het departement geofysica, met het Japans Instituut voor Polair onderzoek.