300 CLUB

We’ve finally hit the magic number: 100 degrees below zero! I woke late this past Sunday, our one day off each week. There were a number of people sitting in the galley working on crosswords and chatting. The ambient temperature outside was in the mid 90’s and everyone was keeping a close eye on it betting whether or not it would keep falling. The legendary 300 Club was potentially eminent! Most years temps reach -100F in winter, but not all.
At -98F… Someone ran down to turn on the sauna.
-99.8F… We were all running for our gaiters, boots, and towels.
-100.1F… Thirteen of us were crammed into the small sauna which was cranked up as high as it would go. Boots on, gaiters in hand, a head lamp or two and nothing else but towels we sat sweating, watching the thermometer in the sauna creep up to 180F…190F…195F…

A radio call to our contact at a computer who was watching the temp outside – “Is it still -100?!”
“-99.9F, but hold on…” A loud groan from everyone around me “Noooo, Come on! So close!” We waited, people moving to the lower benches, stepping out for water bottles. The thermometer in the sauna moved slowly to 200F…then 205F.
A minute later another radio call temp check…
“-100F!” then “-101!! GO! GO! GO!”

We piled out the door and down the metal encased stairs we call the ‘beer can.’ Tossing towels on the stair railing we donned our gaiters and dashed out the door. There’s a steep drift like a bow wave in front of the station. Some people stumbled. Out to the Geographic South Pole and around. Hooting and hollering we shouted into the night. Pausing for a moment I watched a gorgeous aurora stretch itself undulating across the sky, a streak of blue green color through the bright stars and velvety black sky. Thick steam rose from my hot skin, now numb against the cold. I looked down to see every hair on my arm sticking up, coated in frost. Stumbling over sastrugi, guided by the sound of heavy footsteps in the snow and the beer can glinting in the star light I finally made it back inside. Clutching my towel around me I ran up the stairs to join the others in the sauna to warm up, gasping and laughing as we recounted the adventure: who fell, who almost ran into someone else, who saw the auroras, who accidentally grabbed the wrong towel, who didn’t wear their gaiter and would cough for a day or two…Craziness.

A 300 degree difference between sauna (200F) and ambient outside temperature (-100F) = The 300 Club.

The Wikipedia entry for 300 Club: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club

Komo News even did a short cover on the 2010 event: http://www.komonews.com/weather

No cameras for the actual event, but this was “drawn” with a headlamp and a long exposure – photo by Blaise

Yukimarimos!

Last week I was walking to the End of the World to help our station manager Weeks dip the fuel tanks when he noticed something unusual – small balls of snow all around us. “Yukimarimos! Haha, not really…those are just ice chunks…They’re way too big to be yukimarimo” He had seen them before, but only around sunrise/sunset. I got down on my knees turning on my red headlamp and gently reached my thick mittened hand towards one. At the slightest touch it rolled away from me picking up speed in the gentle wind. “What?! They really are Yuikimarimos! Those are HUGE!” I turned my head, illuminating dozen surrounding us, some easily 3-4inches (8-11cm) in diameter. They jostled together and rolled off into the darkness in the light breeze. Tiny ones only centimeters across filled in our footprints behind us. It was ~85F below zero with 5 or 6 knots wind.

The Haz Shack, Store DNF, Cargo DNF, and Cargo office on the way out to the fuel tanks

After lunch we returned to dip more fuel tanks, a very cold task. This time we were joined by a band of excited Yukimarimo hunters armed to the gaiters with red headlamps, tripods, and cameras that would die in the cold after half an hour. I tried to pick one up, but my clumsy oversized mitten crushed it completely. Pulling off my mitten I gently cradled another in my soft glove liners. It was a 3 inch snowball light as air, long hoar frost crystals held together by static electricity. “I dare you to eat it!” Weeks joked, I pulled down my thick fleece neck gaiter that covered my nose, cheeks, and mouth. “No! I was just joking! It’s -85F!” The Yukimarimo melted at the hint of my breath, leaving naught of a drop of water in my mouth. A ball of air held together by frost.
A while later our meteorologist, Phil, found a cache of them hiding under the station itself.

