If you have been following our blog, below you can read more about how we sent a Slocum Glider (RU26d autonomous underwater vehicle) from Palmer Station to the British base Rothera.  On the LTER cruise we got to go retrieve our glider at Rothera, and play our annual soccer match against the British on their air strip.  Last year we won for the first time in since we’ve been playing.  This year we were not as lucky, they trained hard and beat us 5-0, however it is still fun to be off the ship and get some exercise.

They were also nice enough to let us snowboard, ski, hike, and go in an ice cave at their base.

When we reached Avian island the seabird researchers Jen and Kristen (nicknamed the birders) made a camp and lived on Avian for 5 days while we continued to sample the seawater in the area.  Avian Island is the home of a flourishing Adelie penguin colony and several elephant seals.  On Avian the birders counted the penguins and seals and did diet sampling on the penguins to see how well they are eating.

During the cruise all of us were keeping an eye out on the bridge for whales for Ari, the whale researcher.  He was able to biopsy 30 whales and satellite tag about 6 humpback whales.  The satellite tags allow him to see where the whales are moving, and the biopsies allow him to sex and age the animal.  We were able to see several Humpbacks, Minkie Whales, and even Orcas! A few of us even had the pleasure of assisting Ari out on the zodiac, including our undergraduate Amelia.  Ari also kept track of the seals he saw, which lead us to find a Ross seal (rare to see) during the southernmost part of our survey near Charcot Island.  We were not able to make it all the way to Charcot this year because of the sea ice, but the cruise was both eventful and a success.  Yesterday we even had enough time to take a vacation in Neko Bay to officially step foot on the continent.  Neko is a popular tourist attraction for its Gentoo penguin colony and its great sledding hill.  Sadly I’ll be leaving Palmer tomorrow to head North, but Travis and his girlfriend Katie will be here to carry on our research until late March.

Hi All

ru26 The Bear is in the Igloo!

The Glider was pick up this morning, in the middle of a large patch of ice but the recover all went well and it is now sat out side the boat shed awaiting collection.

Cheers

Tim
(boatman)

ru26d was recovered early in the morning, Saturday 1/21/2012 by the zodiac team out of Rothera.  Poor conditions, 40 knot winds, kept the recovery off on Friday.  We do not have pictures from the event yet but are still asking.

This completes an Antarctic international base to base AUV mission.  60+ days in the making.  A major landmark for polar research.  The vehicle performed  2500 casts at depths from 1000 m to 40 m.

Some mission highlights:

Sampling the northern grid & interesting Warm Spot

The northern grid receives relatively little attention.  We did our best with the time we had to try to get the glider to sample up there before sending it back down south along midshelf.

Visting Doug Martinson’s Mooring Locations for Good instrument Cross reference and possibly aiding the moorings gathering by giving it values outside of its location.

Ice Tongue

We tried to sample along the western Adelaide but some loose ice came out and we turned just in the nick of time!

Several days continuous sampling at the BAS Rothera RaTS study site.  We spent several days continuously sampling the British’s CTD cast location.  This data could be used by them to bridge the gaps in their data from just sampling from boat every week.

Thanks to all and a great success on the list for the Antarctic year!

Some sections showed depths as shallow as 40-50 m, followed next by 500 m.  Quite dramatic differences in only a couple kilometers.  The glider can handle depths as shallow as 30 meters but pays a huge price in power efficiency.

There were a couple ‘pinches’ we needed to navigate through and the glider did a very good job at that.

Once the water deepened inside Marguerite Bay, the glider picked up speed and began to overshoot its waypoints.  This caused a little scare in getting too close for comfort to Killingbeck Island and its sub-islands.  Quickly the glider was sent down away from the island on short single dives.  This helped it clear the danger and resume its track back to Rothera.

The water at this point was pretty deep, hundreds of meters, so keeping it in the tight spaces near Rothera wasn’t too difficult.  Overnight the glider was stationed at the BAS RaTS site where the British have been maintaining  since 1997:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk//staff-profiles/webspace/mmm/RaTS/RaTS.html

RaTS in winter:

Contributing a short time series to their position could be helpful for them in resolving tides, as well as a good point to calibrate and cross compare multiple sensors.

