January 29

We are now in the northwestern Ross Sea to sample Joides (Joy-Dees) Trough where we expect of find the warm oceanic water moving onto the shelf. The box-like pattern at the outer part of the Ross Sea in the ship track shown on the second map below is where the Joides Trough is located.

The heavy red line is the ship track.

We are about to finish two lines of stations across Joides Trough and will be heading south again. We have a few more days to make measurements before we need to start packing up. We also have to meet the Italian Antarctic vessel (Italica) from which we are getting fuel so our ship, the Palmer, can make it back to Punta Arenas, Chile. The science party will need to stay out of the way during fueling which is expected to take a day or so.

Several of us have commented about how it seems to be darker at night. It could be that we are a little farther north so the sun does not stay quite as high at midnight as it did when we were farther south. It could also be that it has been overcast lately. We have had a few snow showers. So, it could be either. Or, it could be wishful thinking as we all are anticipating getting back home, to the Northern Hemisphere where it is winter--and the sun actually sets.

The ship we are on is around 150 ft long. The various labs, the back deck, the side A-frame and the bridge are all far apart. So how do the various groups coordinate activities? There are telephones on the ship which are used. But, work is mainly coordinated with VHF (marine) two-way radios. Some radios are mounted in labs or by the CTD station. Most of the technical support people carry portable radios.

It is actually a mark of distinction (a badge of rank?) to carry a radio!

When we get to a station, the bridge calls to the appropriate person and lets him/her know that  we are at the desired location. All the rest of us hear the call so we are aware of what is going on.

The people on deck must ask the bridge for permission to put anything over the side. The bridge is also informed when a piece of equipment is back on board. It is actually a very orderly process once everyone understands how it works. The science party keeps a record of all of these activites (the event log) so we will know when we did certain activities and where we were when we did it.

We have been using a lot of XBT's (expendable bathythermographs) which are temperature sensors that are dropped from the ship and measure water temperature through the water. The expendable part of its name is that we don't get the sensor back.

Using an XBT involves two people. One person in the lab running a computer program that records the data. A second person goes to the stern of the ship with the XBT in a holder that is connected to the computer. On command, the person on deck drops the probe and waits for it to reach the bottom (which can take 1 to 3 minutes). The person in the lab lets the person on deck know when the probe hits bottom so the deck person can come back inside (remember that it is cold outside). All of this coordination happens over the VHF radio.

Over the recent transit from Ross Bank to the NW Ross Sea, we towed the video plankton recorder (VPR) which moves up and down in the water. The VPR samples the top 100 m of the ocean.  To get the deeper temperature, we used an XBT every hour. With only XBTs to do, the day crew tried to liven up the radio traffic by having different people be the lab person. In particular, they chose people with distinct accents.

Pierre St. Laurent (picture below) is part of the hydro group who started the game. Pierre is a French-Canadian with a very distinct accent.

People in the science party are from a number of countries: Britain, Viet Nam, Thailand, Germany, Australia, Russia and Eritrea. Not all were able to display their verbal distinctiveness. Hai (Viet Nam), Tom (Britain) and Pierre (Canada) took turns directing the XBT drop and adding to the variety of the radio calls.

It is not much, but it keeps us amused.

Maybe it is time for us to get off the ship.

January 25

We are still sampling around the Ross Ice Shelf. We are looking at the details of the cold water coming out from under the ice shelf. After these samples, we are heading back to Ross Bank were we need to pick up the SeaHorse profiling instrument and we will sample the water over the bank one more time.

The heavy red line is the cruise track.

Remember how it is summer here? Remember the calm seas and sunny skies?  Well, they are only a memory now.  Antarctic weather has returned.  Winds have been out of the south for a couple of days at speeds above 30 kt.  The air temperature has gotten as low as -11 C (10F) with wind chill around -35 C (around -30 F). The waves are 4-6 ft, which is not too bad.

The ship is heated, but it is not always that comfortable. We have not put up a thermometer in the computer/dry lab to measure the inside temperature; I am not sure that I want to know.  The picture below shows Suriyan entering information in the event log.  I think this picture speaks for itself.

