Saturday January 29 - Another Aurora

Each day on board now is much the same as the previous - we sail for a few hours, then stop and lower the CTD machine to measure the seawater which takes 4-5 hours each time, depending how deep it is - recently it has been about 4500 metres.

Fortunately, apart from the one night last week when the weather was crazy and everything got thrown about the ship, the seas are nice and quiet.

There was another aurora to watch last night - this time it lasted, on and off, for an hour and a half. The rapidity with which it changes can't be appreciated in photos, partly because each photo takes 10-15 seconds, by which time it has changed, so the photos look blurred. This picture is stitched together from 4 separate wide-angle photos, which is about 180 degrees in total - thus you can see that the aurora extends across most of the sky.

Friday January 27 - An Aurora

We had been warned that there had been some increased solar activity in the last few days which meant that there may be an aurora to see. To view an aurora, you need to be far enough south so that you are near the south magnetic pole but because it is summer, you also need to be far enough north so that you get some darkness overnight. Too far south and it doesn't get dark. We are at about 56 degrees south, 115 east. When we were further south, it was still light at night.

Currently the sun sets about 11 pm, and then comes up again about 4 am, and there is an hour or so of twilight after sunset, so there is not a great window, but last night, just as there was still a haze of light to the south, the clouds cleared enough around 1am to see a nice green aurora.

The picture actually looks a bit more impressive than it was in reality, becasue the camera can see it better than our own eyes. The aurora was quite faint, so you had to be outside for at least 10 minutes for your eyes to adapt to the darkness to really see it. At first it looked a bit like a faintly coloured cloud across the sky, because at very low light levels, the human eye doesn't see colour very well.

After a while, I was able to see a large curtain like glow which came and went over about a 10 minute period, but then the clouds moved over the ship and it was all over.

The picture here is taken from the top deck of the ship - it is actually 3 wide-angle photos joined together (13 sec, f3.5, 10mm ). The big white line across the bottom is the ship's spotlight. You can see that the stars appear as strange wiggles of light - this is due to the fact that the ship is rocking about a fair bit, and the camera is on a tripod on the ship. Since it is three different pictures joined together, the wiggles of the stars are different as you look across the final picture.

January 17 - Iceberg B9B

These photos are all a bit out of order - this one is amazingly, from last week, when we left the ice edge at Commonwealth Bay and started travelling west along the ice pack until we got to be due south of perth, and started the marine science part of the trip.

The whole business about getting ashore at Commonwealth Bay by helicopters came about because the sea-ice there was uncommonly thick and set in place. Usually it is clear there - in fact the very cold winds that run through Mawson's hut location actually create lots of sea ice and, as part of the same process, also blow it away, so there is usually clear sea out the front.

This year it is different, as the giant iceberg B9B is grounded just east of the bay. It has disrupted the normal ocean currents and prevented the ice that is formed from getting away.

B9B is a monster of an iceberg. It is about 100 nautical miles long and about 30 wide (200 x 60 km). It originated several hundred km east in the Ross Sea, and drifted west, and then crashed into the Mertz glacier tongue and broke it off, and then got stuck at Commonwealth Bay. It sticks out about 60-100 from the water, and so extends down about 400 metres as well, since most of it is underwater.

You can see it in the background of this photo - the long horizontal ice-cliffs are not land, but B9B. We sailed along the edge of it for a few hours and then headed west. Yesterday we received a satellite picture that showed it had moved a bit - it now completely covers the part of the sea where we had been last week.

Tuesday January 24th - The Jade iceberg

This remarkable thing is a Jade Iceberg. You don't see them very often - most icebergs are white, and if you get in close, just a tinge of blue and you can't see much in them.

However these are quite another story. They are thought to be formed from sea ice, with repeated heavy snowfalls over years - and consist of translucent jade blue-green ice which is like glass, in layers from half a metre to several metres thick, interspersed with more normal white iceberg stuff.

After floating about in the sea for years, and flipping over a few times in the process, they get these bizarre, rounded and moulded shapes. They look dazzling in sunlight, but even in today's dull light, still remarkable.

This one was about 300 metres off the port side of the ship, and was about 100 metres long.

It's hard to believe, looking at this photograph, that this giant deeply coloured sculpture just floated past, that I haven't fooled you by adjusting the colours of the photo, but no, this is what the thing really did look like.