Congregations of yukimarimo under the station

This tricky phenomenon has only recently been scientifically documented (1997)and requires very specific environmental conditions – only forming in the heart of the Antarctic plateau in winter.

“These balls of snow form best deep in the Antarctic winter, when the air temperature is below minus 60 °C (minus 76 °F), and there is a gentle wind blowing – conditions under which even well-equipped polar explorers stay in heated buildings. In this frigid environment, delicate needles of hoar frost form on the surface of the snow. Some of these are rolled about by the wind and create these fragile snowballs, which grow to a size of about 30 mm”

“The researchers gave these dainty formations the name ‘yukimarimo’. ‘Yuki’ is the Japanese for snow, and ‘marimo’ is a globular water plant found in a lake in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island.”

The full article in Nature can be found here:
http://www.nature.com/news/1999/990902/full/news990902-9.html

A yukimarimo – photo by Blaise Kuo Tiong

A little blurry and the light’s not great, but that’s part of my plastic ruler that shattered in my pocket…

My mitten next to a large one

Many little yukimarimos gathering between sastrugi

The expediton: Daniel, Phil, Blaise, Myself, Andrew, and Kris in front

Astronomical Twilight

The sun is now ~13deg below the horizon and we’ve officially entered the period known as Astronomical Twilight (with the sun between 12 and 18deg below the horizon). The moon has risen and casts stark shadows against the sastrugi and station. There’s a faint glow on the horizon following the sun, the moon is full and luminous, and still the brightest stars are clear as ever.

We’ve had a good round of iridium flares this past week as well and the first spectacular displays of Aurora Australis the Southern Lights. They’re ephemeral, sliding slowly from black nothingness to grey and maybe into green or a very faint red. Sometimes it disappears as quickly as it came, sometimes I’m not sure if I’m imagining it, and then it pulses bright and there’s no doubt. Lots of playing with cameras and tripods to get a good shot…When a call goes out on the radio that there’s a good one it’s a stampede down the hall with everyone running to see. I’m sure our excitement will wane eventually, but for now it’s a new experience.

Things are chugging along in the seemingly perpetual cold and dark with temperatures ranging from -70F to -85F. It’s beautiful, quiet, and utterly awe-inspiring at times – Especially when I’m working outside and look up to see the milky way unfurled above me, stretching across the sky…
Inside the station, with cardboard over the windows, it feels a bit like groundhog day. We have a good group overall and I’ve made some good friends, but it’s interesting to watch the petty issues like dish washing and toothpaste left in the sink become big deals. With little else to distract us we make news for ourselves. The smallest of things become the most exciting topics for lunch conversation. We only have a few hours of internet each day, something I’m happy with. If there was internet access 24/7 some people would never leave the computer, but we’re not totally isolated from global events either.

So here are some of my favorite shots from this week:

More auroras

Aurora Australis

The Ceremonial South Pole (sans international flags) with the marker flag in memory of Rodney Marks. Faint red/purple auroras light up the sky between moon lit snow and the stars above.

An iridium flare right through the Southern Cross

The iridium satellites pass overhead every 9 minutes 10 seconds or so. They’re our emergency connection to the outside world and the basis for iridium phones. The name “iridium” apparently comes from the initial plan to have 77 satellites in orbit (77 being the atomic number for the element iridium). For several reasons however, only 67 satellites are in orbit. When the solar panels or antennae catch the sunlight reflecting it towards us it becomes the brightest point in the sky, baring the sun and moon.

Home Sweet Home reflecting the light of the rising moon

A 20 sec exposure self portrait. So I had to set the timer, run out in front, and stand still for 20 seconds…

Nautical Twilight

The sun is now ~9deg below the horizon and it’s getting darker every day! There is still a brighter spot on the horizon where the sun is and we won’t reach technical darkness until May 11. For now we’re still in Nautical Twilight (sun is between 6 and 12deg below the horizon). A few of the research projects here study auroraus and other astronomical phenomenon that require darkness. To avoid interference from white light, and to preserve our night vision we cover all the station windows with cardboard and use only minimal red lights outside. Everyone has been issued a red headlamp.

