The team charged with finding an overland way to the South Pole left McMurdo Station Tuesday. This year’s journey will take the sevenmen to the Leverett Glacier and back by early February.

November 23, 2003Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program

www.polar.org/antsun

South Poletelescopes update

Page 7

“You can’t be everywhere atonce. Darn this physical life.”

Making moviesfrom the Pole

Page 12

Quote of the Week

- Photographer on the difficultiesof bilocating for the eclipse

INSIDE

Moon to stage show for Ice peopleBy Brien Barnett, Kristan Hutchisonand Kris KuenningSun Staff

Most times the best party is one withthe lights off.

So, hats off to the moon for agreeing tothrow the switch midday Monday to kickstart the total solar eclipse party.

Most everybody in Antarctica will beable to witness at least a part of theeclipse, with those in extremely remoteareas seeing totality, or the actual shadowof the moon as it passes between the sunand Earth. But don’t be late because the

peak of the show lasts only about two min-utes.

Cross your fingers for clear skies.McMurdo forecaster Greg McQuoid said aweather system is due in from the RossSea on Monday and viewers there shouldexpect a mostly cloudy day with an occa-sional break.

At McMurdo station the show beginsSunday at 22:08:57 UT or just after 11:08a.m. Monday local time when the moonfirst starts to cross the sun’s edge. At 12:06p.m., the time of maximum eclipse atMcMurdo, viewers will see about 75 per-

cent of the sun’s disk covered by themoon. About 10 minutes later, South Poleresidents will see almost 90 percent of thedisk covered. In your haste to witness thephenomenon, remember not to lookdirectly at the sun. (See story page 9.)

One group of astronomy fans atMcMurdo is hoping to receive solar filtersunglasses from the States.

“Otherwise, we’ll watch it throughwelder’s masks,” said Jennifer Wilson,who has led a McMurdo astronomy clubin past years. Wilson started tracking solar

Finding a way to the Pole. . .

Photo by Kris Kuenning /The Antarctic Sun

See South Pole traverse on page 11, Science traverse on page 10

See Eclipse on page 8

2 • The Antarctic Sun November 23, 2003

Ross Island Chronicles By Chico

The Antarctic Sun is funded by the NationalScience Foundation as part of the UnitedStates Antarctic Program (OPP-000373). Its pri-

mary audience is U.S. AntarcticProgram participants, their fami-lies, and their friends. NSFreviews and approves materialbefore publication, but opinions

and conclusions expressed in the Sun are notnecessarily those of the Foundation.

Use: Reproduction and distribution areencouraged with acknowledgment of sourceand author.

Senior Editor: Kristan HutchisonEditors: Brien Barnett

Kris KuenningCopy Editor: JD Menezes,

Wendy Kober,Melanie Conner

Publisher: Valerie Carroll,Communications manager, RPSC

Contributions are welcome. Contact theSun at AntSun@usap.gov. In McMurdo, visitour office in Building 155 or dial 2407.

Web address: www.polar.org/antsun

Look ... there’s anematode

It’s amazing how a tiny organism can beatoverwhelming odds to survive such a hostileenvironment.

WAIT!!!He’s moving.Give himsome room.

To think this little guy can survive suchan extreme environment. It’s a wonderhe’s the toughest creature on thecontinent.

I think this proves they’re not so toughafter all, wouldn’t you agree?

ICEBERG UPDATE: On the move

In these images taken by satellites, giant icebergs B15A and B15J appear to be on themove, with the larger one swinging west at the bottom and B15J rotating west andsliding east. The two were connected as one iceberg until they split apart in October.

Cold, hard factsLet there be totality

l A solar eclipse can occur onlyat new moon, when the moonpasses between earth and sun.l Total solar eclipses happenabout once every 1.5 years.l The longest duration for a totalsolar eclipse is 7.5 minutes. l Only partial solar eclipses canbe observed from the North andSouth Poles. (Monday’s eclipseholds true to that. The path oftotality is not at the actual Pole.)l Nearly identical eclipses (par-tial, annular or total) occur after 18years and 11 days, or every6,585.32 days (Saros Cycle).l The maximum number of solareclipses (partial, annular or total)is five per year. l Eclipse shadows travel at 1,770 kph at the equator and upto 8,046 kph near the poles.

Sources: Space.com and MrEclipse.com

October 2003 November 2003

November 23, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 3

Bare hooks lure tiny fish for research

By Kris KuenningSun Staff

No one understands the phrase“drinking like a fish” better thanDavid Petzel. The researcher fromCreighton University School of

Medicine in Omaha, Neb. is studying howfish drinking rates relate to water temperature.

“We’re trying to figure out how thetemperature affects the amount of salt inthe blood,” Petzel said. Further down thetrack, Petzel’s research may have applica-tions for hypertension problems in people.

After doing PhD work with long-timefish researcher Art DeVries and theUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaignin 1982, Petzel knows a thing or two aboutAntarctic fish. Now he’s back atMcMurdo station with his second grant tostudy the unique cold-water adaptation ofTrematomus bernacchii.

But first he has to catch them.“We’re always looking for good fishing

spots,” Petzel said. And good fishermen. Petzel recruits dining assistants, con-

struction workers and any other willingbodies to set and pull traps or try their luckat ice fishing.

Bernacchii fishing is a simple sport. Firstyou drill a hole near an old crack in the seaice. A 2-meter long drill will break throughthe ice with a rush of seawater over theankles in just a few minutes. Then hook,line and sinker are attached to a simplewooden block and lowered to the seafloor.The bottom-dwelling bernacchii are not par-ticularly wily, but it does take a quick pull ofthe line to snag the brown, palm-sized fish.

A good day’s fishing will haul around30 fish. The trick is to get them to thecooler bucket before the –10 C air temper-ature freezes them.

