Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2002 03:41:32 +0000 From: "Coronesi, Stephanie" Subject: Message 3 00:30 (2002.01.06) 63 Degrees 46.238' South Latitude 64 Degrees 59.712' West Longitude (Fresh out of the Drake!) Air Temp: 1.2 Degrees C SST (Sea Surface Temperature): 1.066 Wind Speed: 10 knots 341 Degrees Air Pressure: 968 mBar Buenos Dias! I was working on my Spanish while in Chile, can you tell? Alright, Let's begin with a little info on Antarctica: No nation actually owns Antarctica, which means that you don't technically need a passport to enter. We had to hand in our passports to get stamped OUT of Chile, or else it would imply that Antarctica was part of Chile. Tricky, huh? There's an agreement called the "Antarctic Treaty" which was established by twelve countries forty years ago reserving the area south of 60 degrees south latitude as a zone for peaceful conduct of research. This prohibits military measures in the area (weapons testing, etc.). There are now close to fifty signatories on the Treaty and there are roughly 200 science projects currently taking place with participants from over nineteen countries. The National Science Foundation (N.S.F.) is the U.S. federal agency that manages the United States Antarctic Program (U.S.A.P.) The U.S.A.P. operates three year-round stations in Antarctica. McMurdo Station and Palmer Station are on the coast and Amundsen-Scott is the South Pole station. 50% of U.S.-run research is done out of McMurdo Station, 19% at the South Pole Station, 13% at Palmer Station (where we're going tomorrow) and 18% on the research ice-breaker ships (I'm sitting in one right now). Big credit going out to Ms. Valerie Carroll who compiled the poster set from which I gleaned much of this information. Okay, so what this means is that we're part of a much bigger picture. The world's only research on how ozone-hole increased ultraviolet (UV) radiation affects marine organisms is being performed in Antarctica. LTER has been busily monitoring the marine environment in the Western Antarctic Peninsula for the past ten years to see how the ecology has been affected by changing conditions. There are six different groups on board studying different aspects of the marine environment, which are (in no particular order); Phytoplankton, Zooplankton, Chemical Oceanography, Physical Oceanography, Seabirds, and Persistent Organic Pollutants. I'll delve more deeply into these groups in future messages. I'm going to touch on Physical Oceanography today though. For the past two days we've been conducting XBT drops. XBT stands for Expendable Bathythermograph, and these are probes that drop out of an auto-launcher at predetermined latitude points to measure the water temperature at different levels as it descends. (I've attached a picture of Pete, Rich and Lisa (left-right) reloading the launcher.) These results are recorded and analyzed for a couple of different reasons, one of which is tracking the movement of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This current circles the continent of Antarctica and may be key to understanding changes in the world's oceanic circulation, which can effect significant change in global climate. We could tell when we hit the north boundary of the Current because the water temperature dropped about 4 degrees C within a 1/2 degree of latitude. So that's where we are now, and that's all the science I'm going to lay on you today. The people are fabulous and the food is great too (though we just discovered a mostly-consumed jar of Vegamite. There's no accounting for taste, I guess). Oh, and trying to walk up stairs in a rocking ship should be an Olympic event! When the ship shifts to one side you practically get catapulted up the stairs and it feels like you're actually flying (while holding firmly to the handrails OF COURSE!), and then the ship shifts the other way and gravity totally messes with you and it feels like there are lead weights pressing down on you, making it nearly impossible to move. It's actually fun, trying to time it just right. Okay, back to the XBTs! Keep well! Steph "Miss C!"