It snows every once in a while.  But given the waves and winds, water blows onto the ship and freezes. The picture below shows the side A-frame that we use to put the trace metal clean CTD and bongo nets into the water.  Notice the icicles hanging from the bottom of the sea gate.  These are formed from sea spray. 

The icicles are more impressive close up.

The forecast is for winds to diminish a bit today, but it is not expected to return to the pleasant conditions of last week. We have another week or so of sampling before we start packing and head to McMurdo Station.

January 24

Today is windy, cold and overcast. Winds are blowing out of the south off the Ross Ice Shelf at 25 to 30 kt. Temperatures are -8 to -10C (15F). Wind chill is -30C according the display. Waves are 3 to 4 ft, although they get bigger as we go farther north away from the ice. The forecast is for conditions to stay like this for the next day or so. It feels like Antarctica out there!

The heavy red line is the cruise track. 

The Ross Ice Shelf is to the east of McMurdo Station.

I have been on the boat for one month (since December 24). My world is pretty small--just the people on board and the focus on ocean sampling in this area. Two newspaper summaries arrive each day, but they both have mostly the same content. The difference between them is the fraction of space devoted to sports. The main stories have been the latest ups and downs of the Republican nomination campaign.

I have started putting out candy around 2 am as a moral booster for everyone. I have english toffee, hard candy and chocolate mints that I bought in Punta Arenas before we sailed. Even though there are fewer people up overnight, the candy seems to disappear in a few hours. I will keep putting it out until I run out. I have some M&Ms which I will put out soon as a special treat. I suspect that they won't last long.

We are now as far south as we will get, not quite 78S. We are traveling along the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Actually, we are a mile or two away so we are not too close just in case pieces of ice break off.

There is an interesting video on the ship of ice breaking off an ice shelf, creating a wave that washes over the stern of the Palmer (the ship we are on). Big chunks of ice ended up on the fantail and the deck was covered in several feet of water. It is very dramatic. Unfortunately it is too big to send home, but I have a copy for later viewing.

The Ross Ice Shelf is a dramatic feature. It is hard to get a sense of scale from the pictures (or even from the boat given the distance). The ice stretches from one horizon to the other.

The ice shelf is glacial ice, which is snow that has accumulted over a long time and compressed into ice. Antarctica is a dry place with snowfall of a few centimeters of water per year (an inch or two). An ice sheet has covered Antarctica for the last 30 million years or so; there has been plenty of time for a thick layer of ice to pile up.

Over time, the ice slides off Antarctica and floats in the ocean. The Ross Ice Shelf is the ocean end of an ice stream. You can impress your friends by using "marine terminus" as the ocean end of an ice stream.

At the marine terminus, the ice is 200 to 300 m (600 to 1000 ft) thick. Since about 10% of ice floats above the water surface, the ice is 60 to 100 ft high. It is about as high as the highest mast on this ship.

The ice shelf cracks for various reasons. Pieces of the ice shelf can break off, which is where icebergs come from.  This is how the glacier looses ice (it also melts at the bottom). The glacier is always sliding off the continent. The ocean edge of the ice shelf stays in the same place, more or less, because icebergs break off about as fast as the glacier slides of the land.

January 19

Yesterday started (at midnight) like all the other days since we reached the Ross Sea. Bright and sunny with no winds and flat seas. There were some clouds to the south. As the morning progressed, it became cloudy and it started to snow, just flurries. The winds increased from the south. As the day wore on, the winds increased to 35 kt and the seas built to 3-5 feet. The ship actually moved a bit in the waves. We have not felt that in awhile.

By noon, it started to look like Antarctica outside. The temperature dropped to -8 C (12 F). It snowed off and on. It remained cloudy. These conditions eased a bit in the afternoon, but are still with us this morning.  

We did two more stations yesterday afternoon and then headed for Ross Bank which is in the south center of the Ross Sea. It will be about 8 hours of transit which will let several groups catch up on work.

The heavy red line is the ship track. 