On a recent Sunday fishing trip,Petzel’s daughter Anne drove the sloshingcooler of fish back to the station in atracked vehicle. The outdoorsy 17-year-old works in the Crary lab when not outfishing.

The sloshing helps keep the water oxi-dized long enough to get the fish safelyback to the laboratory aquarium. Petzeland his team, which includes pharmacolo-gist Margaret Scofield, and cell biologistPhil Brauer from Creighton University,are observing how the fish can adapt thesalt content of their blood in different tem-peratures.

Oceangoing fish take in seawater, whichhas a salinity of 1000 milliosmoles per kilo-gram. A milliosmole refers to the number ofparticles in a specific amount of liquid.

The fish use an enzyme in their gills topump some of the salt out of their blood-stream. The lower the blood salt content,the more the fish has to drink to replenishwater lost to the sea.

Most fish have a blood salinity ofaround 300 milliosmoles but the bernac-chii is almost 600. By pulling the fish outof their –1.9 C waters and placing theminto the comparably tropical temperatureof 4 C, Petzel’s team has observed anincrease in drinking rates and an almost 20percent drop in the blood salinity.

His research is working to understandwhy the fish changes its salinity in differ-ent temperatures.

“The question is ‘is it to resist freezingor conserve energy?’” Petzel said.

Higher salt content in the blood makesthe fish more resistant to freezing but theadaptation might also be a trick for con-serving energy in the cold waters. Bylooking at the oxygen consumption, Petzelis trying to determine if the fish use moreenergy at –1.9 C or 4 C.

He is also studying the specific enzymein the gill membrane that is responsible forremoving salt from the blood. The research

team has isolated the enzyme and viewed itunder a microscope. The team found theproperties of the enzyme changed afterfour weeks in the warm bath.

Understanding more about how thesecells work could be useful for under-standing hypertension in humans, Petzelsaid.

“It’s a far-off application, but it couldbe helpful for people with a high salt con-tent in their blood. We’re interested in thefish’s adaptation to this unique environ-ment,” Petzel said.

Petzel’s three-year grant from theNational Science Foundation includes twoyears of study in Antarctica. After analyz-ing the data and making adjustments to thefocus of his research, Petzel will return tothe Ice in 2005.

“In year three of the grant we look for-ward to determining the effects of temper-ature on hormone levels in the fish andtheir effects on blood salt levels, drinkingrates and enzyme activity.”

Petzel’s research is being followed onthe Web by high school students inOmaha, Maine, Washington State andAustralia.

Scientists want to learn more about the species’ curious saltwater drinking habits

Photos by Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic Sun Above, fish researcher David Petzel, left,and his daughter Ann use a power auger todrill a fishing hole near Cape Evans. Petzelis studying the tiny McMurdo Sound fishcalled bernacchii to learn more about howthey adapt to cold water.

At left, Petzel pulls one of the small bernac-chii out of the hole. He uses only a hook,line and sinker attached to a wooden blockto catch and reel in the fish. On a good day,the research team will land about 30 fishand rush them to the lab for further study.

4 • The Antarctic Sun November 23, 2003

Perspectives Perspectives

People make the Ice an experienceBy Karen Murphy

On Oct. 2, I stepped off a C-141onto the continent of Antarcticafor the very first time. A newfound friend told me not to hurry

when I got off the plane, but stop and turnfull circle. The ice sparkled, Mount Erebuswas puffing, the air was crisp on mycheeks and the military plane I just got offwas enormous. I was awed, excited andscared at the same time. It was my firsttime here and I knew that I would neverexperience these moments again.

A first timer. We’re a little embar-rassed to be one because when othersrefer to us as such it’s not a compliment.

We’re the touristsin town. We showchild-like awe ateverything aroundus with our mouthsgaping at the beau-ty of the landscape.We are judgmental,arrogant, believingwe could do thingsbetter because weare smart, educated

and experienced beyond our positions —so we may think.

In a little more than seven weeks onthe Ice I’ve grown to love all the goodthings about being new. I am still wowedevery time I come out of my dorm and seea glimpse of the Royal Society Range.And I cannot wait to see how WinterQuarters Bay will look when the vesselarrives. I cannot imagine it now and Iknow this will be the only season I cansay that. We all need to acknowledge andappreciate the excitement of the first sea-son and hope others who have been herebefore can, at times, remember how thefirst season felt.

To appreciate being in Antarctica forthe first time or to recapture the feeling ofthe first time, we must be open to remem-bering all the memorable first times in ourlife—going to school, making friends,moving away from home, falling in love,making love. Other firsts might includelosing a pet, losing a loved one, gettingdivorced, almost losing a loved one

through illness. One common thread tothese experiences is emotion.

Emotion cements memories. There areno events remembered well, joyful orpainful, that do not stir strong feelings.My first time in Antarctica is and will beno different. I will always remember myfirst look at Mount Erebus, penguinswalking on the runway and seals lazilylying around on the ice looking like slugs.However, more than any scenery orwildlife, I will remember all the remark-able people I have met—people who havegiven of themselves generously without asecond thought.

I am fortunate to work in the housingoffice because it allows me to meet every-one on station, from those who are newlike me to those who have come for manyseasons. I have met so many smart, funny,creative and caring people.

People who on their day off give toursto newcomers, those who offer classes intheir free time to share music, exercise,dance or the history of Antarctica. And,

those who simply do something nice foryou.

There are so many. The person half myage who cared enough to ask me how Iwas doing when he knew I might be hav-ing a rough time; the person who made mea CD just because; the person who gaveme his phone card when he learned I had-n’t brought one; the people who wishedme a happy birthday and those whotrucked out to the sea ice runway with meand walked back together because theyknew that was what I wanted to do on mybirthday; the person who sang me HappyBirthday in Swedish, the person whocarved me a penguin, the person who nick-named me “Karry-On.” There are somany more.

