Guest Author • Feb 08, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) Finally came a break in the weather. The wind eased off and we got out to the sea ice camp. It was a nervous trip out as I thought open water on the horizon might be all that remained of our field camp. Read More
Guest Author • Feb 02, 2012 •
Despite being stuck on base due to weather for what is now the fourth day we feel incredibly lucky. The station went from being the Caribbean of the South (or so the locals say) to blowing snow and dare I say it — a little bit cold. Really, we are in Antarctica. An onshore wind picked up and built … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 30, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) The weather was too challenging for us to get to our field site for a few days which was frustrating as we were all set to go. On the plus side it’s not often I get to celebrate a birthday in Antarctica – … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 26, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) We got the all-clear for heading out to the site in the morning so we could set up our sea ice camp site. It was a stunning day and we had all day to drill a hole, set up the … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 25, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) We completed our first helicopter survey of the field location this morning. It was around a 30 minute flight south of the Station. In that time we stopped off for some brief tourism at Inexpressible Island where a number of Scott’s team were … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 24, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) Right on schedule we flew to the Mario Zuchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay run by the Italian Antarctic Programme. It is comparable in size to Scott Base, but as it is located a bit further north it is called the Caribbean of Antarctica … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 23, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) The flight up to Mario Zuchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay was brought forward by two days so we had to pack early. Now it’s been dropped back a day due to aircraft commitments for weather balloon experiment recovery. This is all OK … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 17, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, NIWA The first few days of any work down here are taken up with preparations, training, meetings and checklists. This seems a chore but is pretty important for keeping experiments running and having as few surprises as possible. Then the next task was to finalize our freight and make last minute decisions on what to take … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 16, 2012 •
by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) This is a new blog series describing the day-to-day work for an experiment looking at a coastal ocean flow in Antarctica. Unlike most oceanography the work is conducted from camps on sea ice. This is the frozen skin of the ocean perhaps a few … Read More