On the way, we have been throwing XBTs (eXpendable BathyThermographs), which measure water temperature without requiring the boat to stop. One of the measurements indicated subsurface warm water of over 2C, which is the signature of a type of water that we came here to study. We decided to turn back (about an hour to return) and sample the feature. Unfortunately, when we got back to the same place, there was no sign of water warmer than -1.5C. The measurement was due to a bad XBT, or some other instrument failure.  So, we resumed the transit to the Ross Sea.

When we saw the warm temperature, notice went through the science party to get ready to sample. Many had gone to bed to get some sleep during the transit. Most were now awake again, but not thrilled by the prospect of more work.  There was considerable relief (it seems) when the warm water turned out to be a false alarm. Most of the tired folks went back to sleep.  Such is life on a research cruise.

Research cruises are sociologically interesting. Most of us had not met one another before the cruise, or were only casual acquaintances. Over the first week or so, everyone meets everyone. After another short while we get comfortable together and become a sort of family. Then, we become a slightly dysfunctional family. We are starting to enter that phase now.

One of the Info techs likes brownies. The cook has been making brownies and other cakes and cookies for us to enjoy.  Someone has been putting new brownies on the tech's desk, making the point that he enjoys them a bit too much. Then several people put sweets on his desk when he was not looking. He started to refuse the brownies (as he was eating some at meals).

Yesterday, the cook made some interesting, high octane, brownies with chocolate chips and were covered with ground espresso and icing. The brownies had sugar, chocolate and caffeine--high octane, as I said. The captain made a point of delivering brownies to the tech at his desk to make sure that he got his allotment.  It remains a mystery if the cook just happened to make the extra good brownies or if someone put him up to it (the Captain, perhaps). It is hard to tell at this point in the cruise. We have about 3 more weeks to go, so we will see where this goes, or if some new game arises. 

On some ships, especially a number of years ago, it was hard to keep track of what was going on. Unless you visited the bridge, it was hard to tell where we were or where we were going.  The Palmer has a very good way to distribute information around the ship--a closed circuit TV system.  There are 15 or 20 cameras around the ship showing various places where things might be going on. For instance, there is a camera in the Baltic Room so we can see the CTD coming and going.  In addition, there are a number of information screens so we can get various information. In fact, each cabin has a small TV so we can follow activities on the ship from our cabins.

The dry lab is a center of activity. Most people pass through an ask for information about what is happening and what is coming up and when. Typically, our group (the CTD group) is the one that people ask. There is an array of TV's in the dry lab (photo below) that we use to keep informed.

Each of these TVs can be set to whatever channel (there are over 100 channels) we want to watch. During the day, we change channels to follow various activities. We are now in transit so we are monitoring the bow and stern cameras along with screens showing weather conditions, navigation information and surface ocean conditions.

The bow camera shows flat seas and no sea ice or icebergs.

The stern camera shows what is happening on deck and we can monitor what the A-frame is doing.  It is the big structure that is used to lift instruments from the deck into the water and then tow them behind the ship.

This panel below shows weather information. Notice the temperature of -6.9C and a wind chill below -22C. It also tells us the date and time (Greenwich Time, not local time). It is easy to lose track of days on a cruise. With the sun always up, we do not get any hints about the local time.

The navigation panel shows our location (latitude and longitude) as well as boat speed and heading. We put in waypoints so we know how long before we get where we are going. This shows that we are on the way to Ross Bank and it will take 6.5 hours to get there.

Finally, we are making measurements on water that is taken into the ship to cool the engines. Some water is diverted to run through a number of instruments. The surface water is a bit "warm" at 0.711C which is about 34F.  Swim call, anyone?

January 16

We are about halfway through the cruise. Everyone is in a routine making measurements. Sometimes we drag instruments behind the ship for 10 to 20 hours which causes work for some groups but lets other groups catch up (or relax). Sometimes we make measurements close together which makes everyone work. For these close stations, it takes the boat about 30 minutes to get from one sampling location to the next. It takes longer than that to take samples from the CTD and process water.  So things get going pretty fast.