Just three weeks ago, I was calling thisPapillon On Ice, in reference to an oldmovie where a guy is sent to a prisoncamp on a tropical island. Now I knowleaving will be poignant.

In the end, we go to a place for the firsttime, but what we find are these people.

Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic SunKaren Murphy works for McMurdo Station’s housing office and said one of the goals still onher to-do list is to hike to the top of Observation Hill, just outside of McMurdo. So far, she’scompleted the Armitage Loop, which is a flagged trail on the sea ice from McMurdo to NewZealand’s Scott Base on the other side of Ob Hill.

“In a little morethan seven weekson the Ice I’vegrown to love allthe good thingsabout being new.”

- Karen Murphy

the week in weather

Changes under the DomeBy Tracy SheeleySouth Pole correspondent

This week at Pole marks the true begin-ning of a busy summer season – the last ofour winter crew left the station and put itin our hands on Nov. 14. We are all set-tling into our world here, even as itchanges before our eyes.

Now that the new Elevated Station andkitchen are in use, the former dining areaunder the Dome has been turned into anexercise room, and the old kitchen is nowstorage for do not freeze kitchen and storeitems. The freshie shack, which hashoused our fruit, vegetables, soda and beerfor years, was demolished last week, and abare space remains under the Dome. Twoadditional buildings will be taken offlinethis summer – the Dome weight room andthe “black box”, another storage area.These buildings were heated with electricheat, so the fuel savings will be consider-able.

Oldtimers find themselves struggling abit with lingo as we adapt to thesechanges. Old Galley? Dome Gym? OldGalley Gym? Undoubtedly, we will devel-op new terms through the transition to theelevated station – perhaps even some newacronyms.

The science population is growing atPole, as is the population in general.Inhabiting the new station has enabled usto raise our base population number to 232– a gain of 12 bodies since last year. Ourpopulation is already in the 220s. In addi-tion to the usual RPSC support projectsand ongoing science, we will host a vari-ety of visitors this season. One group ishere now – the Light Ground TraverseCrew. The first of them arrived onSaturday, and they hope to depart within10 days or so. Polies are enjoying watch-ing the steps involved to get the sciencetraverse rolling across the plateau.

As we have acclimated to the altitudeand the summer routine, more energy forfun has emerged. Bingo Night with ouracclaimed host, James Brown, has com-menced and promises to be a popular sum-

mer activity. Classes are being scheduled,and folks are breaking out the skis – eventhough our temperatures have been hold-ing in the minus 40s.

One of our unique offtime activitiesinvolves a ski or walk out to a buried LC-130. Roughly 1½ miles from station, theLC-130 crashed upon landing on Jan. 28,1973. South Pole Station then was “OldPole” – the first South Pole Station in1956, prior to the move to the Dome in1975. There were eight people staffingOld Pole at the time. No one was serious-ly injured in the crash, but the plane wasdestroyed. The aircraft was making aground controlled radar approach to SouthPole in poor weather and landed too hard.The wing tips hit the skiway, and the outerwings, tail, landing gear and engines cameoff and caught fire.

In the thirty years since, the aircraft hasbeen almost entirely buried by driftingsnow. Each summer, we dig it out, andmake certain it is still safe to explore. Soon our flightless Sundays, the curious bun-dle up in ECW gear, wander out to theplane – and marvel at the history. Theyalso enjoy a nice warm dinner inside upontheir return.

Pack ice adds challengeBy Kerry KellsPalmer correspondent

This past week the research vesselLaurence M. Gould arrived at PalmerStation, bringing with it more researchersand new staff. The Gould had to fightthrough the pack ice that had returned tosurround our station. With the pack ice in,our researchers were not able to Zodiacout to their research sites for samples.Another of the projects here at Palmerstudies phytoplankton, the light dependentplants at the mercy of the ocean’s move-ments, and the physical parameter andoptics of the water in which the phyto-plankton live.

Four researchers at Palmer Station rep-resent two components of the Long TermEcological Research project concernedwith primary production. Both groups

work under two principal investigators,Maria Vernet and Ray Smith. Vernet’sresearch focuses on the phytoplanktonecology component. Smith’s researchlooks at the bio-optical component; whatkind of light the phytoplankton have touse. Our four researchers on station – teamleaders Wendy Kozlowski and KarieSines, along with Peter Horne and BryanWhite – share the responsibilities of thisresearch from collections of samples to labwork to experimental work.

Their collection sites are at the end ofBonaparte Point (representative of inshoresampling) and at Station E, a point fartherout at the end of Laggard Island (represen-tative of where the shore break falls off).They do water column samples twice aweek. Defined as a volume or area ofwater going down in depth, a water col-umn is a vertical profile equivalent to anice core. The “euphotic” zone of water iswhere the light filters into the water andwhere the phytoplankton can use this lightto photosynthesize. Phytoplankton requirelight and nutrients as a food source fortheir survival and success.

Both projects, the bio-optics and thePhytoplankton ecology component, visitthese sites for samples. The bio-opticalcomponent collects conductivity, tempera-ture and density and other data at thesewater column sites. The euphotic zone inwater, where the light is available for use,is measured by different instrumentsbrought to the sites. One of these instru-

November 23, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 5

around the continent

PALMER

SOUTH POLE

McMurdo StationHigh: 21 F / -6 C Low: 9 F / -13 CWind: 21 mph / 34 kphWindchill: -27 F / -33 C

Palmer StationHigh: 41 F / 5 C Low: 19 F / -7 CWind: 47 mph / 76 kphWindchill: 10 F / -12 C

South Pole StationHigh:-37 F / -38 C Low:-43 F / -46 CWind: 16 mph / 26 kph

See Palmer on page 6

Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic SunPancake ice in the sea outside of PalmerStation earlier this year.