The brightest stars are out: Canopus, Sirius, the Southern Cross and the two pointer stars. More appear every day. On Monday April 8th we got to witness Iridium flares, a fascinating event in which iridium satelites reflect the sun creating a very bright flare in the sky. It only occurs a few times throughout the winter, and this time around it’s still too light out to get a good picture. We’re having a bit of a wind storm this week, but we’re anticipating our first aurora sighting any day now!

The moon over the waste berms about a week ago

DZ at lunch

The power plant and VMF arches with heavy equipment parked in front

The station in early afternoon

Red lights at DZ to avoid light pollution and killing night vision

Blaise and Andrew working on the roof to remove a cover for an all-sky camera at -62F with a 25kt wind.

-98.9F

So close to 100 below…and yet so far away. We’re back up to -78F today…

PART II A Day in the Life of a Wastie at Pole

Waste Management – Spill Response
ANTARCTICA

For the most part trash generated at the South Pole is collected in giant cardboard boxes called “triwalls” for their three layer corrugated walls. The triwalls I use come in two sizes: roughly 3.5ft x 3.5ft x 3.5ft (50 cubic feet) and 3.5ft x 3.5ft x 8ft (100 cubic feet) or “50 cubes” and “100 cubes.” These are Ginormous cardboard boxes – like refrigerator boxes for kids I can’t stop thinking about the potential for spaceships and castles. Setting them up alone can be a challenge, but with plenty of practice I’ve figured out a system.

Most of our waste is collected at DZ close to the station, but at -80F or -90F it can be a bit of an adventure just to take a bag or two out. Once a triwall gets full I close it up, band it with metal banding and set up a new one. Some categories such as paper towels, plastic, and food waste fill up faster than other, say electronic scrap which might not get full all winter. We fill maybe 3-5 triwalls a week then they’re taken off to the berms to be stored until summer.

At the colder temps we’ve been having lately (-75F to -90F ambient) I’ve encountered a few more challenges: The flaps crack with a loud pop when I bend them, coming away in my hands…my big marker freezes, ink steaming on the cold cardboard…the plastic liners we put in food waste and sanitary that are nearly stretchy when warm crack and shred…the banding tools slip…

But pictures are worth a thousand words so here you go. These pictures were taken by my friend Tom who’s working in Materials. These were taken almost a month ago when the sun was still above the horizon.

The DZ Waste Line

Stomping on trash to pack it down – no sense in flying out air

Folding up the flaps and closing the box with a cargo strap

Banding!

Tensioning the banding

The rachet tool

Labeling is important, even though it fades in the sunlight of summer

Threading a cargo strap through the pallet so it’s ready for the new triwall

These were taken a few weeks ago as you can see by the sun being up…my supplies (banding, new triwalls, pallets, straps etc) are at DZ too so it’s not too far to drag them. Still, they’re slipper and heavy.

The 100 cube triwalls are huge and cumbersome.

A giant 100 cube

Lining it up just right on the wood pallet is key – then it’s just folding down the flaps.

Tipping it upright

They break off in the super cold, but otherwise it’s too tall.

A cargo strap holds the triwall to the wood pallet and keeps the flaps down.

A picture of myself after setting up and banding a few triwalls

Sunset at the South Pole

March 21, 2013: The Equinox – the technical date that the sun, as a point, sets at the South Pole. On a perfectly spherical earth, with no topography, no atmosphere, no height above the ground the sun would be exactly halfway below/above the horizon on this day …Of course this isn’t the case, so our sunset is a little more variable. Since reaching a peak height of 23.5deg (the tilt of the earth) on the December solstice the sun has slowly spiraled towards the horizon. For the past few weeks we have witnessed increasingly beautiful displays of gold, pink, and purple light. Shadows stretch exponentially and the sun spins around us, just skimming the horizon, moving as much as 15deg an hour. Inside it has become noticeably darker, with lights turned on in the galley and my room nearly dark at night. This is a pretty big deal for us winter overs as the sun rises and sets only once a year here at the South Pole – events witnessed solely by those who commit to winter here, a total 1389 people (197 women)since 1957.

A good visual (thanks wikipedia) of variuos dusk/twighlight terms.

