SIPEX-II Update, from 3 Oct - 4 Oct

A good wrap up of some fieldwork in this update!

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3rd Oct, Day nineteen 
and 4th Oct, Day twenty
POSITION: 64o 52 S, 120o 58 E
Wind: mild
Temperature: -15oC
 
Station 3! Yeay!
Helicopter out, and they brought back news for three possible ice
floes for a good ice station. We approached to the 1st one, and broke
it when we tried to moor the ship.
 
Later afternoon, we finally arrived at our Ice Station 3! Horray! 
 
We were all really happy that we could finally go out for a walk or
do a bit work. Especially when the weather was really gentle to us,
nice sunshine, almost no wind, and it’s really warm, only -15oC. 
 
We plan to stay in this ice floe for today and tomorrow only, so all
groups rushed out for work as soon after all the flags out. 
 
Our on-board engineers repaired krill pump for us. They are AWESOME!
More like magicians to me, I would like to call them men of
“everything is possible” (we would have a story for them shortly). We
set on a spot very close to the ship (about 10m away). Then everyone
discovered the difficulties on this ice floe. It is really THICK!
 
This ice floe has a heavy snow cover with an average of 1m.
Underneath, the ice all packed and rafted, with an average thickness
of 1.5m. 
 
The trace-metal team had a lot of troubles on this station. They
needed to walk a long way to their site with all the heavy gears, the
corers, and the survival bag. On the morning of 4th Oct, they walked
all the way to the site, dug through one-meter snow, and finally saw
the sea ice. But when they start coring, the ice core frozen inside
the corer, and they had to march back to the ship, use milli-Q water
(get it down dripping down from the milli-Q machine, take a long time
to get one bucket) to clean the gear to get the ice out. And this
happened TWICE in one day! In the dinner everyone from trace-metal
looked exhausted and frustrated. Thanks to Klaus, our chief
scientist, trace-metal team started their journey AGAIN after dinner
under Klaus’s company, and finally successfully got samples back
before the sunset.  
 
Time to talk about our 2nd krill pump. The giant monster flew from
the States, and was originally designed for fish farms. Now we
modified some parts of it and use it to pump krill from the water. It
sits in a blue container and pumps with long pipes. Each pipe needs 7
people to carry. Each time to set it up involves efforts from many
people. 
 
[krill pump operation 1 & 2]
 
Unfortunately, all the ice cores we are taking were crystal clear,
did not show much biological accumulation. Also because it is so hard
to cut a hole on the ice, we started to put our net down from “trawl
deck”, the back of the ship where we deploy all the big instruments,
like AUV, CTD, TMR etc. 
 
[Patti taking net samples]

SIPEX-II Update, from 30 Sept - 2 Oct

Some long awaited news from Molly, still on board the Aurora Australis with Rob, Jess, and Sarah..

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30th Sep, Day sixteen
 
1st Oct, Day seventeen
 
2nd Oct, Day eighteen
It’s remote, wild and cold down here. All sorts of problems appeared
on the ship. The equipment failed because of low temperature;
helicopter couldn’t fly due to the bad weather; we can’t break the
thick ice since the ship engine has tiny troubles to start etc. 
 
When come down to 64oS, the most common thing happening to us is
stuck in the ice, or just hanging around without spotting a good
location to settle down. 
 
It’s been three days since we departed from the last station. Our
plan was to find the 3rd station yesterday morning, but it’s
afternoon today, we still not sure what will happen in the next 24h. 
 
Everyone grew a bit grumpy when there is not much to do. We finished
all the sample analyses, well prepared to be going out anytime.
Meanwhile, we almost played all the games we could play. 
 
Our assassin game already came to the end. Since I was killed by my
mate 5 minutes after the game started, I completely dropped my
interest for this game!
 
We have a new table-tennis competition started from a week ago. I was
really amazed how good-skilled people are! Although a Chinese I am,
I’m suck of table tennis. I played more ping-pong game on this ship
than altogether in my life. 
 