6 • The Antarctic Sun November 23, 2003

ments is the new Ocean SensorsAutonomous Profiling Vehicle, which isstill in the setup stage. The phytoplanktoncomponent focuses on basic physicaloceanography. This includes looking at thetemperature, salinity and water clarity andfilters for particulate carbon and nitrogen,pigment composition, discrete chlorophylland measurements of dissolved inorganicnutrients among many other tests conduct-ed in the labs. Data are collected daily onphotosynthesis-available light and ultraviolet radiation. Experimental work ana-lyzes the effects of the microzooplanktongrazing on the phytoplankton or thechlorophyll biomass.

While phytoplankton are basically sin-gle-celled organisms not visible to the eye,they survive by the sunlight and nutrientsavailable to them, add a component to thewater in which they livem, and serve as asource of food for the zooplankton. Thedata collected on phytoplankton and theirposition and dependency on the wateraround them, as well as analysis of theocean water, are an important part of themarine ecosystem and the response of theecosystem to their ice-dominated environ-ment, the Southern Ocean. With the sea icenow blowing out and the water calm, ourresearchers will again be out sampling.

Laurence M. GouldCompiled from reports by Steven Ager

The Laurence M. Gould arrived at KingGeorge Island Nov. 15 to resupply Copafield station and drop off one scientist,Stacey Buckelew. Working in remarkablycalm weather the crew hauled out theaccumulated trash and empty propanetanks. The second Zodiac took PalmerStation passengers ashore to visit Polishresearch facility Henryk Arktowski. All ofthem enjoyed an afternoon of exploring

and socializing. At 3 p.m. the ship leftKing George, heading north for PuntaArenas. The next day the L.M. Gouldcrossed latitude 60 south after passingsafely through an armada of icebergs northof Robert Island.

The ship arrived in port Nov. 19 andwill remain there until Nov. 23.--------------------------------------------------Nathaniel B. PalmerCompiled from reports by DonMichaelson

Science started the week off pumpingwater into carboys and filtering at a “fren-zied pace.” The ship departed for NewZealand on Nov. 12, and stopped the nextday to continue water probes to measuresalinity and temperature, filtering waterfor science crews and plankton net casts inwhat would turn out to be the last day forscience stops. The voyage north continuedwith choppy seas and swells up to 20 feet.

“Right now I type with one hand whileholding on with the other,” DonMichaelson wrote in the daily report. OnNov. 16, the wind and seas turned aroundand pushed the Palmer along at a solid 11knots. The ship didn’t dare stop for watersamples because the seas would havecaught up. The Palmer crossed into NewZealand waters that day and docked inLyttleton, New Zealand on Nov. 19 forunscheduled engine repairs.

Estonia picks station siteFrom a report produced by theInstitute of Geology at Estonia’sTallinn Technical University

Estonia is planning to establish a sta-tion in Antarctica.

The small eastern European country onthe Baltic Sea has sent scientists on expe-ditions run by other countries since 1957.In January, a representative of theEstonian Antarctic Expedition visited thecoast of Victoria Land in the region of

Terra Nova Bay and Wood Bay in searchof a location for a station. The Italian andNew Zealand Antarctic programs providedtransportation. The scout looked at fivesites and selected one on the coast ofWood Bay, according to a report presentedat the July meeting of the Joint Committeeon Antarctic Data Management inBrussels.

The chosen location is a small coastaloasis, free of snow and ice, on basalticmoraine. At least five small shallow lakeswere found in the area, most of them con-nected by a stream discharging into theRoss Sea, which the Estonians plan to useas a water source. The area had patches ofrelatively lush vegetation and was inhabit-ed by a few skuas, but no penguins.

Estonia plans to build a summer-onlyresearch station for six people. The stationwill include two prefabricated huts, fuelstorage and a small workshop for storingtwo snowmobiles through the winter. Thesnowmobiles will be the only means ofland and sea ice transport at the station. A20-meter ship will supply the station outof Hobart, Australia, according to a reportby Antarctic Tasmania from the AntarcticTreaty Consultative Meeting in MadridSpain. Estonia expects to have the stationoperational by the 2006-2007 season.

Palmer From page 5

SHIPS

What food do youmost crave inAntarctica?

“Fried grubs. They gogood with beer ... I hadthem in Thailand a few

years ago.”Beaver Cohen,

South Pole sous chef withstorage units in Missoula,

Mont., fifth season

“Sushi. You spend all daycooking, so you like it raw

sometimes.”Rich Anderson,

McMurdo Station production cook

from Leavenworth, Wash.,first season

“Mint leaves; spring rollswith lots of fresh mint

leaves.”Wendy Beeler,

Palmer Station cook from BarHarbor, Maine, 13th season

OTHER STATIONS

McMurdo

Graphic by Kelly Brunt

November 23, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 7

By Brien BarnettSun Staff

The continuing search forthe secrets of the earliestmoments of the universe isprompting changes atAmundsen-Scott South PoleStation.

Probably the most recogniz-able telescope at the South Poleis being reconfigured to hostanother planned instrument andtwo more telescopes are in theworks.

The Degree Angular ScaleInterferometer, or DASI, tele-scope was mostly dismantledearlier in November after fouryears observing the cosmicmicrowave background (CMB).The CMB is light that emanatedfrom the early universe. The $3 million scope recordedslight temperature differencesin the radiation and measuredits polarization.

DASI had fulfilled its pur-pose and made several impor-tant discoveries along the way,said John Carlstrom, lead scien-tist on the project and professorof astronomy and astrophysicsat the University of Chicago.

The two most important dis-coveries, according toCarlstrom, were that DASI con-firmed the universe is flat andthat ordinary matter, the stuffthat makes up the stars and us,only accounts for 5 percent ofthe density of the universe.Another 25 percent of the den-sity is composed of dark matter,which does not absorb or emitlight but can be inferred by itsgravitational pull. Surprisingly,very little is known about theremaining component exceptthat it apparently is causing theexpansion of the universe toaccelerate. The confidence inthese results was boosted when DASI revealed the backgroundradiation is polarized precisely as predicted for such a universe.The discoveries support theories of modern physics. The polar-ization data were the cover story of the Sept. 2002 issue of thescientific journal Nature.