As I type the weather is not great, 30 knot winds.  The glider is being brought closer to Rothera and should be < 1 nautical mile away (I am sure they can practically see it ), helping chances for recovery in the poor conditions.  A call with the British will take place at 3:30 EST.  We hope to be able to recover!

Our deadline was hard set, 1/21/2012, the date the RV Gould would arrive to Rothera to say meet with their British counterparts.  We predicted just under a week for the entire transect into the base.  With the current date being 1/13, it was time to go for it.

Luckily the wind and seas gave us the right conditions to try our entrance.  North winds kept the ice south and enough summer melting and storms had passed to clear out much of the ice.

The glider was throttled back up to full speed and given waypoints through the entrance to the bay.  We alerted the British as to our plans and asked them for assistance in planning and recovery.  They obliged.

During this calm period we prepped and launched our first glider of the season RU26D . This AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) is tasked with a 3 fold mission. First it’s to set off to the north, collecting data along the old LTER grid, where we no longer sample. The second mission is to fly southward along the shelf-break, highlighting subsurface eddies, which we think might be carrying heat onto the continental shelf as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current essentially rubs up agains the shelf-break. Similar data last year was collected by RU26D’s older sister RU25D, which we deployed from Palmer Station and picked up with the LMG about a month later. RU26D is more suited to the task as it’s flying with Lithium Ion batteries, which can last for an extra month or two, as well as additional biological sensors that quantify phytoplankton chlorophyll as well as oxygen concentration and saturation. The third task for RU26D is more diplomatic in nature. We hope to reach Rothera, the British Antarctic Survey base by mid to late January and spark continued collaboration.

RU26D glider track and depth averaged currents

Other exciting events include our first tour ship of the year, The National Geographic Explorer, as well as the yacht Spirit of Sydney. The real treat was the crew on board Spirit of Sydney. As it is the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole Jorgen Amundsen, Roalds great grand nephew was on board re-tracing some of Roald Amundsens foot steps in the spirit of his explorations.

In wildlife news, we’ve had tons of crab eater seals visiting us lately. I managed to snap a few shots of the elusive critters while they were likely patrolling the area for some tasty krill snacks. Enjoy!

RU26D temperature in Celsius

The Spirit of Sydney

Crab-easter seals

Me with Jorgen Amundsen and a few other ocean explorers...

Adelie egg eaten by a Skua

The sea bird team consists of two scientist, Jen and Shawn. I believe this is Jen’s 7th year here at Palmer and Shawn’s first, but he has been on the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) cruise down here twice before so he’s very experienced as well.  The two of them were off to work as soon as the weather died down.  They patrol the local islands and monitor the sea birds.  A few of the birds they study are the Giant Petrels, Skua, Kelp Gulls, Gentoo penguins, Chinstrap penguins, and most importantly the Adelie penguins. The Adelie penguins are the poster children of Palmer Station.  Bill Fraser who is the leader of the sea bird project has been studying them for 20 years here at Palmer Station, and has witnessed their decline first hand.  You can read the book Fraser’s Penguins by Fen Montaigne if you are interested in this topic, its a good read. 

 Some of the reasons why the Adelie penguin is declining here at Palmer Station is because of the shift in weather becoming warmer and wetter shifting from a polar climate to a sub-polar climate.  The area being wetter is a problem because if the nesting sites are full of water and the eggs are sitting in puddles then they are not kept at a good incubation temperature and will die.  Additionally they are dependent on sea ice, and the sea ice has been declining here at Palmer over the last 20 years, despite the good amount of sea ice we have this year.  Krill are also dependent on sea ice and are a major food source for the Adelies.  If there is less Krill, less sea ice, and wetter areas for nesting then the Adelies have a hard time because they return to the same nesting and feeding sites year after year.  The Adelies are a polar species however the Gentoos and the Chinstraps are a sub-polar species, so since the climate is changing here at Palmer the Gentoos and Chinstraps are moving in while the Adelies are doing poorly.