We are in the southwestern Ross Sea sampling in an area that is northeast of McMurdo Station. Satellite measurements indicated that there is abundant phytoplankton in this area. Our measurements confirm the satellite observations. We are finding eddies (swirls of water) with higher levels of chlorophyll (the pigment associated with plants) in the eddies than out. We are driving around in criss-cross patterns to see the shape and size of these eddies.

The heavy red line is the cruise track.

The red blob in the cruise track is the area where we are doing a process study.  We do many closely spaced sampling stations for a process study.  The long straight cruise track is when we are doing a survey. 

Weather conditions have been very nice. Air temperatures have been around freezing (or a few degrees below) and the winds have been light (5 to 15 kt). The ocean has been very flat. This makes for very comfortable working conditions. Very different from the conditions we experienced in the first week or so of the cruise.

When it is sunny, the ocean looks positively tropical. The picture below could be from the Sargasso Sea (the subtropical north Atlantic Ocean around Bermuda).

The picture below is taken looking over the stern of the ship and shows the boat wake. It is very odd to see such a distinct boat wake in the open ocean.

At times the winds are out of the south. We are not too far north of the Ross Ice Shelf, so the air coming from the south has been over the continent and is cold (-10C about 10 F). Wind chill during this time can be -10 F. I don't go out on deck much because I can do what I need to do from inside the ship or in enclosed areas like the Baltic Room.  So, the temperature/wind chill does not matter much. Others do work outside, and they bundle up if they are going to be out for any time.

We have run out of lettuce and other fresh foods. There are a few tomatoes left. The cook used the last of the fresh spinach in a beans and spinach concoction. Salad is now shreadded cabbage and carrots (aka slaw, without the mayonnaise). As salads go, it is not bad with a little salad dressing. We are still getting frozen vegetables along with beans, rice and various meats and pastas.

I bought some candy at the market in Punta Arenas, Chile before we sailed as a mid-cruise treat. I will start putting some out in a bowl during the coming weekend. Most of the candy supply on the boat has disappeared, so this will be a treat. A few on board really like chocolate, so I am curious to see their reaction to new candy.

January 11-12

On Tuesday morning, the bridge received a distress call from a fishing boat in the Ross Sea that was confirmed to be real. The boat was burning and most of the crew was off the ship.

With coordination through New Zealand, the Palmer suspended science operations and headed to the location of the distress call. It took about 16 hours at 13+ kt (best speed with all 4 engines running) to reach the site. Tuesday evening at around 8:30 the Palmer arrived to find a fishing vessel still burning. A second fishing boat had arrived earlier and taken all personnel from the burning boat.

The fishing boat continues to smolder. The chief engineer on the Palmer commented on the bridge that the boat could continue to burn for days or weeks depending on what combustables are on board. The ultimate fate of this vessel remains unclear, given its remote location.

The Palmer is the only boat in the area with any medical facilities. We have 2 EMTs on board and there is a medical facility on board.

Seven of the crew from the damaged boat had minor to serious burns. These seven were transfered to the Palmer by Zodiac (small boat in picture below) for treatment and transport to McMurdo Station where air transport is available to move these patients to better medical facilities.

Two zodiacs (small inflatable boats) were used to transfer the patients. The milder cases were able to walk on their own. Three of the patients had to be carried into the medical facilities.

We are now on the way to McMurdo Station. We expect to arrive sometime this afternoon or evening.

At about 4am local time we arrive a the ice edge in McMurdo Sound. McMurdo Sound has fast ice at the south end where McMurdo Station is located. We moved the boat about 1 km into the ice. Two people were lowered to the ice surface to check the condition of the ice. When it proved solid enough, the gangway was set up as a way to get on and off the boat.

Two helicopters were sent from McMurdo Station with a doctor and a nurse along with cold weather clothing for the patients and litters for the patients who could not walk. The medical personnel made sure the patients were stable and secure in the litters.