Scientists now hope to use the DASI telescope and its promi-nent brown wooden reflective shield for another, more sensitiveinstrument. The new telescope would provide researchers thesensitivity necessary to study in detail the polarization of theCMB that was discovered by DASI.

Astrophysicists believe thatthe CMB is light that escapedthe hot interior of the universeabout 400,000 years after theevent that sparked it. Because itswavelengths have lengthenedover time, the CMB is nowdetectable only in themicrowave portion of the elec-tromagnetic spectrum. Theresearchers study data gleanedfrom the observations to learncharacteristics about the uni-verse, such as the rate of expan-sion and what may compose themysterious dark energy whichseems prevalent throughout theuniverse, but which they knowlittle about.

An upcoming project plannedfor operations beginning in aus-tral winter 2007, the South PoleTelescope will feature an 8-meter diameter mirror and a1,000-element bolometer arrayto probe deep into the back-ground radiation and possiblyfind clues about dark energy.Each bolometer measures theintensity of the CMB by sensingthe tiny change in temperaturethat occurs when the radiation isfocused onto the detector. Theradiation shield for the SouthPole telescope alone will be 16meters high and 45 meters indiameter at the peak. Carlstromis heading the project.

Another telescope that is nowplanned for deployment nextyear at the Pole is the smallerBackground Imaging of CosmicExtragalactic Polarization tele-scope, or BICEP. The telescopesports a 30-centimeter primaryaperture and a 96-bolometerarray in an attempt to preciselymap the polarization of theCMB on angular scales of 1 to10 degrees. These measure-ments will probe the physical

conditions that existed in the universe less than a nanosecondafter the big bang.

“One thing that’s fun about working on BICEP is that we arelooking so far back in time with such a small instrument. Becausewe’re interested in objects in the sky that are pretty big, about adegree or so, we can use a very small telescope,” said AndrewLange, lead scientist for BICEP from the California Institute ofTechnology. “BICEP will be a very important little sister to... the8-meter dish. The experiments together will allow us to study justabout every aspect of the CMB.”

Changes ahead for Pole telescopes

Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic SunStephen Padin stands inside DASI. One of the big boxes and muchof the wiring was removed to make room for a more sensitive tele-scope to probe the cosmic microwave background.

John Carlstrom, DASI’s principal investigator, talks about the tele-scopes that helped in the hunt for cosmic background radiation.

Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun

eclipse predictions two years ago, duringher first season on the Ice.

“A lot of people pay thousands andthousands of dollars to come down andsee the eclipse. Being here already is veryhandy.”

Wilson said an eclipse is a reinforce-ment of the need for science beyond ourplanet. “It’s a reminder of how much thereis to learn and how much we can beamazed by the little things.”

At Palmer Station on the AntarcticPeninsula the eclipse will be less dramat-ic, with maximum coverage of only about65 percent. The peak coverage will occurjust after 8 p.m. Sunday Palmer time, justbefore sunset at the station, which is out-side the Antarctic Circle.

“Even though it won’t be total, anyinteresting celestial event is cause forsome festivities,” wrote Glenn Grant, thePalmer research associate. He’s checkingfor welder’s goggles with a rating of 14 orhigher, which would allow people to lookat the sun safely. But if Palmer has its typ-ical rainy weather, there won’t be muchpoint.

“We’re looking forward to it, andwe’ve got our fingers crossed for clearweather,” Grant said. “Many of the stationpersonnel have suggested taking the dayoff in celebration, which should be noproblem since it happens on our Sunday.Others would like to do the Polar Plunge– although we may have to push the seaice out of the way before diving in. Eitherway it will be a lot of fun.”

Just a few people at Russian bases, on a

tourist cruise ship or aboard chartered air-planes will be in the area of totality wherethe moon blots out the sun entirely andallows a glimpse of the mostly unseencorona. If those in the totality are lucky,they’ll see a visual effect in which thesun’s rays pop out at one spot while thecorona is in full effect, creating a patternresembling a sparkling diamond ring.

Considering the seeming randomness

of the cosmos, an eclipse requires uncan-ny timing. Technology has come a longway from the Styrofoam and wire eclipsemodels back in grade school, but themechanics of an eclipse remain the same.Now people can log onto NASA’s eclipseWeb site to see animated previews of theevent and learn how the three objects – theearth, moon and sun – align precisely toform a shadow across the planet. A liveWebcast of the event also is planned atwww.live-eclipse.org.

Although eclipses are not rare, occur-ring every couple of years, most peoplehave not been in the actual shadow. Thelast eclipse shadow to touch Antarcticawas 1985, according to records found onthe NASA eclipse home page. The nextone won’t zip over the ice until 2021.

This eclipse is a bit unusual in that itoccurs near the bottom of the earth. Beingjust beyond the South Pole and within thesunrise terminator where it is constantlydaylight, allows for the eclipse to traversefrom east to west and begin and end atsunrise. Also, the angle at which the sun-light strikes the surface of the earth createsa more elongated shadow of the moon

8 • The Antarctic Sun November 23, 2003

Eclipse From page 1

Courtesy Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFCThe chart above indicates the path of totality, which passes over Mirny and ends near Novolazarevskaya. It also indicates the maximum ofthe eclipse as seen from other areas. For example, at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole, the eclipse will reach nearly 90 percent.

See Eclipse on page 9

“There are strange primal feelingswhen the Sun vanishes in broaddaylight.”

- Fred Bruenjes

November 23, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 9

than is normal at higher latitudes.Still, you have to be in just the rightspot to catch the shadow.