Sunday January 15 - More penguins, no flights

Yesterday was a day of getting up early with the news that the weather was suitable for flying - beautiful and sunny - you could actually see the mainland and icebergs way out to sea. Of course it's not that simple - the blades need to be attached to the helicopters, then there is some equipment to go ashore as well, and then waiting about in the "Departure Lounge" (which rapidly becomes quite like a real departure lounge, with everyone sitting there with their hand luggage) until your flight is ready to take you.

The actual flight time - once you're in the air - is only about 12 minutes, but by the time you load up, get everyone in, take off, fly there, unpack, and return, then refuel, over an hour has gone by.  This time, just after takeoff of the flight before mine, a small amount of fog started to form near the ship. The pilot aborted the flight and returned and within 10 minutes the entire ship was enveloped in thick fog and stayed like that for the rest of the day.

As a result, the first 10 people who flew in, got to camp the night on shore at Commonwealth Bay last night and tonight. Ironically, the weather where they were was beautiful and sunny, so they've been having a lovely time.

I spent the day discussing the minutiae of deep-diving mammal physiology with one of the biologists on board, ocean currents with an oceanographer (including the plastic garbage-collecting capacities of large ocean "gyre"), and the regular arcade patterns often seen in icebergs with the glaciologist.

Over dinner I heard about the giant phasmids of Lord Howe island from the ABC producer who is doing a story on them, then was made aware of the new definition of sea water conductivity by a sea water virus scientist. We may not have access to Google on board, but with so many knowledgeable people on board, usually someone know the answer to any burning issue.

Somewhere in between all that I went out onto the ice for a few hours to video the ice-cricket (the penguins are quite curious but get a bit noisy if they wander onto the pitch and then someone hits the ball and starts running back & forth), and then took some penguin photos. Sometimes they have some disagreements with each other.

Friday 13th - There are penguins outside my window

The view from my cabin first thing Friday morning.

Friday January 13 - There are penguins out my window

The fast ice (sea ice that is stuck fast to the land) is too thick for us to break through to get right up to Commonwealth Bay, so we remain wedged into the edge of it and will need to helicopter in from here once the weather clears.

But that will not happen for at least 24 hours, so in the meantime we can walk around outside, stretch our legs and watch the many Adelie penguins (along with one Emperor and one Chinstrap, who was well out of his territory - they breed on the Antarctic Peninsula, a few thousand km away).

You can't see the penguins in this photo, but you can see the traditional way to celebrate arrival in Antarctica - with a spot of cricket.

There is a nice 90 second news report on iView on the ABC News website which has plenty of penguin shots, if you really want penguins.

Fwd: Jan 09 - Day 4 - The homing limpet [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

One of the nice things about going on these ship trips is the unusual and entertaining people on them. Today at lunch I was talking to some biologists about their penguin & deep-sea coral research.

Who would have thought that there are such things as deep-sea corals - up to 4000 metres deep - what are they doing there? Clearly instead of the usual so-existence they have with photosynthesising creatures, they have struck up a friendship with some other non-light-requiring energy source. You can date them by doing various radioisotope studies. There is in fact a phenomenon called the "Bomb spike" which is a peak in radioisotopes occurring, across all organisms, in 1957 which is due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. For deep-sea creatures, this "Bomb Spike" occurs later, which means you can get a measure of how long it takes for surface nutrients to get down to the level at which they are living.

The penguin woman also claims there is such a things as a "Homing Limpet" - a small limpet which drills itself very slightly into a rock and then lasts out the dry times between tides by having a perfect seal with the rock. It returns there every day. To exactly the same bit of rock, and just nestles in a bit more each day. They don't have eyes, legs, or even much of a brain. You can move them away from the rock and they still find it. Even up to 4 metres away and they still somehow do it. (They didn't try any further than 4 metres). Even if you scrub the rock clean, or cut a chunk out of the rock so that they can't just be following a surface chemical trail, they still get home each day. Weird. Have to look this one up, as it sounds too weird to be true.

POSITION: 59 37, 145 31
WEATHER CONDITIONS: 8/8 cloud, low fog. 16kts SE wind.
AIR TEMPERATURE: 2.7
SEA TEMPERATURE: 2.6

The water temp in Hobart was 17 degrees, it slowly went down to 10.5 in the first 2 days, and then when we crossed the Antarctic Convergence (where the cold antarctic waters meet the warmer southern ocean waters) it dropped to only 3 degrees in 12 hours. The air temperature was a close match.

Only photo from today is a view out the front of the ship. Foggy, cold but fantastically calm. I have not been seasick at all.