One of these nesting sites for the Adelie penguin is Torgerson Island (Torgie), which we are allowed to recreationally walk on half of the island.  As soon as the birders were able to go out onto the islands they found Adelie eggs! They were here just in time for the egg laying to begin.  That weekend a bunch of us went out rec. boating to see the eggs.  There were also a few cracked eggs on the ground which is due to predation from the Skua.  One thing you have to be careful of when you are out walking on Torgie is to not disturb the Elephant (E.) seals laying on the island.  They are very large and if you startle them they can charge through the penguin colonies and crush eggs and penguins in their path. The Adelies are having a hard enough time as it is to additionally have E. seals crashing through their homes. In the pictures below there is a male E. seal with a torn nostril on the left, and pups on the right.

This picture on the right shows how penguins make chicks.  Jen told me that penguins have one hole for everything, which is called a cloaca. The male penguin hops on the female’s back and after a little beak tapping the two cloacas touch transferring the sperm to the female, nicknamed the “clocal kiss”, and thats how baby penguins are made.

There are also Crabeater seals turning up a lot around station now. We’ve seen them both on the sea ice and in the water.  We’ve even seen them in packs as big as about 7 or so swimming by. When they swim by in a pack it sounds like a pack of horses coming through because every time they surface for air they sound like a horse huffing.

 Additionally we’ve had a very large ice berg stuck in between the islands for most of this month, and it is still out there now.  When ice bergs hand around Palmer for a while they get a name.  A few of the scientists have been thinking about naming it Debbie Steinberg in honor of the Krill project leader.  Last year we had an ice berg named Mark Wahlberg sitting out near an island for about 6-8 months.

Here are some more pictures of Crabeater seals, E. seals pups, and ice bergs for your enjoyment.

Humble Island view from Old Palmer

Halloween was Kim Bernard’s birthday, and luckily the weather was nice enough that night to go recreational boating.  Palmer Station is situated in the middle of about a dozen islands, a few of which can be used for recreational use.  Most of the islands we are not allowed to visit because of the nesting animals however Torgie has flagged areas that we can visit and there are a few where we are free to roam.  Torgersen island (Torgie) is interesting because that is where a decient amount of the local Adelie penguins nest, however half of the island is flagged off to see how humans directly impact their nesting and survival.  The island we chose to visit is Old Palmer, also known as Amsler island in honor of the Amslers (research divers who frequent Palmer Station).  Old Palmer is the site of the old Palmer Station which used to be a British station before we took it over.  There are no buildings left there but you can see the foundation of where the station used to be.  When you visit the islands you have to follow the Antarctic treaty which basically says if you alter an animals behavior then you are too close! 50 feet is about a guidline of how close you are allowed to get to the animals.  You have to be careful you don’t step on a nest or cause an elephant seal to charge through a penguin colony because the effects can be detramental. Beyond the animals, at this latitude we still have some plants and moses that you have to try not to step on.

However the reason we went to Old Palmer that night after dinner, was because of the giant sleding hill.  Rain pants and life jackets are perfect attire to wear for sleding, no sled required.

On our way home we passed Elephant Rocks where Elephant seals like to hang out.  There were two lage males one resting in the water and one on shore, as well as several females.  The Elephant seals can be so loud on Elephant Rocks that they can be heard all the way back on station.

Hero Inlet still covered in ice that hasn't broken up yet from the winter

The weather at Palmer Station has been against us this month.  In all of October we were only able to get out on the water to sample twice.  Between the sea ice and the high winds, we haven’t been able to leave station.  If the wind is above 20 knots we are not allowed to take the zodiacs out.  Additionally if you are already out on the water and the wind spikes up to 25 knots you must return to station because boating becomes unsafe.   High wind conitions are dangerous because your zodiac might flip over leaving you in the freezing water.  We have a Ocean Search and Rescue team (OSAR), however depending on how far away from station you are and when the last time you called into station was (by radio) , it might be a while before they realize that something is wrong.  That is why it is safer to wear survival suits out here while on the water rather than life jackets; your chances of surviving hypothermia in a suit is greatly increase compaired to a life jacket. 

