tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1308863111045974742009-02-21T20:43:19.661+13:00Over the next few weeks, a team of University of Delaware researchers will be at work in one of the iciest, coldest, most austere places on the planet: South Pole, Antarctica. Currently stationed at the South Pole are UD researches Thomas Gaisser, Stoyan Stoyanov and James Roth.Administratornoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-85270268346321092392007-12-19T11:42:00.001+13:002007-12-19T11:45:42.230+13:00

Hello, all! I left South Pole Station yesterday on time. I was lucky again to get to ride in the cockpit of the C-130 all the way from Pole (NPX) to McMurdo (MCM). I think I now have more flight time in the cockpit of a C-130 than I do in a Cessna! I really need to remedy that and finish my pilot license!A C-17 was scheduled to do an airdrop at South Pole Station today. Then they were supposed to

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-199311229781763162007-12-18T04:07:00.000+13:002007-12-18T04:14:10.790+13:00

When I first arrived here, we had temperatures of -40° or lower every day. During the last week, there has been a warming trend. The temperature has warmed to -24°C, but the wind has picked up. Yesterday, the winds were at 26 knots. All of the pictures I have sent so far showed blue skies, but add 26-knot winds and you have a whiteout!With the bad, comes the good. Ice crystals blowing in the air

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-84357565756576190172007-12-12T05:08:00.001+13:002007-12-12T05:36:57.263+13:00

The routine for leaving South Pole calls for checked baggage to be packed and available for collection in the hallway of the station at 7:30 p.m. the day before scheduled departure. This year, everything went according to schedule, which is not always the case.Monday, December 10, was my departure day. I joined the morning planning meeting as usual. We discussed how to accomplish the ambitious

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-3779991122994552432007-12-07T11:01:00.000+13:002007-12-07T11:20:53.461+13:00

IceTop Milestone!Most of you have read about IceCube or IceTop earlier in this series. For those who haven’t, we are building the world’s largest Neutrino Telescope here at the South Pole. Neutrinos are incredibly hard-to-detect particles, so we need a really big detector. IceCube, when finished, will use a cubic kilometer of South Pole ice to capture the light signal left by neutrinos that have

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-45415377535280204392007-12-01T04:35:00.001+13:002007-12-01T05:15:41.572+13:00

Safety FirstAt South Pole Station, we are over 2,000 miles from advanced medical care. We have a medical lab that is quite capable for such a small facility -- it has to be! We are constantly reminded, however, that serious medical emergencies will require extreme measures. Safety and accident prevention is emphasized and reviewed from the time you arrive on the continent. Today at South Pole, we

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-59567195805639442412007-11-30T12:19:00.000+13:002007-11-30T12:35:27.367+13:00

Antarctic ViewToday, I was working on the edge of our IceTop array and took the opportunity to walk out a few steps beyond. The picture shows the vast Antarctic plateau, more or less in the direction of Newark, Del., which is about 9,000 miles away. The altitude here is about 10,000 feet, and there is very little precipitation. We are high and dry. The wind sculpts the characteristic pointed

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-35247942335549231832007-11-27T04:43:00.000+13:002007-11-27T05:11:15.130+13:00

Thanksgiving was a normal working day at the South Pole, and it was quite productive for our sub-group of IceCube. The main part of IceCube is about a mile deep in the ice under the snow-covered surface. It consists of cables almost two miles long with 60 detectors, each inside a rugged glass pressure vessel, spaced 50 feet from each other on the lowest part of the cable. On the surface above

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-34635626186062071222007-11-24T17:59:00.000+13:002007-12-01T04:32:38.194+13:00

Getting AroundYesterday, 20 Nov., Tom, Stoyan and I completed our Snowmobile training. Snowmobiles are crucial to our daily operations here! They are used both for cargo and personnel transport. IceCube is a big project and as we continue to add to its construction, we are working farther from the station. Our center of operations is the “Drill Camp.” The drill camp is currently located nearly a

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-1898809541765521352007-11-20T07:53:00.000+13:002007-12-01T04:31:06.248+13:00

Getting ThereI have embarked on my fifth adventure to the South Pole. I left form Philadelphia International Airport on the 7th of November. I flew to Los Angeles via Chicago. Luckily my brother, Steve, lives near LA, so I was able to break up the long trip by spending a couple of days with him. The Grand Canyon was one of the many spectacular views I saw traveling across our great nation.I left

UD Antarctic Research Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16647341949661915251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130886311104597474.post-19512638761898508672007-11-16T02:28:00.000+13:002007-11-16T04:04:40.888+13:00

Today is my second full working day at the South Pole. I’m getting used to the altitude (10,000 feet) and to the temperature (-40 degrees now). Actually, the weather isn’t too bad when the sun is out and the wind is low and when you have the right clothes on. The right clothing is what all travelers to Antarctica working on projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) get in

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