Posted on 19/01/2016 by Honora
PolarGAP: culture shock
Just over two weeks ago I was writing this blog hunched up in a mountain tent, having not washed for a week, and with the company of just 7 other people. Now as I write I am...
CryoSat
Posted on 19/01/2016 by Honora
PolarGAP: Antarctic flights
One week on from departing Rothera into the field and the first leg of the PolarGAP survey at FD83 is almost over, I get to sit back, relax a bit and write this blog. The transit from...
Posted on 14/01/2016 by Honora
PolarGAP: Antarctic locals, gravity, magnetic field and...
The altimeter in the front of the Twin Otter aircraft is showing 8500 ft as we cruise due south from Rothera research station for the next leg in our PolarGAP adventure. To the left, the rugged ice...
Posted on 23/01/2015 by Honora
Happy New Year from Antarctica
In December, we completed all our planned work around the field camp and completed the last of the planned kinematic GPS profiles. So, with a lot of new observational data we returned to Novo Airbase on 21...
Posted on 18/12/2014 by Honora
Heavy snow causes temporary hold-up
In the week from 1–7 December the weather was not that favourable to continue our field work. The daily weather forecast from Neumayer station told us to expect storms with high wind of more than 60 km/h...
Posted on 26/11/2014 by Honora
Setting up in Antarctica
In the evening of Tuesday 18 November our plane took off from Cape Town heading south to our final destination: Antarctica. Researchers from India, Belgium, the UK, and Finland, as well as a group of tourists were...
Posted on 19/11/2014 by Honora
En route to Antarctica for CryoSat
Despite the high summer temperatures in South Africa, we carried hats and thick gloves in our luggage as we checked in for a flight from Cape Town yesterday, continuing our journey to Antarctica. We are two geodesists...
Posted on 12/05/2014 by Honora
Cryovex: Last flights
After surveying Austfonna, Svalbard, on Saturday 3 May, we had a short stop in Longyearbyen to refuel and say goodbye to Sine, who was heading home. Late in the afternoon, we headed for Station Nord in northeast...
Posted on 02/05/2014 by Honora
Cryovex moves from sea ice to land ice
The second part of the 2014 Cryovex campaign has started in Iceland. Firstly, the instruments were re-installed in the ‘POF’ Twin Otter aircraft in its home-hangar in Akureyri , northern Iceland. After a short test flight on...
Posted on 11/04/2014 by Honora
Cryovex: a team effort from space to ground
Cryovex campaigns are carried out every 1–2 years and involve a lot of preparation and coordination between different operations teams – from Mission Control to Ground Control – to ensure that the people out on the ice...
Posted on 02/04/2014 by Honora
Cryovex: Granddad meets the incredible hulk
Today’s resupply flight from Thule to Station Nord brought a bizarre contrast between vintage and modern airplanes to our remote Greenlandic station. It brought into sharp view the evolution over the last 60 years. The granddaddy of...
Posted on 31/03/2014 by Honora
Cryovex: Mowing the lawn in the Arctic
Today – Saturday 29 March had been seen as the most challenging day. We had prayed to the polar weather gods to bless us with good conditions for a survey of the sea ice in the region...
Posted on 27/03/2014 by Honora
Cryovex: To 86°N and back – in terms of cake!
Polar Explorers dream about making it to the North Pole on foot, but to do it in one day over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean –you've got to be kidding? That would be like having...
Posted on 26/03/2014 by Honora
Cryovex: Track Arctic flights live!
The NASA P-3 and ESA-Basler-67 flying in tandem over the Arctic ocean can be tracked live with NASA’s flight tracker….. Note: this is a live tracker, so the tracks are only visible when the aircraft are actually...