A Surprise Homecoming

December 22nd 2017 was quite literally one of the longest days of my life--let me explain. Due to our good luck with weather, we flew our final flight on 17 December (which was dictated by the number of flight hours budgeted by this project). Our final flight did not disappoint as we flew over a series of glaciers in the Transantarctic mountains. This was also the most harrowing of flights as we were getting slammed by some turbulence trying to go up one of said glaciers. Now that I'm back in the land of internet, I can include some videos. Below is a video from the flight:

I had know for a week prior to our final flight that I was likely going to make it home much earlier than originally planned; however, the details of a return trip were up in the air and seemed to change every day. For a bit, I thought I was going to be able to fly home on the Basler rather than taking an NSF LC-130 back to Christchurch. I was actually looking forward to this option as it would have meant flying across the continent and up through South America (one of two continents I have yet to visit). However, this plan required two of our people getting a ride on an LC as the Basler didn't have enough room for all of us.

We thought we had secured those requisite spots; however, the morning of our last flight we were told we didn't have those spots. Sometime between us getting on the plane and us landing 5.5 hours later we went from none of us on the plane to all five of us. I was both happy and a little disappointed. Disappointed because it meant no flight across the continent and no South America, but happy because I was going home. There's an old Antarctic say that goes, "If there is a plane going north, get on it." It's a more contemporary saying. As I write this, the Basler is still in Antarctica, but making progress getting home.

On 21 December, I loaded onto an LC-130 for my 8 hour ride back to New Zealand. On December 22nd, I woke up at 7am, and boarded a plane for Auckland. After 39 hours of travelling, I finally arrived on my doorstep at 8pm on DECEMBER 22ND! I had decided to keep my early return a secret from Cooper. When he greeted me at the door he just just stared at me and told I wasn't supposed to be home yet. The reason for his reaction? He was in the middle of remodelling our kitchen, and had planned to surprise me with it. The lesson here is never try to surprise a professional surpriser because you will always get out surprised.

It's good to be home for the holidays, and I plan to relax until after the New Year. Here's a video of me, and what I've been up to since I returned (the breathing you can hear is "me"):

Dear Weather Gods, We are at Your Mercy

After great luck with weather in our first week of missions, this last week the weather gods reminded us that they are in charge. We had about five down days in a row due to weather. In a place like Antarctica, where your purpose for being there is very specific, down days are pretty tough. We did take advantage of them check a few other "tourist" things off the list. 

Since McMurdo is located on an island, we are surrounded by a floating ice shelf. This year an "Observation Tube" (aka the Ob Tube) was installed in the sea ice. This tube has a diameter barely sufficient for a large adult, but if one can manage their claustrophobia enough to get down to the bottom, you are treated to a magnificent sight. The Ob tube extends about seven feet below the sea ice into the ocean below, and allows you to observe the aquatic life below. The first time I did it, the feeling was reminiscent to the end of the movie "Life Aquatic" when Steve Zissou sees the Jaguar Shark. I went a total of five times, and typically you can hear seal calls which have a very techno/automated sound to them. Once I actually saw a seal swimming around towards the sea floor. Photos below are from my teammate Chris Larsen.

The unsuspecting Ob Tube from above the surface.

Below the surface is a magical world. Chris captured this jellyfish swimming around while he was down there.

Looking up toward the sea ice from below. All the little dots you see are tiny fish. They are in abundance down there.

 There's also several tours one can take in the surrounding area. One such tour is the pressure ridges that form on the other side of the hill near Scott Base. These ridges are essentially the buckling of the nearby ice due to the more seaward ice flowing towards it. These ridges also form cracks in the ice that seals come up through. Also nearby is Robert Falcon's original hut from when he attempted the South Pole in 1901-1902. The hut is filled with a lot of artifacts not only from his expeditions, but also the subsequent expeditions that also used the hut as a launching point for the pole.

Can you feel the pressure? One of the ice formations at the pressure ridge.

Seal stretch. These seemingly lazy beasts remind me a lot of Bowie on a warm sunny afternoon. As our tour guide informed us, seals actually live very tough lives under the sea, and then often come up on the icy all bloody from either fighting or just trying to get out of the ice so their rest is well-deserved.

Inside Scott's hut. Some of their original cooking supplies. Not pictured, but present: dirty, 100-year-old long johns.

Hard to read, but this is 100-year-old graffiti by H.E. Wild. A member of Shackleton's expedition.

