The most physically demanding aspect of the Ionosonde installation is construction of the towers. The site consists of 4 120 ft towers that support the transmit antenna, and 7 20 ft towers that house the receiving dipole elements. The site occupies almost ten acres of land. One of the big challenges working in Antarctica is… Read More
After our journey on the RV Araon, we finally arrived at Jang Bogo Station on December 9. Terra Nova Bay and the surrounding area is magnificent, and it is easy to see why KOPRI (Korea Polar Research Institute) has chosen this site. After an initial site survey and assessment of the installation plan, we began… Read More
On 08December, Justin and Terry walked the last quarter mile across the sea ice and onto the Antarctic Continent. The first visit for both of us. We are on the road used to drive from the station to the ice. We walked around the station and did a brief site survey of the… Read More
On the 8th of December, the Araon reaches its closest approach to Jang Bogo station and docks in the ice. We are about a half mile off shore, and there is a small iceberg stuck in the sea ice almost between us and the station. The full list of daily waypoints are located in this… Read More
We crossed into the Ross Sea around 04 December and Tera Nova Bay around 06 December, encountering ever thicker ice as we proceeded poleward. At first, the strategy was to navigate around to find thin ice. This is the job of the Ice Pilots. We had two of them, from Russia, and one was on… Read More
On 02 December, we crosses the Antarctic Circle. We are no longer virgins to the southern polar region! We won’t see darkness until we come by this way again in February. There was a party afterward…. … Read More
It is on Day 5, 01Dec14, that we encounter our first sea ice. And then soon after that, our first seals and penguins. Somewhere around 62 degrees south latitude. The ice is light and at this time, and the penguins are fun to watch. The internet on the ship can be intermittent. Amazing that it… Read More
Days 3 and 4, 29-30 November, were uneventful. Smoother seas were welcome. The only notable item was that we sailed across the international date line, from 180 degrees East to 180 degrees West. So while the ship’s clock reads New Zealand time, we are actually are a full day earlier. Something only a true geography… Read More
29 November 2014 is our second day at sea. At 13:00 ship time, the same time zone as New Zealand, our position was 51.93 degrees south by 177.1 degrees east. The seas calmed down a bit, which is a huge relief. We can’t really go outside on the deck, especially in rough seas, so its… Read More
We shoved off the dock around 13:00 local time on 27Nov14. It took this big blue tugboat to get the Araon away from the dock and headed out to sea. On the way out of the harbor, we had several encounters with Hector’s Dolphins playing in the wake of the ship. They were too… Read More