___________________________________________________________________________

Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
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Jan 7 - The Continuous Plankton recorder is deployed [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Day 2 - January 7 - Saturday

Slightly rougher seas overnight - despite pre-dosing with more Phenergan, which normally makes me sleep like a dead man, I was repeatedly woken by being thrown about in bed. Had a simple breakfast of porridge and preserved fruit, followed by a croissant and some coffee. Think I'll stick to tea in future.

Not much to see on the bridge today - the seas are all around with a 3-4 metre swell and just 2 albatross going about, slightly overcast.

In search of some interest (and to find where everyone on board has vanished to) I went down to the marine Science lab where they are "trawling" for little creatures called 'pteropods'. These little things - not even half a mm across are one of the important links in the food chain from the photosynthesising phytoplankton to the fish. They have a thin but hard shell around them which is calcified, which is why they are being studied. As the global CO2 rises, and therefore more becomes dissolved in the sea, the acidity of the sea increases. Once the acidity of the sea reaches a certain point, it will dissolve the shell as it is formed and these little fellows will not be able to survive. Currently this is predicted to occur by the end of the century.

The problem then is what will happen to things further up the food chain. The other thing that is coming up in their filtering experiments is gloopy jelly-like things affectionately called "snot" by the biologists. They are very simple jelly-creatures - some long like slugs, some round like a Yorkshire pudding, but only a few cm across. The predictions are that these jelly things will take over and the Southern Ocean will become a "jelly ocean", with consequences for the fish etc who probably don't feed on them.

The Continuous Plankton Recorder was also deployed today - this little torpedo-shaped thing has been use din the same design for over 50 years. It is dragged behind the boat, and the water rushing past drive a propellor which in turn drives a mechanism that continuous moves a long piece of gauze from one spool to another while it is immersed. This gauze filters the water, trapping the plankton in it, so to give a continuous reading of the density of plankton as the ship travels.

The picture is tiny - it has to be to get through the email system, but it shows the CPR about to be lowered into the water.

Had mushroom & chicken risotto for dinner, followed by apricot crumble with ice-cream.

___________________________________________________________________________

Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
IMPORTANT: This transmission is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the
intended recipient, you are notified that use or dissemination of this communication is
strictly prohibited by Commonwealth law. If you have received this transmission in error,
please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or by telephoning +61 3 6232 3209 and
DELETE the message.
Visit our web site at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/
___________________________________________________________________________

Biologist looking for pteropods [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

___________________________________________________________________________

Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
IMPORTANT: This transmission is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the
intended recipient, you are notified that use or dissemination of this communication is
strictly prohibited by Commonwealth law. If you have received this transmission in error,
please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or by telephoning +61 3 6232 3209 and
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Visit our web site at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/
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January 5, 2012 - Boarding at last

Finally today we are actually boarding the Aurora Australis, and sailing at about 10pm tonight.

The last couple of days has included time spent checking some of the medical things, restocking drugs, fresh blood and getting all my cold-weather gear organised.

Last minute changes meant that the 16 person french contingent (including the 80 year old ex Prime Minister) are now going on the French boat instead of ours, which is a Good Thing from a medical point of view as some of them were a bit dodgy, but I think they will regret it - our ship is much larger than L'Astrolabe ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_icebreaker_Astrolabe ) which apparently rolls around like a crazy thing in the big seas of the Southern Ocean.

I presume they thought they would get better cheese on board a French vessel than an Australian one, and also the Aurora (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis_(icebreaker) ) is a dry ship - so no red wine with your meals, let alone French wine.

The pictures show us boarding the Aurora Australis this afternoon - the medical clinic is just near the open door at the top of the gangway, and a view of my cabin and out the window. I get a cabin all to myself which is nice - not because I don't like sharing, but it is very cramped when one tiny room has 3 or 4 people living in it. I get it all to myself, as the ship is not full and its one of the perks of the job.

The last photo shows where we are going - to Commonwealth Bay, which is about 2700km due south of Tasmania and just a short way east of the French station, Dumont D'Urville.

The ship has 65 passengers aboard, and about 35 crew. If this email sounds a bit uninspired, it's because the seasickness tablets are starting to work and I am feeling a bit dull & drowsy. But I've made my bed, we shall see how I cope once the ship gets out to sea.

You can follow the track of the ship on the web at http://its-app3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/schedules/voyageTrack.cfm?season=1112 - this page should show the daily ship positions, and on board we have 2 journalists from AAP and an ABC journalist and cameraman who will be filing some reports. You can see their stuff here: ( http://blogs.abc.net.au/news/in-mawsons-footsteps/ ).