The boat with the gray platform is our boat (Bruiser)

While the zodiacs can push ice out of the way and navigate around brash ice, there has been so much ice so tightly packed in that we cannot move.  We have been noticing that a lot of the ice is covered in ice algae which is exciting.  Since we cannot leave station we’ve been making up experiments using the ice algae to pass time.  Additionally we’ve been getting a few high chlorophyll values from the sea water intake, and we believe that these high numbers are due to the pump sucking up ice algae. 

Adlies marching across the sea ice

We are not the only impatient Antarctic inhabitants.  The Adelie penguins are also struggling to find open water.  We saw a troop of about 60 Adelie penguins marching across the sea ice in search of open water to find food.  They marched from Torgersen Island (nicknamed Torgie) to Bonapart point right out infront of station, about a half a mile walk.  Then they marched back toward Torgie and out toward Wylie Bay.  There were also a few small groups that got lost in Arthur Harbor. Penguins are rather clumsy when they walk so I can only imagen how hard it would be for them the walk so far across the sea ice, but when you rely on the ocean for food you have to do what it takes to find food.

Even though the sea ice kept us land locked, the winds were low for multiple days allowing us to go up the glacier in the backyard to see how far the ice stretched.  When we reached the top of the glacier I could not believe that the sea ice covered ever bit of water in every direction as far as I could see.  It would take a strong wind in the right direction for about a day to clear all of the ice far enough from station for us to go sample.  Even though the ice has cleared up enough for us to sneak out occationally, it doesn’t stay out for very long.

Pictures from on top of the glacier:

Sea Ice in Arthur Harbor

Sea Ice on the other side of the glacier

Sea Ice around the Islands

King Neptune granted us with another calm voyage across the Drake passage between Chile and Antarctica.  I was beginning to think that the Drake wasn’t living up to its reputation as one of the worst waters to cross; however the winter over crew leaving Palmer Station on the last boat had a rough crossing up to Chile, so it seems we made it to Palmer just in time to avoid some bad weather.

While we are crossing the Drake Passage we deploy expendable temperature and depth probes called XBTs.  That way we can monitor the changes in the Drake.  Usually the XBTs are deployed over the side of the boat out of what looks like a gun.  Once the probe reachs the bottom you cut the wire and the probe gets left behind but we get to keep the data.  Once we reached an area of high brash ice the boys got creative on how to deploy the XBT, here is a video showing their attempt. Deploying an XTB in High Ice

On our way down we had the pleasure of helping set up the COPA field camp on King George Island again.  As some of you may recall last year that we helped put in COPA on our way down as well.  There are four penguin scientists who we dropped off at COPA.  The COPACABANA field station is unique because it has 3 penguin species (chinstraps, gentoos, and adelies) living together in harmony right outside their base. Here at Palmer we’ll only get two living together at a time depending on which island you go to. 

Surfers at work

Before we arrived at COPA, we divided into working groups to accomplish everything that needed to be done.  One group was  in the water nicknamed the surfers, they held the zodiacs in place when they came to shore and helped offload the cargo.  As seen on the left they are wearing water proof suits which kept them dry…unless if you fall in the water then you get some water down the front of the suit from the neck hole.  Another group was the sherpas, they transported the cargo from the shore to the station using sleds.  There were people on the boat putting the cargo in the zodiacs, people at COPA unpacking the cargo, and two zodiacs transporting the cargo back and forth. Josh and Travis were on the zodiacs, and I was a sherpa.  The field camp put in was better this year than last year mostly because of the weather.  The wind picked up from a little and it was still cold but the snow held off.  There was one benifit of it still being cold, in the summer there is a melt water “lake” in fron tof COPA which we had to cross to get to the station but with the temperature still low it was still frozen over.  We were able to accomplish the whole put in practically by lunch time, so we were able to enjoy a picnic that the cooks on the boat packed us on one of the sleds.  We left the four scientists with fond fair wells and hopes of a good season and proceeded on to Palmer station. 

Lifeboat in the water

On our way we also had a quick stop off at Duthiers point to repair a piece of science equipment.  Since the weather was nice Captain Joe decided to do a life boat drill.  It was neat to see the life boats in the water circling the Laurence M. Gould.  It was also reassuring that the life boats worked incase we ever actually needed to abandon ship.

