{"id":952,"date":"2026-10-08T02:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T02:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/?p=952"},"modified":"2026-10-08T04:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:21:12","slug":"delayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/2026\/10\/08\/delayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thursday 8 October 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kara and I were scheduled to fly north, from McMurdo to Christchurch, on Tuesday. Had we left as scheduled I\u2019d be home in Colorado now. But, as is so often the case with Antarctic fieldwork, our flight was delayed – this time due to a mechanical problem with the C-17 plane. The flight is currently scheduled for tomorrow, but the weather forecast is suggesting a chance of stormy weather that may delay us another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we finally do fly north it will be from the Phoenix ice runway you can see in this aerial drone photo we took during one of our flights last week. The runway is compacted snow and is 11,000 feet long. In the background, from left to right are White Island, Minna Bluff, Black Island and the edge of Mt. Discovery \u2013 landmarks we see almost every day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of the places Kara and I did drone flights this month was at the Phoenix runway. Here I am with our drone hovering over the runway with White Island in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since this will hopefully be my last blog post from Antarctica, I thought I\u2019d review some of what we\u2019ve done on this trip. Kara and I arrived in McMurdo on September 3rd<\/sup> and have now been here for 5 weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned in my previous blog posts it has been very stormy since we arrived. Eleven of the 35 days we\u2019ve been here have had winds stronger than 50 mph, 4 days have had winds stronger than 70 mph and we\u2019ve had winds gusting stronger than hurricane force, with 91 mph being the strongest wind we\u2019ve seen. The coldest temperature we experienced in town was -39 deg F, although the coldest wind chill was a brutal -77 deg F.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stormy weather wreaked havoc on our fieldwork plans because we can\u2019t safely fly our quadcopter drones in winds much stronger than 20 mph. But the bigger issue has been that the temperature inversions we want to study are best developed under clear skies with light winds \u2013 something that has been all too rare on this trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two graphs below, from this September and last September, show temperature measured by the 100 foot tall automatic weather station (AWS) where Kara and I have been doing most of our flights. These graphs illustrate how infrequent the temperature inversions we are here to study have been this year compared to last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This graph shows the temperature at 7 different heights from the surface (black line) to 98 ft above the ice surface (red line) measured by the tall tower AWS. A temperature inversion, when temperature increases as you move up through the atmosphere, is shown on this graph when the different colored lines spread out. For almost the entire time we\u2019ve been here the different lines mostly lie on top of one another indicating that the temperature is unchanging as you move up through the atmosphere \u2013 a not very interesting situation and not what we are here to study.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In contrast, on this graph from last September the different lines are frequently spread apart indicating the presence of lots of temperature inversions. Last year temperature inversions with temperature increasing 20 deg F, or more over the lowest 100 feet of the atmosphere were common, and exactly the conditions Kara and I want to study. Unfortunately, last year the cargo handlers accidently left our drones off the flight to Antarctica so we were unable to collect the data we wanted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It has been very frustrating not having our drones last year when we had lots of strong temperature inversions and to be here this year with our drones but having almost no temperature inversions. Such is the nature of doing fieldwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the less than ideal weather this year, Kara and I have managed to fly our drones during the few inversion periods around September 8th<\/sup>, 29th<\/sup>\u00a0and 30th<\/sup>\u00a0and collected some great data on these days. In the 5 weeks we have been here we were able to do 38 drone flights that measured 218 temperature profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This graph shows the temperature inversions we observed with our drone on the evening of September 30th. Height increases from the ground to 700 feet above ground as you move up on the graph while temperature warms from -40 F to 0 F as you move from left to right on the graph. The orange line shows a very strong temperature inversion with temperature increasing from -37 F at the ground to -12 F just 100 feet above. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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If you look closely at this photo you can see streamers of drifting snow blowing across the surface. These wriggling bands of blowing snow are called snow snakes \u2013 a name that perfectly describes how they look. If the wind speed increases a little bit the snow lofts higher into the air and transitions from drifting snow to blowing snow, which can reduce visibility to zero in strong enough winds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We took this drone selfie during one of our last flights of the field season. It was a beautiful, but cold, evening on the ice shelf with a temperature in the -30s deg F but a pretty sunset behind the hills of Hut Point peninsula.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Not too long after the drone selfie we saw this lovely sunset view. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are often fun activities happening in McMurdo in the evenings that help us pass the time when we aren\u2019t working. Several nights have had karaoke in the bar. Both Kara and I sang, and I belted out Metallica\u2019s Enter Sandman one night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The activities happening around town are advertised on a bulletin board. In this photo you can see an announcement for a Sunday science lecture Kara and I gave a couple of weeks ago. Above that is a sign for a Family Feud tournament that Kara and some of her McMurdo friends competed in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Sunday science lecture is held in the galley, where we eat all our meals. Here Kara is talking about her research on polar clouds. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Monday nights people have been given slideshows about national parks that they have visited. These presentations have been a great way to learn about parks you might not be familiar with. The day after our Sunday science lecture I presented a slideshow about bike touring through Utah\u2019s national parks and monuments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the weather becoming a bit warmer we\u2019ve also been able to get out for some hikes on the local trails. This past Sunday Kara and I hiked the Cape Armitage trail. This trail loops around the end of Hut Point peninsula, which you can see in the drone selfie of Kara and I above. This hike goes between McMurdo Station and Scott Base, the New Zealand base, but does so on the sea ice off the edge of the peninsula. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here I am crossing the coastline, near Scott Base, onto the sea ice. The jumbled ice behind me is caused when wind pushes the sea ice into the coast. The red and green flags mark the path of this trail as it winds its way around Cape Armitage back to McMurdo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The temperature was around +5 deg F and it was breezy with 20 mph winds when Kara and I did the Cape Armitage hike. Despite the cold temperature and windy conditions I never felt cold thanks to our heavy-duty cold weather gear. On the hike we were treated to this sunset view of Ob Hill. Everything in the foreground is sea ice floating on the ocean, covered by a thin layer of snow. Scott Base is just off the right side of this photo and McMurdo Station is behind Ob Hill in the center of this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019ll often work in the upstairs library in the Crary science building in McMurdo. One reason I like working there is the gorgeous view across McMurdo Sound. Last night I was treated to this colorful sunset as I was wrapping up my work for the evening. The path leading onto the sea ice, in the center of this photo, is the end of the Cape Armitage trail Kara and I hiked on Sunday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll post my final blog entry of the trip once I am back in Colorado, hopefully sometime next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday 8 October 2026 Kara and I were scheduled to fly north, from McMurdo to Christchurch, on Tuesday. Had we left as scheduled I\u2019d be home in Colorado now. But, as is so often the case with Antarctic fieldwork, our flight was delayed – this time due to a mechanical problem with the C-17 plane.… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-15 20:00:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/10\/cape_armitage_ob_hill_sunset.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}