Several hundred people have con-verged on Antarctica by land, sea andair to view the eclipse. Most of thevisitors are hard-core eclipse follow-ers, who paid from $900 for an aisleseat on a flight to $36,000 for amonth-long cruise.

The quickest, cheapest trips are ontwo flights, one on Qantas, whichleaves Sydney and the other onLanChile, departing from PuntaArenas. Both sets of passengers willend up viewing the sun when it isfully obscured by the moon duringthe 2 minute-25 second event, whichis 29 seconds more than they wouldexperience if they were on the icebelow.

Lan Chile’s Airbus 340 plans tofly over the South Pole as part of itsspecial package. The Qantas flightwill sightsee for two hours before theeclipse, flying over Australia’s Caseybase and along the Antarctic coast.

“I suspect most occupants of thoseflights are significantly more interest-ed in the eclipse than Antarctica”Fred Bruenjes e-mailed from hishome in San Diego, California as hepacked for his eclipse trip.

Bruenjes will also fly toAntarctica, but he’ll see the eclipsefrom the ground atNovolazarevskaya Airstrip withabout 70 other eclipse chasers on atour arranged by AstronomicalTours. They plan to spend 72 hours atthe Russian station, which is in thepath of the full eclipse.

Tourists with the time, money and

interest in Antarctica itself, signed upfor a month-long cruise on theKapitan Khlebnikov. The 120-pas-senger Russian icebreaker left PortElizabeth, South Africa Nov. 8 totravel to Hobart, Tasmania. TheKhlebnikov will observe the eclipseoff the Queen Mary Coast, in theDavis Sea, west of the Shackleton IceShelf.

“Those people were so excited,”said Susan Anschutz, whose co-owner at Astronomical Toursarranged the trips starting four yearsago. “We serve a real niche market.These were people who were not onlyeclipse chasers, but also wanted tosee Antarctica.”

For Bruenjes, the Antarctic eclipseis the tenth one he’s attempted to seeand the fifth he’s traveled to, withprevious trips to Zambia, Mexico,Australia and Scotland.

Bruenjes considers the eclipse anopportunity to visit an obscure andunique place. He’ll have two days inQueen Maud Land, out of a 12-dayvacation.

“If the weather is good, seeing theeclipse will make it worth everypenny,” Bruenjes said. “A total solareclipse is such a beautiful thing that isso out of the daily experience it isimpossible to describe. Solar phe-nomena-like prominences and coronaleave the domain of textbooks andjournals and stare you in the face.Decades-old mathematical predic -tions come true with near split-sec-ond accuracy.

“There are strange primal feel-ings when the sun vanishes in broaddaylight.”

Monday’s eclipse is an unusual sight, butif you’re not careful it could be one of yourlast.

McMurdo station chief physician J.J.Lefford said looking directly at the sun dur-ing a partial eclipse can permanently dam-age the retina, leading to blindness.

“The visible and near infrared light ofthe sun literally can burn the light sensitivecells of the retina,” Lefford said.

Because retinas contain no pain fibers,it’s not something that can be felt. The dam-age to the retinas may not show up for sev-eral hours after exposure.

“The only effective treatment is to pre-vent the injury in the first place,” Leffordsaid. The doctor recommends a simple, pin-hole viewer as the safest way to view theeclipse.Other viewing tipsn Use welders goggles/glasses, No. 14 orhigher. Glacier glasses or sunglasses are notdark enough, Lefford said.n Make a filter mask using fully exposedand developed black and white photograph-ic film, such as Tri-X, Pan-X or X-ray film.Do not use color film or newer black andwhite film that uses dyes or any film withan image on it. Lefford recommends usingtwo layers of film.n Even with a filter, the concentrated lightof a telescope or binoculars will burn theretina. The same goes for the opticalviewfinder on a camera. Do not lookthrough them directly at the sun. Make a pinhole viewer

One safe way of enjoying the eclipse isthrough a pinhole viewer. All you need aretwo thin, stiff pieces of white cardboard.Punch a small clean pinhole in one piece ofcardboard and let the sunlight fall throughthat hole onto the second piece of card-board, which serves as a screen. An invert-ed image of the sun is formed. To make theimage larger, move the screen farther fromthe pinhole. To make the image brighter,move the screen closer to the pinhole.Remember, this instrument is used withyour back to the sun. The sunlight passesover your shoulder, through the pinhole,and forms an image on the cardboard screenbeneath it. Never look through the pinholedirectly at the sun. Instead, photograph thereflection.

“A fun thing to do is to poke a pattern ofholes into a sheet of paper, spelling outwords,” suggests Fred Bruenjes, an eclipsefan. “The words will then be made up of amultitude of crescents.”

Don’t lookEclipse tips

Eclipse From page 8

Courtesy Fred Espanek, www.mreclipse.comThe star indicates the maximum eclipse point.

10 • The Antarctic Sun November 23, 2003

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Eight people got one-way plane ticketsto the South Pole last week. To get back,they’ll have to drive 1,500 miles to theTaylor Dome on the eastern Antarcticplateau.

Two Challenger 55 tractors will creepaway from Amundsen-Scott South Pole sta-tion next week, each pulling about 18,000kg. The six sleds hold all the fuel, food andequipment the traverse crew and scientistswill need for eight weeks. They’ll moveabout 8 kph, keeping a close eye out forcrevasses.

“If you see one, you get nervous,” saidDan Dixon from the University of Maine.

Like many driving trips, their route isdetermined by the list of errands they needto accomplish along the way, in this caseremoving seismic equipment, dismantlingor rebuilding field camps and collecting icecores.

For Dixon, it will be a chance to collectseven new ice cores from areas the previousU.S. ITASE traverses didn’t cover. Thecores will contribute to the InternationalTransAntarctic Scientific Expedition ,which is assembling a 200-year climate his-tory for the entire continent.

“To make the picture as fine as possible,I need lots of cores,” Dixon said.