Luckily the good weather has returned, and we are back to flying. On Thursday we ended up doing a flight that required us to refuel at Shackleton field camp. Shackleton camp is a remote camp located in the Transantarctic Mountains (emphasis on remote) Before I left for Antarctica, I found out that a friend of a friend would be working at Shackleton. Our times at McMurdo were never going to overlap, so I didn't think I get the chance to meet him. It's amazing how Antarctica can simultaneously feel like a gigantic, desolate, and lonely continent, but also at the same time feel like a small town. Anyone you can share a connection with, feels like family out here. Below are some pics of Shackleton.

Shackleton Camp. Yes, this is pretty much it. Fuel pits in the foreground. Tent city in the background.

                                                       Aircraft parked at Shackleton for refueling.


I'm actually at our RAC tent right now and our aircraft just returned from another flight. Keep your fingers crossed and make your sacrifices to the weather gods so we can keep this good weather.

All Signs Point North

As kids we all have these crazy ideas of what we want to be when we grow up. When I was a little girl I wanted to be some combination of an aerospace engineer and Indiana Jones. This week I’ve flown on a refurbished DC-3 through the Trans Antarctic Mountains on one day and to the South Pole the next. It’s an amazing feeling to realize you’ve achieved your childhood dream job (or at least as close to it as it exists in the real world).

What a week. We’ve started our science flights on Wednesday, and I have eased into a daily routine of waking up at 5 am so I can get ready, eat breakfast, take a 6 mile 40 minute shuttle ride to the airfield, prepare the radar (and myself) for an 8:30 am takeoff. Most flights are planned to be about 5.5 hours, but our aircrew is pretty savvy about route planning, so we usually tack on a few additional flight lines which extend our flights by an hour or so. By the time we get back to McMurdo, it’s about time for dinner. There’s usually something going on each evening (often including more work), and with the constant daylight I find myself going to bed way later than I should.

As I mentioned, we started our science flights on Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday were by far the most exciting days this week. Thursday’s flights included flying through the Transantarctic Mountains. We were quite literally flying less than 1000’ above mountain tops, and were often flying through valleys where the sides of cliffs were only a few thousand feet from our wingtip (though they looked like they were only a few feet!). They don’t do the sights justice, below are a few pics of my view from the plane on Wednesday. The other day I had someone ask me why I would want to come back to Antarctica. I can’t remember what I said at the time, but after Wednesday I recognized that my answer is that the world is filled with power and beauty, and it should be observed and experienced.

While Wednesday’s flights were scenic, the ante was upped on Thursday. Originally our team was supposed to spend a week at the South Pole station to complete our two required flights; however, it wasn’t until I got down here that I was told only the bare minimum of people were going to go down, and I wasn’t part of that bare minimum team. My hopes of seeing the pole were dashed.

The pilots started expressing concerns about leaving the plane down at the pole for a week, and suggested instead to do two day trips down there, refueling at the pole and flying back. It meant being on the plane for 16 hours, but it also meant potentially more people could go down since we wouldn’t be staying at the station. I got excited again, but the day before our flight down there, I was told the captain only wanted to bring a minimum number of people. Since this meant only our radar team lead would be flying, my hopes were once again extinguished.

Early in this deployment, I offered to learn how to operate our precision navigation software. I had gotten it mostly set up before the pole flight, and ten minutes before the plane was supposed to takeoff I realized I hadn’t actually programmed the day’s flight paths since I wasn’t flying. I went and told our science lead, and he responded with, “Well we should have a dedicated person operating that during flight, let me go talk to the pilots and see if they are ok adding you so you can operate the PercisionNav.” He came back with a thumbs up from the pilots. With the flight scheduled to takeoff in a few minutes, I sprinted the quarter mile to the bathroom since there isn’t one the plane—only pee bottles which is exactly what they sound like (luckily there was a truck waiting for someone else when I got out of the bathroom, so they gave me a ride back). When I got back, I quickly scrambled to grab my ECW gear and some extra food for the long day ahead.

It was about 6.5 hours to get to the pole since we were flying science routes to get there, but I made it! It was -25^oF when we landed, though it wasn’t as cold as I had expected (I could, however, feel my nose hairs freezing after about 20 minutes of being outside). Below are the pics from the pole.

It been a long week, and I’ve flown almost 30 hours in about 4 days. Today (Sunday) is our one day off, and we are planning on doing some hiking and exploring today. We’ve been pretty lucky with weather so far, and I hope it can continue next week so we can complete more flights.

Welcome to the Land of the Midnight Sun

Greetings from Antarctica!

After five days of weather delays, we finally made it to Antarctica. Typically you take a C-17 down to the ice, but because of all the delays we ended up taking a Kiwi 757. At first I thought it was going to be a real nightmare of a trip sitting three abreast in all our polar gear, but our group ended up sitting in business class section for no reason other than the fact that we were the last ones to get on the place. The thought of taking business class to Antarctica is quite humorous and probably only the second time in my life I've flown business class--ever.

