Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal

I’ve seen quite a few Raob launches over the years. RAOB stands for Rawinsonde Observation. You can think of them as weather balloons. They are vital for making forecasts. We live in an atmosphere over 100 km thick, but most weather happens in the troposphere, the bottom 15 km or so.

To forecast weather knowing only what is happening at the ground would be like guessing the outcome of a suspense novel after reading one chapter. OK, well my wife would get it, but the rest of us probably not. These atmospheric “soundings” are not cheap, but twice a day, every day of the year, they are sent up.

They rise from a hundred different countries and the data is shared among all. Politics aside.

So here is the launch of the RAOB at station 89007. A VERY remote station that is among the most expensive to maintain. Thanks to Meteorologist Tim Markle for letting us tag along!

Note from Dan: The linked HD video was crashing too many browsers, so above is the You Tube version. You can right click on the video and watch it in 720P on YouTube!

A 2 km hole in the ice at the South Pole.

I promised in an earlier post that I would post some more video of  my tour of Ice Cube the neutrino telescope being constructed at the South Pole.

So here it is, thanks to my Mac and iMovie. Excuse my camera work. I may work in TV, but I’m a meteorologist not a photojournalist. Fortunately, I was given a very short course by professionals and a really great camera that was kind to novices.

You can watch the embedded video below. If you are an educator and would like to have an HD version just email me.

Ann Posegate of the National Env. Education Foundation and I made a joint application to the NSF to visit the science bases in Antarctica. Ann also writes for the wildly popular Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post. Click this image to see her posts about our trip!

We have finished airing, on WHNT- TV, the 4 part series on Antarctica. All 4 parts are available to watch on this post but the movies are small. Ann Posegate and I actually shot in HD and in coming weeks I will edit some of the HD video together and put it online.

We have just skimmed some of the science and for my fellow nerds, we have some beautiful pictures and interviews to tell and show.

Here is Part One covering the trip to McMurdo, the largest science base in Antarctica.

Sign at Amundsen- Scott Station at the South Pole.

Part three for TV is below:

Another video from Ann of the Penguins is here.

Ice crystals in the air produce a beautiful sky at the South Pole. It's unlike anything I have ever seen. Ann Posegate's image.

Part 4 covers the trip to the South Pole itself.

It is an amazing place and I am so very lucky to have had the opportunity to stand at the very bottom of the world.

It’s hard to know for sure but estmates are that only around 4-6 thousand people in all of human history have stood at the South Pole. After Amundsen and Scott made it in 1911, there was no one else until 1952!

About 45 people will winter over at the Pole this winter. The last flight out has already left. I would give anything to have the opportunity to visit  again someday. Some of the most important science in the World is being conducted there and on the polar ice cap.

Part 4:

You can see all of the posts I have written about Antarctica HERE.

Ann’s blog with video and pictures is HERE.

Vince's Cross at Hut Point near McMurdo Base in Antarctica. The cost of science can be very high indeed.

We shot our video in high definition, and we’ll put some clips up soon of the interviews with scientists and of the incredible scenery.

Ann and I both put a very high priority on sharing our story with students. We are already working on material for teachers and we will gladly answer any questions!

The National Science Foundation selected us to share the story of those who travel far away from their families to a harsh environment to do science.

They do it for the same reason that humans have always done it.

Curiosity about this small fragment of sand on the shore of an unfathomably vast universe that we call home.

Here is Part two of the 4 part series we are airing of the trip to Antarctica Ann Posegate and I made in early January. I will be posting some higher resolution videos of specific events and places soon!

Adelie Penguins near Cape Royds Antarctica. Photo by Ann Posegate, NEEF

Not too many people can say they have seen a Polar Bear and a Penguin in the wild. To do so one must go to the far North and the far South. Polar Bears live only in the High North and Penguins in, and near Antarctica.

I like penguins best, they don’t consider me a tasty snack.

Adelie Penguins in Antarctica- There is growing evidence that climate change in Antarctica is already adversely impacting the penguin population. Image by Ann Posegate

My travel colleage on our National Science Foundation expedition to Antarctica sent me some great pictures Wednesday. Ann Posegate of the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) is one of those few people who have a natural “eye” for composition.

While I was shooting video, she got some great still shots. Well that’s my excuse anyhow!

The picture at the top and side are of Adelie Penguins. There are over 2 million in Antarctica. We visited a huge colony near Cape Royds.

Antarctic treaty regulations forbid disturbing them, but all you have to do is to sit down within sight of them. They will soon waddle on over to say hello and check you out.

Ann Posegate of NEEF. We made a joint application to the NSF to tour the science in Antarctica.

WHNT-TV will air the video I shot in Antarctica on Monday and Tuesday. I’ll post the video up here after it airs.

I’m very lucky to have one of the most talented photojournalists I’ve ever worked with putting together my story. David Wood a photojournalist at WHNT-TV has the  tough job of editing my amateur video. In my 30 years doing weather on TV I’ve only shot video once before, on my trip to the High Arctic in 2007.

Sometimes the beauty was so incredible, we had to stop and convince ourselves we were really standing there. Here are some more pictures. Ann shot them unless otherwise labeled.

Chaz Firestone of Brown University and I in a Quinzee (Snow hut). Chaz was part of our 7 member science journalist group.

That snow hut was surprisingly comfortable. We had to learn survival skills at McMurdo before we left for the field camps. Antarctica is a dangerous place. The beauty can be deceptive. The weather can change in minutes.

This picture conveys a little of the vastness of the landscape.

Visibility can drop to less than 50 feet in blowing snow. Imagine taking a short walk within site of your building and suddenly all you see is white. It happens and people have died. The NSF has strict safety rules and mandatory training for everyone on the ice.

It matters not if you are there for a week or a winter.

People keep asking me if I was cold. The answer is no. The extreme cold weather (ECW) gear is very good. You don’t take your own coat to Antarctica. The NSF provides you with very good clothing. I sweated a lot more than shivered!

Carrying all that clothing and wearing the very warm “bunny boots” is hard work. Much more so at the South Pole. The elevation of over 3,000 meters makes eveything more difficult there.

The cold is a dry cold too and you can get frostbite very quickly. Almost before you realize that you are uncomfortable. I got just a touch of frostbite on my cheeks and eyelids, but it was very minor.

We spent one entire day traveling by helicopter. We visited the Dry Valleys and Cape Royds. The beauty was nothing less than stunning. Many believe the Dry Valleys of Antarctica are the most beautiful spot on Earth. I agree. Ann's pic of me and Ed Forgotson of CBS News.

Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you are standing on the sea and not land. When we got those great shots of the Adelie penguins near Cape Royds, we landed the chopper on sea ice. The first thing after landing, the helicopter officer jumps out and drills through the snow and ice. If he has a meter of ice, we are safe.

Needless to say, it would not be good for the chopper and all of us to fall through into the sub freezing waters of McMurdo Sound. There would likely be no rescue.

One thing I took away from the experience is to appreciate the difficulty in obtaining scientific data. So many times, I would look at data from ice cores etc. and not appreciate how difficult and even dangerous it was to obtain.

No more.

The ice cores being drilled in West Antarctica might very well be the most important science being conducted on the planet. They will tell us a lot about how our climate has changed in the past and how it will likely change in the future.

Hope you enjoyed the pics and thanks to Berke Breathed from whom I stole the title to this post. Remember Opus??

More soon!

Dan