Talking about games on board. We have a full collection of board
games, including all board games you can think about. Chess,
Monopoly, Domino, Spicks & Specks, Cluedo, Pictionary, Ticket to
ride, Sorry! (The game of sweet revenge), Scrabble, and the cute
version of Scrabble – Bananagrams, etc. Apparently now, Bananagrams
became the most popular game between the dining room and the library.
Consequently, the dictionary became one of the most popular books
recently.    
 
Also, our sweet social committee came up many brilliant ideas to
amuse everybody. Jess, one of our APECS member, with Hugo (our
brilliant British mood-maker) started a series of games for every
second night. The game named Winner-Winner-Chicken-Dinner. Jess will
write something really fun about Winner-Winner soon. 
 

SIPEX-II Update, from 27 September

Molly has supplied some more stories from the SIPEX-II voyage. As you can imagine it's a very busy period (hence the delay in receiving these) but the updates are worth the wait!  Due to data limits on messages from the Aurora Australis, photos follow separately.  So we'll get them posted once they're received.
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27th Sep, Day Thirteen
64o26’S
Wind: 0.2 knots
Air temperature: -15

First successful ice station! (or the 2nd official ice station)

After one day drifting from the last ice floe, we finally settled
down on another good size, good condition ice floe. The Stationing
started!

Followed by the safety check by Klaus and Psycho, all groups with all the fancy equipment set feet on the ice. It is very interesting to see, within this small area with a thickness of 35cm wind pack snow covering on 100cm thick sea ice, scientists on board found all their interest from different perspectives.

The 35cm snow served physicist for their research interest on snow
thickness, snow density, albedo of snow, and carbon evidence of
atmospheric pollution within the snow, and the snow-wind interaction. The sea ice underneath was more interested by biologists. (Exception: One group of physic statists are interested how fast brine comes into ice) Lots of ice core taking, accompanied with incubation of sea ice community. The sea ice biologists/ecologists are trying to find out how the sea ice structure, and how this structure related to the biology community living in the sea ice.

[picture: taking ice core]

There is also a trace-metal team focusing on the trace metal in the
snow and sea ice. They need to travel a long distance to be far away
from everyone to avoid contamination. We will leave their story until next time.

Water column is interested by a mixed group of biologists (I’m one of them) and physicist. We have two expensive fancy “toys” on board to investigate what the underwater world looks like beneath the sea ice.  They are ROV, Remotely Operated Vehicle, and AUV, Automotive
Underwater Vehicle. These two vehicles travelled around under the
ice, and brought back high-resolution images and videos of the world
hiding underneath our feet. Sure they are scientific equipment more
than just an under-water camera; please move to Wendy’s blog to read
more about their science objective.

We biologists are planning to discover how the under-ice community
structured and how it works. All those amazing creatures we could
see, like whales, seals, penguins and fish, are living on the tiny
plankton in this ecosystem. It is another amazing world in the
plankton community. Please be patient for some great photos of the
plankton world coming soon. Today we are going to focus on people on
the ice.

[picture: tripod]

We dig holes on the ice, and put equipment, nets and pumps under
water in hope to grab as much information as we can from the water.
Three of our zooplankton and phytoplankton boys set up a 3m tripod on the ice for deployment. We also have two pumps, one flied from
Germany and one from U.S., specially designed for krill pumping. The
pump from U.S. was purchased by Australian Antarctic Division and
most of the setting up was designed by Rob King, our great brilliant
krill biologist.


Krill pump explosion

[picture: krill pump]

The reality crashes into our brilliant plan, as the old saying. We
found a really nice spot for krill pumping. It took us more than half an hour to set up everything. The German pump started pumping with all of our hope. Half way through, we stopped the pump to check what we got, and 5 min later, started again, and suddenly it EXPLODED!!!!

The seawater froze in the pipe and stuck, and the pump vacuumed all
the air from the little chamber, and this is the reason for the
little explosion.

Luckily no one hurt, but pumping for today became impossible. The
krill group is facing some unhappy situation.
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More information about SIPEX-II is available through the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre website.

And the blog of Dr Wendy Pyper, science reporter for the Australian Antarctic Division, who is covering the expedition.

Antarctica New Zealand Conference Report

Sira Engelbertz and Lorna Little have provided the following report and photos of APECS Oceania activities at this year's Antarctica New Zealand Conference.  Thank you both for your work organising, and also to all others who made the event the success it was.