Riding business class to McMurdo. You can see the poor saps crammed in the back.

The arrival this time wasn't as surreal for me as the first time, but none-the-less it was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. Below is a pic of our team fresh off the plane. Four of us are from KU, one from University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and our project manager is from NASA. All together, we have a really great team, and I'm looking forward to working with them for the next six weeks (or at least as much as one can given the fact that we are in a remote location and away from family for the holidays).

From left to right: Jordan Sprick (KU), Carl Leuschen (KU), me, Jim Rood (KU), Chris Larsen (UAF), John Woods (NASA)

Since arriving we've pretty much been working non-stop trying to get the aircraft and instruments ready, and when not working we've been taking care of our mandatory training. This afternoon was our first time we had some time to catch up on life/work back home (Happy Thanksgiving back home by the way). We will hopefully have the install complete by tomorrow and be ready for flights on Monday. 

Our antenna array installed between the landing gear of the aircraft. Mt. Erebus, the southernmost active volcano in the world.

We work out at the airfield which is about 3 miles outside of McMurdo base. We have our own hangar and there is a galley and head out there...though both are about a quarter mile from our RAC tent. Luckily Chris brought his fat tire bike which has turned a 30 minute walk to and from the the bathroom to a 10 minute round trip bike ride.

McMurdo basically shuts down this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to finish the install before our big dinner tomorrow night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we have good weather Sunday so we can enjoy some recreational activities on our day off.

Hurry Up and Wait

We've been in a bit of a holding pattern since arriving in Christchurch as no flights have left for the ice in over a week. Luckily our flight has only been delayed one day, and things are looking good for a noon takeoff today (but I would have said the same thing yesterday) This weekend is apparently some sort of horse holiday in New Zealand called Cup and Show. Due to the holiday and our delay, our hotel is full and some of my colleagues had to double up in rooms (yay for being the only girl in my group).

We're using our extra time in Christchurch to do a little exploring. Our first full day here we drove to Arthur's Pass National Park, and hiked up to the Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall. The entire drive was incredibly beautiful, and it was nice to get out and walk around after 30 hours of flights the previous day.

Devil's Punchbowl in the Distance

We've also doing some exploring in Christchurch. When I was here in 2011, Christchurch was recovering from a massive earthquake that occurred just a few month prior to our arrival. The whole place was a construction zone at the time. Then about two months after we left, yet another massive earthquake struck. That was 6 years ago, and walking around Christchurch today there are still large areas that have not been repaired. Pretty much every church is braced as shown in the picture below. While there is a lot of construction going on, it's been quite surprising to me how much just seems to been left as it is.

National Cathedral

Speaking of earthquakes, I experienced my first ever yesterday. I was hanging out in my hotel room when the ground started shaking. I texted Cooper and said that I thought I just felt an earthquake. He responded with "Twitter confirms." Incredible how news travels these days. Apparently it was a 4.2 magnitude earthquake, and while the event wasn't very violent, it's hard not to think about this country's history with earthquakes and wonder if something bigger is coming.

Well, I'm off to the airport with fingers crossed that we'll make it to the ice today.

Miles to Go before We Sleep

Is this thing still on?

Well here we go again. Same continent, different mission. I'm currently in the Denver airport after the first leg of a marathon of flights. I left Kansas at 11 am CST, and I won't arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand until 6:30pm (Kansas time) on Tuesday. Yes, that is indeed over a day straight of non-stop travel.

I guess NSF couldn't find me a direct ticket to LAX, so I get to enjoy a two hour layover in Denver.

I'll be gone roughly two months, and currently I am not scheduled to get home until early/mid January. There's a total of four of us from KU travelling, three faculty and staff and one student. We also have several colleagues from NASA and other organizations on our team, so all told there will be about a dozen of us. This year I'll be stationed at McMurdo Station until early/mid December at which point we will be going down to South Pole Station for two weeks. We'll then return to McMurdo for another two weeks. This time around we will only be flying on manned aircraft with our radar systems. Admittedly in 2011 I felt like a real bad ass telling people we were flying an 1,100 UAV around Antarctica; however, I am excited to fly on the Basler so I can see more of the continent. That said, I'm sure many vomit inducing flights lie ahead.

For anyone in NE Kansas, go hang out with Cooper and Bowie. I miss them both dearly, and our goats are a bunch of assholes so they'll need some friendly faces. Our neighbor promised to have chicken noodle soup with him every Thursday night (😉), but other than that they should be free.

Hopefully next post will come from somewhere much farther south.