The Last Man on Earth...

A View From the Helo
Me and Lake Vanda
One of the Many Views I Had Today

The other day I got the chance to take an Astar to the Wright Valley.  From our camp, F6, the Wright Valley is only accessible via helo flight.  In the Wright Valley we monitor the Onyx River at an upstream and down stream location, which flow into Lake Vanda.  The views from the helo ride were nothing short of spectacular.  Rock formations, snow covered peaks, and massive glaciers could be seen in every direction from the birds eye view.  My camera was out and I couldn't snap photos fast enough.  We had an amazing pilot and he flew us over some amazing landscapes.  Once we landed, we got our work done and had a little extra time to explore the region.  The views and solitude are a bit hard to explain.  I like to describe it as, untouched beauty.

Today, my team and I split up to cover some ground.  Anna and Seth hiked by the Commonwealth Glacier to Commonwealth Stream (10 miles round trip), while I took an  ATV around Lake Fryxell, to check out the streams.  Sometimes you get the short straw, but a short straw in Antarctica is not so bad.  I felt like the last man on Earth!!!  I left our humble abode and the only thing I saw were glaciers and mountain peaks.  With the Ipod on and good tunes in the mix, I set out around 1200 hours.  Once I shut down the ATV the Ipod was put on pause so I could take in the sights and sounds (or lack of sound).  As I may have mentioned before, with no wind, you can hear your heart beat.  Mine was racing!

Why did I leave at noon you ask?  The streams run on a different schedule, not your typical 9 to 5.  They are controlled by cloud cover, air temperature, and solar radiation.  The past day or so had been cloudy and cold, which means no flow.  Today it was sunny, bluebird skies, and about 25 degrees fahrenheit.  With it being early in the season, the main control on the amount of flow in a stream is solar irradiance, sunlight.  Water vapor, which clouds are composed of, can absorb the suns energy that would otherwise be absorbed by the glacier.  The cloudier it is, the less flow/discharge will occur.  Also, the angle at which the sun "hits" the glacier is important.  In the summer, think about the time of day when it is the hottest, typically from noon til 3.  This is the time when the sun is directly over head, or the Earth is re-radiating the peak of suns input.  You may perspire (sweat) at this time, well the glaciers do the same.  But with the sun being constant in Antarctica, it "hits" the glaciers at different times throughout the day.  Thus, causing the glaciers to melt (perspire) depending on when the sun is "directly over head."  Each source glacier for a particular stream may receive direct sunlight at different times throughout the day/24 hour period.  With that being said, I went to six streams today, only one of them was flowing.  I knew that Canada Stream would be flowing around 1400 hours (2:00 p.m.), so I planned on getting to that stream about that time of day.  I measured discharge (volume of water flowing through the stream), temperature of water, and also collected water samples for dissolved organic carbon, nutrients, alkalinity, and pH.  Much of which was analyzed back at our lab/hut, F6.  

At times...I looked around, snapped some photos, breathed in that pristine Antarctic air, and had a good chuckle.  I mean, I'M IN ANTARCTICA!!!