22 January 2014 One of the things I really enjoy doing while in Antarctica is going for hikes around McMurdo. Not getting out for my regular evening hikes while at the Tall Tower field camp was something I was not looking forward to while at the camp. Although we’ve been busy with our research and… Read More

  20 January 2014 We didn’t expect to have any visitors to our field camp during our two weeks here, but last Friday as I was walking from my sleep tent to the kitchen tent I saw a skua, a large seagull-like bird, flying overhead. At first it didn’t register as being strange but then… Read More

17 January 2014 This is my first time camping at a small, remote field camp in the Antarctic. As I said in a previous post our camp consists of 6 tents and 4 people (myself, Melissa, Ben, and Suz). Melissa and I are flying unmanned aerial vehicles to collect data about the vertical structure of… Read More

16 January 2014 We woke to cloudy skies and fog for our first full day at our Tall Tower field camp. Our first order of business was to finish unpacking our sleds and getting our camp set up. For breakfast we had oatmeal and hot cocoa. Ben, the Kiwi grad student with us, joined us… Read More

15 January 2014 Yesterday was a looooong day. After getting a big breakfast and doing some final packing we left McMurdo at 8AM. It was a short drive from McMurdo to the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf where our snowmobiles and sleds were parked. We finished packing the sleds under sunny skies with light… Read More

13 January 2014 Melissa and I have spent the last few days getting ready for spending the next two weeks at our Tall Tower field camp. We’ve finished picking up all of our camp gear (tents, sleeping bags, stoves, fuel, generator, solar panel, food), testing and packing all of our science gear, and of course… Read More

9 January 2014 My flight to Antarctica left Christchurch, New Zealand Tuesday morning (7 January) at just after 9:30AM. For this trip I flew in a ski-equipped military cargo plane, known as an LC-130,  operated by the US Air Force National Guard.   One of the crew members had a patch on his uniform that… Read More

To Antarctica – Again 6 January 2014 Once again I am on my way to Antarctica to study the weather of the southernmost continent. This trip is my 12th to Antarctica. You can read about some of my previous trips at the following links: August – October 2012 http://cires.colorado.edu/blogs/antarcticuavs/ January – February 2012 http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53700947/Antarctic_blog/index.html August… Read More

My 10th trip to Antarctica ended on Monday (1 October) when I flew back to New Zealand. I was happy that our northbound flight left as scheduled since sometimes these flights can be delayed several days or more if the weather doesn’t cooperate. The flight that arrived from New Zealand on Monday was the start… Read More

The Aerosonde UAVs we flew in Antarctica were equipped with digital cameras that allowed us to take photographs of the ice and ocean we were flying over. Of course, most of our flights were at night so we couldn’t take photographs, but on a few flights we had enough daylight at the start of the… Read More