So far, ITASE has more than 30 coresfrom West Antarctica. Dixon has analyzedion chromograph data from many of theseto determine the levels of nitrate, sodium,potassium, magnesium, calcium, chlorineand sulfate.

“Each ion or combination of ions tellsyou a different story,” Dixon said. “I try tofigure out what they’re telling me, whatthey represent in terms of Antarctic climateand atmospheric processes.”

He started with sulfate, which comesmainly from dust, volcanic eruptions, andmarine biological activity. Comparing sul-fate levels around the continent can helpresearchers figure out the atmospheric cir-culation patterns at different times in thecontinent’s past.

Sulfate also helps date layers in the icecore, which can be read like tree rings. Inthe summer, an increase in local marine bio-logical activity creates an abundance of sul-fate aerosols in the atmosphere. Theseaerosols get carried over the continent by airmasses and show up inland as a layer ofincreased sulfate concentration in the snow.In the winter the sea is iced over and thereisn’t any marine biology to release sulfateinto the air. On average, at an inland site,Dixon sees about 40 parts per billion of sul-fate in summer layers and about 5 ppb in

winter.“These layers are really clear,” Dixon

said. Large volcanic eruptions throw thepattern off, coating the entire continent insulfate for several years. Dixon has foundthe sulfate residue from large eruptionsincluding Pinatubo in 1991, Agung in 1963,

Krakatau in 1883 and Tambora in 1815.“It’s pretty amazing to be able to see this

over all West Antarctica, these layers shouldbe detectable over the whole Antarctic con-tinent,” Dixon said. “I’m hoping to be ableto find these same signals over the eastAntarctic cores from this year’s traverse.”

What he hasn’t found is evidence of pol-lution from anthropogenic sulfur sources. Inthe northern hemisphere, the sulfate con-centration in ice cores goes off the scale in

recent decades, caused by the larger humanand industrial presence in the US, Canada,Europe, Russia, China and Japan. The airmasses of the northern and southern hemi-spheres generally stay separate, with verylittle mixing occurring at the equator, Dixonsaid. With few human sulfate sources in thesouthern hemisphere, Antarctica seemspretty well isolated from sulfate pollution.

“Thanks to the Southern Ocean,Antarctica is well-separated from the rest ofthe world. That’s why the water here is thecleanest you’ll ever drink and the air is thecleanest you’ll ever breath,” Dixon said.

While Dixon picks up ice cores to lookback in time, the traverse will pick upinstruments seismologists Patrick Shore andDouglas Wiens left on the ice to look deepinto the earth. The traverse will be collect-ing 17 seismic stations Shore and Wiensinstalled along a line about 80 km apartextending to a site near the top of the TaylorGlacier behind the Dry Valleys. Since theproject is coming to an end this year, the 60cm by 120 cm instrument boxes need to beremoved and the instrumentation returnedto the U.S., Wiens said.

“It seemed the best way to do that is thetraverse,” said Wiens, from WashingtonUniversity. “Some of them are over 1,000kilometers from McMurdo, so they’re diffi-cult to reach without a camp out there.”

Antarctic errands

See Science traverse on page 11

To prepare for the upcoming departure, traverse mechanics Lynn Peters, front, and James Meinert checkthe tightness on the Caterpillar’s track spacer bolts in the new garage at South Pole.

Photo by Peter Rajcek/Special to the Sun

Science traverse has a few things to pick up on the drive home

Wiens expects data collected from the seismic instruments thisyear will confirm preliminary results from the first year’s data.

The seismic stations were able to sense waves from earthquakescoming from the north polar region and use them to look at the innercore of the Earth, Wiens said. They revealed a large anomaly due tothe orientation of iron crystal in the Earth’s core.

“This will be a very important additional constraint,” Wiens said.He was also able to map the speed of the seismic waves goingthrough the Earth’s mantle below east Antarctica. From them helearned that the Earth’s mantle, below 40 km, is colder under EastAntarctica than in surrounding places.

“I guess that makes some sense to the person on the street, butit really doesn’t have any relation to the cold weather above the sur-face,” Wiens said.

So far the results are preliminary, which is why Wiens needs thedata the traverse will bring back, along with the instruments.

“The second year should allow us to be more confident aboutthe results,” Wiens said. The traverse team will also dismantle afield camp used in previous years, loading portions of the campequipment into an LC-130 aircraft and carrying the rest 84 miles tothe new Megadunes camp. Megadunes will be set up for two sci-ence groups working to survey and sample large snow dunes in EastAntarctica, hence its name.

The scientific traverse is the sixth of its kind in the U.S. AntarcticProgram. On the way, the traverse crew and scientists will spendmost of their time in dining and berthing huts mounted on moduleson two of the sleds. But now and then they’ll stop to enjoy the whitescenery and stretch their legs.

“It’s still beautiful when you’re out there and the sky is so blue.When you look up close the crystals are amazing,” Dixon said.

November 23, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 11

South Pole traverse team heads outA line of tractors and towed supplies left

McMurdo station on Tuesday pullingenough gear to get seven men two-thirds ofthe way to the South Pole. Project managerJohn Wright formally announced the tra-verse departure from Williams Field byradio. “Mac Ops, Mac Ops... South PoleTraverse is departing McMurdo for the RossIce Shelf and points south, seven souls onboard five tractors. Estimated time of returnto McMurdo: February 01, 2004.”

The traverse project is testing the possi-

bility of partially supplying theAmundsen-Scott South Pole station byland. Five vehicles, pulling fuel and sup-plies, living quarters and power and waterproduction capability, are headed throughthe highly crevassed area called the shearzone, across the Ross Ice Shelf and to theLeverett Glacier. Last year, the traversegot through the shear zone, filling increvasses as they went. The traverse’schallenge this year is to reach the LeverettGlacier and progress as far as possible up

the glacier toward the polar plateau. “Gaining access to the polar plateau will

exceed expectations,” said Rick Campbell,the project’s point of contact at McMurdo.