As we arrived at Palmer station we had a large snow ball fight and then started to move cargo off the boat.  A week prior to our departure from the states, we had heard that the ice at Palmer Station was still thick enough to walk to the local islands. While it would have been amazing to see the station like that, the ice had all moved out by the time we arrived.  However the weather has been against us for this first week.  With winds from 30-50 knots, lots of brash ice, and multiple snow storms we were not able to sample yet.  However the time indoors allowed us to set up the lab and make sure that everything was running properly.  Additionally we were able to run all of our winter weekly Chlorophyll samples on the fluorometer.  Now we’re just waiting on good weather to get out on the water.

Here are some more pictures from COPA and the crossing down:

Punta Arenas

Yet again we’ve come back to Punta Arenas to rub the toe of the famous statue resting in the square for safe travels across the Drake, to head back to our summer home in Antarctica.   Currently it is spring here is Punta Arenas, Chile.  The town is spotted with puddles from days of rain, and a somber gray can be seen in any direction.  We’ve received our first sense of the cold having to stop back at our hotel for more layers and hats to stay warm, but we have to acclimate because it will not be any warmer where we are heading.

Traveling south was not as easy this time as it was last year.  Travis and I are returning again to Palmer, so as experienced travelers you would think we would have this down, yet everything seemed to be out of our hands. As  I’m sure several people can relate, our travel was riddled with delays and cancellations.  Originally we were suppose to leave Newark, NJ on Sunday however our flight was delayed so badly that we would miss our connecting flight.  So instead of spending the whole day in Atlanta, Georgia until the next flight to Santiago, a full 24 hours later, we were told to go home and come back tomorrow.  While it was nice spending another night in our beds we were raring to go having already said our emotional goodbyes, we unhappily had to repeat the process again the next day.

Once in Chile our track record did not get any better.  While our flight from Newark to Atlanta had arrived early, this was a curse rather than a blessing.  After going through the dilemma on Sunday, Travis and I made sure we had an early flight on Monday so that we would not miss our flight to Santiago, yet this meant about a 6 hour layover in Atlanta.  After several hours in the airport we were off again to Santiago.  This flight was not as bad except for the lack of sleep from sitting in the middle seat in the middle of the plane and exhaustion of hours spent in airports.  After this there was just one more leg and then we would be done.  However our flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas was also delayed by about an hour and switched to another terminal.  Once we finally arrived in Punta Arenas it was cold, raining, and we were all hungry and tired but relieved that there would be warm beds waiting for us.  The third member of our team Josh, my boyfriend, is traveling to South America today.  Travis and I are hoping that he does not have any of the troubles that we had, or else he might not make it in time to catch the boat.

The LMG

The Laurence M. Gould (LMG) is the boat that carries us down to Antarctica.  It takes us about 4 to 5 days to reach Palmer Station from Punta Arenas, however this year we have the pleasure of putting in the COPA field camp again which adds on another day or two to the journey.  The COPA scientists were busily gathering and checking their gear this morning at the warehouse, a pleasure Travis and I will have tomorrow.  It’s important after months of planning, ordering, and sending supplies down here to make sure that they actually get on the ship and not get lost along the way.  After all, the LMG only comes approximately once a month and there are not any stores down in Antarctica in which you can purchase the missing supplies.

This morning Travis, Kim (krill scientist), Rex (research associate), and I had a meeting with AGUNSA to pack up our travel gear.  I would relate the experience to being a kid in a candy shop, only you’re a polar biologist surround by really warm clothes.  You want to grab at least one of everything, and as someone else finds a really padded pair of boots or a warm hat you want one of those as well.  Now that we are all suited up, with more friends and co-workers coming tonight the excitement is welling to start a new season down at Palmer Station.  More to come once we put in the COPA field camp and reach Palmer Station, until then we’ll try to stay warm and enjoy what Chile has to offer.

Kate Ruck rubbing the toe for safe passage (2009-2010 season)

The LMG at the dock