The ship's hospital room is on the second deck which is the same level as the helicopter deck on the ship. The patients were moved to the HeloDeck where a zodiac was waiting. A crane lifted the zodiac to move patients from the boat to the ice surface.

Once on the ice, another group from the ship lifted the litters to the snow and dragged it to the waiting helicopters.

Once loaded, the helicopter took the patients to the hospital at McMurdo for further treatment. At some point in the near future, these patients will be flown to New Zealand for more treatment and eventual travel to their homes.

January 12

Weather conditions in the Ross Sea continue to be very mild, with light winds (less than 5 kt) and almost no waves.

We have suspended science operations to respond to a distress call by a boat fishing in the northern Ross Sea. The boat was on fire and seven of the crew of the boat suffered burns. The injured were transferred to the Palmer and carried to McMurdo Station, where there is a doctor and other medical staff. There is also transportation from McMurdo to New Zealand to get these patients to better medical facilities.

The heavy red line is the ship track.

The southern part of McMurdo Sound, the location of McMurdo Station, is covered by fast ice (sea ice that is frozen to land). It is only a couple of feet thick so we were able to move into the ice a kilometer or so. We stopped about 16 miles from McMurdo Station to wait for helicopters to move the patients.

While in the area, we were able see part of the Transantarctic Mountains that stretch along the western side of McMurdo Sound.

Transantarctic Mountains near McMurdo Station.

There were spectacular views of Mount Erebus which is an active volcano (I think the only active volcano in Antarctica). As you see, the skies are clear making it easy to see the details of the cone shaped mountain.

Mount Erebus

On the way into the sound, we saw lots of penguins (mostly Adelie penguins, which are small - about 2 to 3 ft tall) as well as a few Emperor penguins (the largest penguins at 4 to 5 ft tall). The photos below (taken by Bettina Sohst, a scientist with the iron chemistry group) show a group of Adelie penguins walking away and a single Adelie an ice floe watching us go by. 

A penguin near the ship was startled and ran away as fast a possible by sliding on its chest and pushing with its feet.

I also saw spouts from whales, but I could not tell what kind it was because the whale did not come out of the water at all.

January 9

The weather continues to be nice. We have winds of 20kt or so but the waves are not big so the ride is comfortable. We crossed the shelf break into the Ross Sea continental shelf yesterday. Our cruise track is not so straight now because we are working our way around areas of heavy sea ice.

(The heavy red line is the cruise track.)

 

 

 

For our weekly (Sunday) fire drill, we had a man overboard (MOB) drill. All of the science party went to the 03 deck lounge muster station. The captain talked to us about MOB procedures. Because of the cold water, survival time in the water is real short. We were told to watch the person and call the bridge. He emphasized how hard it is to see someone in the water (only the head is showing), especially if there are any waves. He made a big point to us about keeping track of where people are, and not taking a chance of falling overboard.

There are 3 laundry rooms on the boat for use by everyone. Each laundry has 4 washer/dryers. We use these to do our laundry.  We also wash our sheets and towels. We are not on a pleasure cruise so there is no laundry service.

There is also a gym (exercise room) on board. It has a rowing machine, fixed weights and a treadmill. I have decided not to use my spare time exercising. I am getting plenty of exercise just doing the work during my watch. But, the opportunity is there if I change my mind. Many in thescience party make exercise a part of of their daily ritual.

January 8

Today conditions continue to be very mild. It is cold (around freezing) and the wind chill is uncomfortable (-10C +10F). Winds are low (5 to 10 kt) and seas are very flat.

                   (The heavy red line is the cruise track.)

We continue towards the Ross Sea sampling area. On Friday we made some measurements before getting to a wide band of sea ice. Then yesterday we pushed through some scattered sea ice that became thick and covered most of the ocean where we were. Most of this ice is a couple of feet thick and it is covered with 1/2 to 1 feet of snow. We sometimes see bigger icebergs. I estimated that the one in the picture below is about 1/2 mile wide and 100 feet tall.

We stopped yesterday to make some measurements in the middle of this sea ice band, although the place we stopped was mainly open water. As we continued on our way, we had to cross the thicker ice mentioned above.