Due to a combination of phenomena, the sun is still visible today and will likely remain so for a few days yet. Even after the orb ducks below the horizon we will have a few weeks of light, phasing from daylight to civil twilight (0-6º below horizon) to nautical twilight (6-12º below) astronomical twilight (12-18º below) and eventually to full darkness. The moon rises and sets on a two week cycle, the brightness of which can be significant, so we will not be in full darkness for the entire winter. That said, it will be pretty dark for a good ~4 months.

The next moonrise is March 26th, but the sun won’t show it’s light again until the next equinox (vernal for us in the Southern hemisphere, autumnal for those of you further North) on September 21, 2013.

The latest update from the Coldest Journey which has just begun their trek to the Pole:
www.thecoldestjourney.org

A few factors that influence the actual sunset are variable topography, air densities, and thermal inversions. The topography at the South Pole is not completely flat and uniform as it might seem, gradual undulations over miles create nearly imperceptible hills and valleys. These become noticeable this time of year with the sun appearing to be right on the horizon at noon and a few degrees above at 5pm. Strong thermal inversions exist here as well which can significantly refract the light, making the sun visible many days after it has technically set. The refractive effects of our atmosphere can make the sun appear to be flattened or squished against the horizon, or deceptively higher than it actually is, and is the cause of the green flash (LOTS more on the green flash and refraction here: http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/explain/explain.html) – a phenomenon that has been visible for several hours in past years. Today it’s quite cloudy, but here’s a photo of a green/blue “flash” taken in 2000 by Rodney Marks:

And some more from 2003 (photographer unknown):

And here are some of my photos of the sun taken this year:

And so begins the longest night…

Waste Management – Spill Response – Antarctica

PART I: 99 Bins of Trash on the Wall

Garbage, Rubbish, Trash, Junk, Refuse, Compost, Debris, Recycling, Haz…
It all goes through USAP’s Waste Management, which this winter at the South Pole is me, myself, and I.

Nearly 70% of the waste generated at McMurdo and South Pole is recycled or reused, that’s not bad considering in 2010 the recycling rate in the US on average was 34% (http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/index.htm).
All the waste generated on continent must be shipped back to the States to be processed so we take recycling and waste management seriously down here. At Pole it is collected in HUGE cardboard boxes called triwalls (more on these in the next post), stored on the berms through the winter, and flown out to McMurdo in summer where depending on the category it is it is baled, condensed, crushed, separated, shredded, sorted, or otherwise processed. Once consolidated the waste is packed into shipping containers (we call them milvans down here, short for military containers though they are also known as conex boxes) and loaded onto the vessel that arrives once a year from Port Huyneme, CA bringing South food and supplies to McMurdo and returning laden with waste.

My job here is to set up and maintain our waste collection points, securely store hazardous waste, and respond to hazardous spills. It’s a pretty physical job wrestling triwalls and drums, and involves at least a little outside work every day. I’m the only “Wastie” here, but I work with everyone on station so it’s not too lonely.

Waste at the South Pole is segregated into 13 main categories with even more additional categories for haz items. It can be a little overwhelming at first to toss a hand warmer wrapper out and be faced with 13 bins…is it Plastic? Non-Recyclables? Paper Towels? Most of the categories are fairly self-explanatory: Mixed Paper is mixed paper, Aluminum Beverage Cans is just that…but some are a little more obtuse – “Paper Towels” would be better called “Bale-able Non-R”, but the placards are made up already and the categories seem to change slightly every year so it’s not as easy as it might seem at first. A lot of it is driven by resale prices and value. We take special care to separate Ferrous and Non-Ferrous metals – even separating light and heavy metals.

The galley waste line

The station ‘waste/recycling room’

South Pole Waste Categories:

• Aluminum Cans
o Beverage cans only
o No pie plates, foil, etc.
o No contaminates… plastics, cig butts, chew juice, etc.
o Guinness beer cans are OK —aluminum valuable enough to deal w/ the widget
o Cans containing chew, cig butts or any food item go in Food Waste

• Cardboard
o Clean corrugated cardboard (please flatten)
o Tape on the cardboard is OK
o No paperboard (six pack holder, cereal box… goes in Mixed Paper)
o Oil or fuel contaminated goes to Haz—contact Waste dept for container location or delivery

The South Pole “Trash Matrix” a quick guide to common waste items and where they go.

