The most surreal experience since we stepped off the plane was counting down the new year wearing sunglasses in the bright sunlight. At McMurdo base, they hold the largest music festival on the continent- Ice Stock. The official festival merchandise (scrawled on a hand-made cardboard sign) was BYO T-shirt so that the carpenters can paint the words “Ice Stock 2020” using ink and a stencil.
Our equipment finished 2019 with a bang- when a pump inside of our YAG laser’s power supply broke. We diagnosed the source of the failure to be a pin built into the pump that broke and shattered one of the vanes. We called companies from various countries around the globe, several already shut down for the new year holiday, but when they heard about our unusual predicament, many went above and beyond to help us. We managed to secure a replacement, which should arrive via courier in January. Unfortunately our sodium laser will be down while we wait.
We had our iron laser up and running through new year eve into 2020! After getting the system running, Dr. Chu ran the lidar alone during New Year’s eve to let us experience Ice Stock. Pictured is Xianxin tuning the 374 nm channel to optimize power.
We drove up the volcano to Arrival Heights after midnight to celebrate with with Dr. Chu and swap shifts. Hunter Burch joined us for the celebration, and as photographer. He studies lightning in another building at Arrival Heights. He left McMurdo on January 2nd for the South Pole- if he had stayed any longer he might have ended up running the lasers with us!
Celebrating New Year’s in the lab! 
Hunter Burch, PhD student at University of Florida and unofficial Chu group member
Enjoy reading your blog! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Keep blogging, I can live through your words