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APECS Oceania @ 2012 Antarctica New Zealand Conference, 4-5 October, Christchurch:

APECS workshops at the annual New Zealand Antarctic Conference have become an integral part of this conference’s program over the past years. This year APECS Oceania (formed in May 2012) organised a session for this conference. Instead of the usual workshop or panel discussion, as has happened in previous years, APECS Oceania tried something new this time: Speed-Meet-A-Geek, a speed networking game.

The rules were simple. First, quickly find someone in the group to talk to. Then, you get three minutes to exchange information about yourself, your research, your further interests, etc. When the time is up, you move on to another person in the group and talk to him or her for another 3 minutes, and so on. BUT, to make it a little more challenging, participants also had to find a matching pair of Flakes, Blobs and Bubbles!

The Flakes, Blobs and Bubbles were taken from an art project and education & outreach flagship activity for the Fall 2012 International Polar Week. Pairs of images of flakes, blobs or bubbles – all drawn by kids at IceFest, the New Zealand Antarctic festival in Christchurch – had been handed out to participants at the beginning of the session. The task was to find the person with the matching image while networking at speed.

There were fantastic prizes for the first three matching pairs, kindly sponsored by COMNAP (Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs).All participants received a free drink, generously provided by Antarctica New Zealand. To make a long story short, there were many reasons to be part of Speed-Meet-A-Geek and none not to! Over 40 conference attendees (out of around 80) including students, early career scientists, mentors, APECS members and non-members (but potentially future members…) made Speed-Meet-A-Geek at the 2012 Antarctica New Zealand Conference a great success!

Apart from the Speed-Meet-A-Geek event, APECS Oceania presented also its poster to introduce the new joint Australian and New Zealand branch of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists.

Special thanks to: Ed Butler, Michelle Rogan-Finnemore, and Heidi Roop for all their help leading up to the event, Melissa Idiens for helping run the session, Igloo Bar for hosting APECS Oceania Speed Meet A Geek, and all conference attendees participating in the game!

SIPEX-II Update, from 25 September

More stories of adventure in the Southern Ocean!  Stay tuned for photos.

You can check out views from the Aurora Australis webcam via the AAD website.

Images are updated every 30 minutes. 

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora

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25th Sep, Day Eleven
63o52’S
Wind: 0.4 knots
Air temperature -11oC
As you can see, the weather was mild, we had a beautiful sunny day,
weak wind and super warm, and we found our first ice station. 
 
First ice station, two emperor penguins (“empire penguins” in the
Chinese translation!) in the morning, following by another bunch of
ten on the big ice floe, which the ship sat next to for a while. Late
morning, found a big chunk of ice that seemed pretty stable and safe,
Klaus and Psycho (our field training officer) went exploring for the
whole group. Apart from Psycho fell into a small hole and thick snow
ranged between 30-120cm, the ice condition seems very stable. In the
afternoon around tea time, people started to get on the ice for a bit
of work. We had intended to make our very first stop for the next
48h. 
 
Penguin attack! 
Krill group went out to explore a nice place that might be a shelter
for the larval krill we are looking for. About 50m from the edge of
the ice, we found this big ridge sitting on the ice. This is possibly
a perfect location for us to capture some krill underneath. A group
of emperor penguins came over to spy on us, the aliens coming with
the huge orange boat. It was an absolutely amazing experience to find
out we were surrounded by penguins in the next 10 minutes.  They were
so close that we even could clearly see the tiny black eyes, the pink
orange-ish beak, and the little water drops resisting on their
oil-coat feathers. Their white belly looks golden and shiny with the
reflection of sunshine. It is really interesting how they fall down
on their belly and slide on the ice with feet and flippers. When
standing up, they need help from the beak and the flippers. “They are
the most interesting animal I have ever seen” – quoted from R King.

 
An incident   
When one group was on the ice planning deploy their instrument, there
was a swell right between them and the ship. According to witness
No.one, the ice moved like a wave and lifted almost one meter.
According to witness No.two, he felt the ice moving up and down under
his feet. Soon after all these signs, a huge crack appeared in the
middle of the ice floe, and separated the snow team and the rest of
the people on the ice. Our rescue team, crew, and all the other
people worked together nicely and brought all people and instruments
back safely. However, we decided to move on after the incident, to
find a new floe to settle down.