In 2004-2005, the convoy will go the fulldistance to the South Pole and back. If thejourney is successful and evaluations showthe approach to be consistent with AntarcticTreaty environmental protection measures,this three-year proof of concept programwill have blazed the way for regular grounddeliveries of equipment and material.

Project leader John Wright, above, drives a modi-fied Challenger tractor around McMurdo. RussMagsig, right, drives a Challenger pulling fueltanks as the traverse begins its journey. Aboveright, the traverse’s living, dining, power and waterproduction modules are pulled across the sea ice.

Science traverse From page 10

Photos Kris Kuenning/The Antarctic Sun

12 • The Antarctic Sun November 23, 2003

Somewhere between scenes of impossibly long icicles hang-ing from the concave roof of the dome and footage of the1957 South Pole winter-over crew, one of the narrators in

Tom Pi’s documentary observes that the isolated station draws a“band of nomadic people with a bad sense of drection and a broadsense of adventure.” Each year the 41-year-old filmmaker docu-ments those adventures at the South Pole.

“It’s fun. It’s rewarding,” said the soft-spoken Pi, also knownas Tom Piwowarski, about making movies, whether they’re hour-long documentaries or five-minute docu-comedies. “You get aroomful of people watching it and they’re laughing. People rec-ognize themselves in it,” he added. “That basically propels me tothe next project. People see my work and they like it.”

Pi works the swing shift as a carpenter on the exterior panelcrew. This is his seventhconsecutive year comingto Antarctica. All but onestint had been spent at thePole. It was during his sec-ond year on the Ice that hedecided to share this per-sonal interest in photogra-phy and videography withhis fellow Polies.

“I thought it would bepretty cool to bring a videocamera down here,” heexplained. “I was prettymuch doing it just to prac-tice, because eventually Iwant to get involved inmaking a feature movie ofsome sort.

“Then somebody said,‘Why don’t you compileyour footage together andshow it to people.’”

And, as the sayinggoes, the rest is history.

“It’s become a seasonalthing now,” Pi said. “This many years people expect it.”

Over the summer seasons Pi has perfected his craft, and likeany artist he’s highly critical of his earlier efforts — the first ranupwards of two hours and featured a five-minute violin solo. Lastyear’s video was the first to feature music and voice-over narra-tion by several Polies he interviewed for the project.

One of the voices in last year’s film belongs to Mike Boyce, acarpenter from Denali Park, Alaska, who has worked with Pi insummers past. He said Pi has obviously made tremendous leaps inhis filmmaking over the years.

“All of us are just blown away by the way he’s improved,”Boyce said. “It’s good to see the hard work pay off.”

Boyce added that Pi is known as Tom the Tasmanian devilamong his co-workers, so it’s no surprise he finds so much addi-tional energy to pour into his craft.

“Tom is an incredibly hard worker,” he said. “He never stops.”After a half-dozen years of doing the documentary, Pi admits

one of his biggest challenges is to please his own artistic tasteswhile still including the scenes that make the annual video so pop-ular — from the frenzied preparations of Thanksgiving dinner tothe breathtaking shots of the LC-130 as it lands on or takes offfrom the Pole’s short ice runway.

“I’m always looking to get some fresher ideas and to do that Ijust sort of talk to people or walk a different direction and look atsomething in a different light … walk around at a different time ofday,” he said. Last year’s video, for instance, captures all thoseevents that Polies write home about — the bag drag, suiting up atthe CDC in Christchurch and even the ride on Ivan the Terra Busin McMurdo. That’s certainly the stuff that gives the video massappeal. But Pi the artist also throws in fish-eye views of peoplemoving cargo or flashes a silhouette of a lone Polie standing in thedesolation of the flat landscape.

The documentary impressed Polie Gailyn Taylor, who attendeda recent showing of the video at the Summer Camp lounge.

“It made me want to find out more of what’s going on here,”said the first-year carpenter. “I do want to get one for my family.”

Pi said he doesn’t scriptthe documentaries, butsimply shoots what he seesand then edits it. This year,though, will include lessconstruction — a naturalbias given his job — andmore science, hepromised.

“Ultimately, it will be aproduct of what I have,”he said. “It’s kind of anevolving thing.”

While the process maybe organic and ever-changing, there are certainelements that Pi says he’sinterested in as a filmmak-er.

“What I’m interested inis motion, mostly,” heexplained. “Flags wavingare good. People standingthere with a sign and flagswaving are even better. It’sabout people and it’s about

movement.”Pi, who lives in rural Buffalo, N.Y., during the rest of the year,

has been interested in videography for about 15 years. He starteddoing film about seven years ago after seeing one bad movie toomany at the theater. His personal tastes run to art house movies —the kind featured in the Sundance or Toronto film festivals.

“I prefer going to non-mainstream movies,” he said. “To me amovie is not about making money, it’s about expressing your art.I’m doing both — there’s a practical side to any art,” he added “Ifpeople like your art and it turns into a career, that’s great.”

Professionally, Pi has made a video montage for the BuffaloPhilharmonic back home. Some of his South Pole footage made itinto the made-for-TV movie “Ice Bound,” starring SusanSarandon as Dr. Jerri Nielsen. Nielsen was the winter doctor in1999 whose battle with breast cancer drew international attention.

He also makes short movies. Last year he wrote and directed afive-minute film about a general assistant whose quixotic taskconsisted of filling in the snow void around the dome.

Boyce, friend and fan, said of the filmmaker, “I think he’s gotthe ability to go places.”

Pi will showcase his 2003-04 video several times near the endof the season.

Pi keeps an eye on Pole life

South Pole filmmaker Tom Piwowarski documents the life and times of Polies.Photo by Peter Rejcek/Special to the Sun

By Peter Rejcek/South Pole Correspondent

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