The scene above has the ocean surface mostly covered sea ice. Notice the iceberg in the background.

Eventually the ice was thick enough to stop the ship. That is, the ship could not push continuously through the ice. Instead we had to "back and ram" which means that the boat pushed through the ice at full throttle until it stops. Then it backs up and does it again. Eventually we made it through the thickest ice. Notice the crushed ice in the picture above. We are backing up to take another run at the ice. The brown color of the sea ice in the above picture is from phytoplankton (algae) that grow in the sea ice.

We all got to experience the noise of going through ice. The Mess area (galley) is forward and starboard (right side of the ship looking towards the front end, for those who are nautically challenged) and on the main deck. When driving through ice, the Mess is too noisy for conversation. There is a good bit of banging and crashing as the ship hits harder pieces of ice.

Today we are out of the ice and on our way. We stopped to make some more measurements this morning.

We have been changing time zones every two days. We are now seven hours behind Eastern Standard time in the time zone of New Zealand, but I am not really sure. Time has very little meaning to us, partly because of the constant changes in time zone, but also because the sun is always up. There are no real clues to what time it is. The only time marker we have is meals on the ship, which are set by local time.

The sun makes a big circle in the sky during the day. At noon, the sun is north of the ship and high in the sky. At midnight, the sun is lower and south of the ship. It gets lighter and darker as clouds come and go.

We are working 12 hour shifts. I work from midnight to noon. I have supper (actually mid-rats) when I get up and breakfast in the middle of my "day". I sometimes have "lunch" before going to bed. Very confusing.

January 7

We are nearing the Ross Sea shelf area where we will start to work. Winds and seas remain light. We alternate between fog and clear skies.

               (The heavy red line is the cruise track.)




We are a couple of days from the Ross Sea continental shelf (the area shallower than about 1000 m (3300 feet). The map below is like a topographic map with the thin lines being lines of constant depth. The cluster of lines running roughly diagonally across the map shows the shelf break (the edge of the continental shelf).

We are crossing a band of sea ice, which is the old ice from last winter that has blown northerward out of the Ross Sea. Mixed in with the sea ice (frozen sea water) are icebergs (chunks of compressed snow that have broken off floating glaciers).

Often animals use sea ice as a refuge. While on the bridge this morning, I saw a single emperor penguin lying on the ice. As the boat came closer, the penguin decided to run away from us on the floe. Earlier yesterday, I saw a seal on some sea ice. It sat up and barked at us (I could not hear, of course, but the seal was moving its head around like they do when they bark). I think it was a crabeater seal, but it could have been a weddell or a leopard seal.

Unfortunately, the icebergs are not so impressive in photographs. Also, it is a bad idea to get too close to icebergs so we are not likely to get any iceberg "closeups". We should get some nice pictures of the "mother iceberg", which is the Ross Ice Shelf, in a few days.

                  (Sea ice field with ship's shadow on the ice.)


The bridge is the command center of the ship. The helmsman is the person who drives the ship. He (or she) is a ship's officer (the captain or one of the mates). Visitors are allowed on the bridge any time, except when a pilot is on the ship, which happens going in and out of ports/harbors.  The bridge on the Palmer is a large open room on the fifth deck up from the main deck (where the sciecne labs are located). The bridge extends beyond the edges of the ship so it is possible to look down and see the sides of the ship.

(James and Stephanie Hathcock (Old Dominion University STEM education graduate student) chat on the bridge while James is handling the ship.)

In front of James (photo below) are a number of controls and displays. He keeps track of the status of the ship (engine speed, etc) as well as planning our course. Most of the screens display navigation information. The various knobs and joysticks control speed and steering. Notice that there is no "wheel". That piece of hardware has disappeared from modern vessels.

                (Another view of the bridge across the control console.)

We did the first real CTD cast yesterday. We wanted to make  some measurements away from the continental shelf and away from sea ice.  The photo below shows the crowded conditions around the CTD/Rosette as various groups take water samples. This shows why organization and practice is important for taking water samples.