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Read more great articles about the expedition and research projects via Dr Wendy Pyper's blog.

Follow the links on the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre website.

www.acecrc.org.au/Research/SIPEX%202012 

Who's Who: APECS Oceania Expeditioner Research Profiles

A special thank you to AAD science reporter Dr Wendy Pyper who is covering the SIPEX II voyage.  In her latest blog entries she gives some insight into the research of APECS Oceania members currently journeying across the Southern Ocean aboard the Aurora Australis.

Follow the link to her blog and learn more about the projects of Post Doc researcher Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas, plus PhD students Molly Jia, Rob Johnson and Sarah Ugalde.

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/history/exploration-and-expeditions/modern-expeditions/diaries-and-stories/spotlight-on-the-sea-ice

SIPEX-II Update, from 22 September 2012

We've received the latest news from Molly aboard the Aurora Australis! For those keen to keep extra tabs on the ship's journey - and you have an iPhone or iPad - head on over to the App Store and search 'Antarctic Voyages'.

The free app provides a track of the ship along with a new webcam from the bridge every half hour.  You'll also be able to view daily sitreps and the information from fixed sensors that gives the underway data sets.  All information comes from the Australian Antarctic Division.

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22nd Sep, Day Eight
We are crossing the line!! 60 degrees SOUTH!

Day eight is a big day, since it’s the crossing-line day and
Saturday. We are having so much exciting stuff happening in one day.
CRAZY!
 
Event one – the 60-degrees baptism! As part of cultural tradition on
the Aurora, when the ship crosses the 60-degree-south line, all the
freshmen are demanded to attend a special baptism as a ceremony. As
the famous ancient saying about Southern Ocean - “No laws below 50S.
No police below 60S.” reveals, the sea gets severely angry when the
sailors cross certain lines. In old times, it must have been a huge
thing for the crews travelling with wooden boats to survive after a
long voyage. Anyway, it’s not the case in a modern voyage. Until
today, we are all surviving really well with the amazing buffet and
facilities on the Aurora. 
 
Our wonderful and incredible crew have new ideas every voyage to
“torture” the new recruits for an afternoon-tea entertainment for the
entire ship. This year, the ceremony involved worshipping the blue
pirate king and his colourful fellows. Names were announced by the
Death, we then knelt down and kissed the king’s foot, drank some
special blue beverage, kissed the king’s fellow - a blue giant fish,
and last, were showered with a yellowish porridge-like mixture with
unknown ingredients (somehow it had a strong coffee and chickpea
smell).

Event two – Assassins
To celebrate the “Law-free” zone, we started a killing game, the aim
is to kill all your shipmates and stay alive alone.
 
Rules of Assassins
You don’t talk about Assassins.
You don’t talk about Assassins. 
You DO NOT talk about Assassins! 
Very simple, put your name in a bag, and pick a name from there, and
“kill” the person on the ship by saying “bang you’re dead” (anywhere
apart from his/her working place or cabin).

Event three – First beer on the ship
Since the Aurora is now a “dry ship”, we can only have limited
alcohol on special occasions. Today as we reached the special
latitude, it was a good excuse to have one or two beers to celebrate
with some very nice Italian food, good pizza and Tiramisu for
dessert. 
 
Event Four – First Iceberg
As part of the social committee on board, Jess MT started an Iceberg
sweep – to guess what day and what time we will pass by our first
iceberg. The rules are very strict. We have the ship radar to
identify the iceberg and to time the occasion when we pass by it at
90 degrees from the boat’s direction. It happened tonight! 18:45, we
sighted our first iceberg on the port side of the boat, about 4 miles
away. A nice small berg with two peaks. Murray Dovey (Ship master)
defeated Klaus (our chief scientist) by 15 mins to take out the
sweep. Klaus was even thinking to stop the ship to win the game ?   

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Stay tuned for photos!

Don't forget to check out the official SIPEX-II website from Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems 

Cooperative Research Centre and the blog of Dr Wendy Pyper from the AAD.

http://www.acecrc.org.au/Research/SIPEX%202012