BelAtmos in 2010

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

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

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

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...

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...

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

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.