• Glass
o Clean beverage and food glass
o No lids, corks, lemon/lime wedges or bottle caps
o No Guinness beer bottles—in Non-R because of the widget
o No drinking glasses, galley mugs, plates, mirrors, etc… put into Non-R or SKUA
o Broken glass should be protected in separate container (box, taped shut) and put into Non-R

• Metal– Ferrous
o Ferrous Light metal- bale-able items, thinner than 1/8”. Tiny pieces cannot be baled— they should be contained in a separate tin and placed into Non-R.
o Ferrous Heavy metal- no tiny pieces like bolts or nuts, washers, etc. unless contained—put into a tin galley can or cookie tin. Items larger than 1/8” thick.
o If it’s silver and shiny and you don’t have a magnet to test it—put it in Non-Ferrous (includes Stainless Steel)
o Galley Cans is separate category/tri-wall—flatten, paper is OK

• Metal– Non Ferrous (non- metallic metals)
o Mostly copper, brass, aluminum scrap
o No aluminum cans
o Anything with copper wiring is acceptable currently
o Anything silver and shiny goes here (if you don’t know if it’s ferrous/magnetic)

• Plastics
o Empty and clean plastic containers (all types). If a wee bit left, add water, swish and use up the last of it…
o Lids off, but stay in Plastic (some are recyclable)
o Bubble wrap
o Mylar, cellophane, plastic bags, any filmy stuff
o Foam peanuts (must be bagged & tied)
o Styrofoam, foam rubber, egg-crate foam (in Non-R is also OK but prefer bagged in PL)
o Nothing contaminated with Haz or food
o Empty oil, glycol, fuel containers or contaminated plastic goes to Haz—no need for HWIS, just call.

• Skua
o Clean, wearable clothing and shoes (no underwear)
o Useable items
o No trash please
o Anything with rips, cracks or shreds = Non-R or to the VMF for rags

A map of the DZ Waste Line

• Mixed Paper
o All paper products without food contamination
o Magazines, newspapers, post-it notes, white/colored paper, paper board, books, etc.
o Paperboard is things like six-pack holders, beer/soda case boxes, cereal boxes
o No candy wrappers
o Envelopes w/ windows OK
o Waxy paper from label or laminate backing = Paper Towels

• Electronic Scrap
o End of life electronics, anything with a circuit board. Cables with copper wire go into Non-Ferrous Metal—the plastic sheathing is ok. (mice and extension cords = Non-R)

• Wood/Contaminated Wood
o Paint, glue, oil contaminates ok
o No big pieces of metal please, a few nails/screws are ok

• Food Waste
o “Anything that will rot”
o Shipped in refrigerated/freezer mil-vans, melted and burned at US facility
o Double bagged
o Any and all food contaminated items including cig butts, tea bags, spit cans, paper plates…

• Non-Recyclable
o Mixed media materials: bottle caps, corks, pens/pencils, air filters
o Anything that doesn’t belong in other categories
o Small, fly-away bits should be separately contained/bagged
o PVC, polyethylene, insulation (foams OK in Non-R but prefer bagged in Plastic)
o Guinness glass bottles (b/c of widget)
o Broken glass/ light bulbs (protected inside separate container—e.g. box, taped shut)
o Broken fluorescent tubes/bulbs are Haz, double-bag and contact Waste

• Paper Towels
o Paper towels, napkins, tissues with little or no bio-waste
o Hand warmers and wrappers
o Non-food-contaminated aluminum foil, tape, candy wrappers, foil-lined boxes
o Bagged and tied shut please

Example placards that are posted on and above trash cans around the station:

DZ at 11am this morning – you can see the waste line on the snow to the right.

The Antarctic Sun

“The Antarctic Sun” is a monthly e-publication covering a wide range of USAP related news and media. There’s a lot of interesting info here and I’ll be contributing as the South Pole Correspondent providing monthly updates on life at the bottom of the world.

To see the station updates click on “Around the Continent” on the left side of the page, then on “Research Station Updates” from the drop-down list.

March 4, 2013 South Pole Weather

Week 3 of winter: broke the -100F windchill mark!