The Sun




Current conditions:  Con 3, Temp -8F (-29F with wind chill), overcast.  Population: 298

When we first agreed to go to Antarctica a few years ago, we presumed the term would run from mid-October to the beginning of February, i.e., the summer season.  We were both taken by surprise when, early in 2019, we learned that we were expected to be here for two seasons: Winfly (mid-August through mid-October) and summer.  The difference of two months may seem trivial over a lifetime, but when you have full-time jobs, grants and classes, elderly parents, a new grandchild as well as three others growing so quickly, and two kids going back to college, those months weigh heavily.  With the help of many people at home and at work, we managed the early departure, though, and now I feel fortunate to have arrived as early as we did.  I just wish we could have gotten here on the scheduled arrival date in August rather suffering the Christchurch delays until September.

August is the coldest month at McMurdo.  It is also the month when the sun returns to the continent. On August 18th, the day before we were to arrive, the sun just made its appearance over the horizon.  Typically, a moment of celebration in McMurdo, this year, the terrible weather obscured a solar sighting although, I'm sure some glasses were raised.

On what was to have been our first full day in McMurdo, August 20th, we should have had nine hours of night.  I so wish I could have been here.  The winter nights are spectacular, brilliant with stars and green auroras.  In the movie, Antarctica: A Year on Ice,* you can see time-lapsed images of the skies over McMurdo.  Stunning.  Of course, the August nights are also pretty darn cold, so no one stays outside for too long star-gazing.

By the time I arrived in early September, night was pretty much a thing of the past.  Once the sun decides to return, it comes on with a vengence, increasing 15 to 30 minutes more per day.  Twilight also grows.  By September 9th, night had left McMurdo entirely.

If you checked today's day planner for our diva, the sun, this is what you would see:


  • Midnight:  Get off the couch and mosey up from 18 to 12 degrees below the horizon (astronomical twilight).  Shine your light on the sky so people can't prefer other stars to you
3:00 AM. Astronomical twilight.  Cloudy.  Can't see much.  Need a flashlight.

  • 3:12 AM:  Morning coffee, then drift lazily up to 6 degrees below the horizon (nautical twilight).  By illuminating the horizon, let people know you're on your way.
4:30 AM.  Nautical twilight.  Can see to get around without flashlight.

  • 5:33 AM:  Fool everyone into thinking you're performing while you're really lingering in the wings, putting on your makeup (civil twilight)
6:15 AM.  Civil twilight.  Pretty much seems like normal light.

  • 7:12 AM:  Get on stage and blind your fans with your brilliance. Your day has arrived.
7:30.  AM.  Sun's up but not too brilliant.  Quite a cloudy day.
Then, in the afternoon/evening:
  • 6:27 PM:  Take your bow, get off stage but linger for a few hours chatting with admirers until you get to 6 degrees below the horizon (sunset and civil twilight)
  • 8:07 PM:  Get in your limo, dim the lights and read your reviews until you get to 12 degrees below the horizon (nautical twilight).
  • 10:47 PM:  Rest a bit and watch prior performances on youtube (beginning of astronomical twilight).
So, right now, we have about 15 hours of sun or civil twilight in which outdoor activities can go on unimpeded (except by wind, snow and cold, of course).  Starting October 24, even twilight will disappear.  The sun will then remain above the horizon until February 21st, when we will be gone.  So, until we get back to California, it's:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What we've been up to

Image
Ross Island looking out from the Pegasus crash site on the Ross Ice Shelf.  The peaked mountain is Ob Hill with McMurdo to its left.  Erebus is obscured by clouds.  The two dots halfway between the camera and the island at the left tip of the island are emperor penguins.   Condition:  Temperature 41°F (Windchill 39°).  Mostly cloudy Population = 1141 We've been extremely busy.  We've had several bad injuries on the base, including last week a hand smashed by a 42 ton ship's hatch.  Once again, Dean did an amazing job with the injury but with broken planes and unrested flight crews, the patient ended up spending seven hours in an ambulance waiting on the runway before being brought back to the clinic to wait some more. I was assigned to care for him that evening, re-bandaging his wound twice, giving him his pain meds and antibiotics, helping him shower, and ultimately, putting a squirting hole in his IV tubing AND covering myself ...
Read more

Off the ice

Image
Toto, I think we're not in Kansas anymore Conditions:  Temperature 70° (70° with wind chill).  Sunny. Population=381,500  Well, we got off the ice.  The trip proved somewhat harrowing and prolonged but we are now blissfully ensconced in the Crowne Plaza in Christchurch, heading back home tomorrow. Antarctica is shutting down for the winter. The Pole will close to all transportation in about two weeks just as the sun begins to set, leaving only the 40-50 person overwinter crew behind to face the brutally cold and dark winter.  McMurdo will close more slowly and, for the first time, will actually have winter flights to facilitate the new base construction.  Usually, about 150 people would be left in McMurdo by mid-February.  This year with all the new base construction underway, they expect to winnow down the current 1100 people to about 400in the next 10 days and and then to 300 or so at the end of April and 150 in June. The whole...
Read more

South Pole Traverse

Image
The South Pole Traverse moving down the Leverett Glacier: my dream job. Conditions:  Temperature 19° (4 ° with windchill).  Cloudy.  Population = 1100+ I mentioned in a previous post, the cowboys of the Antarctic are the South Pole Traverse (SPoT) team.  Like Scott and Shackleton, they troop slowly in tractors, pulling necessary supplies--particularly fuel--to the South Pole.  The Pole base could not exist without the traverse; planes simply could not carry enough fuel to supply the base. The eight man crew drives tractors 1031 miles, averaging about 5 miles per hour over 25 12-hour days (it took Amundsen 57 days and Scott 78 to reach the Pole).  The tractors transport diesel fuel in long bladders that drag along the ground. They also pull the team's living quarters.  On the way back, they fill the bladders with air so they drag well and also bring back the waste that needs to be shipped off ice.  Although I think of this as my dream...
Read more