Icy News

Icy news is a news snippet that is published on the Antarctic Division website detailing what has been happening in each of the Antarctic stations. It is written by people at the stations. This week it was my turn to write the Icy News, and I thought i would share it here. Not it was edited by the powers that be slightly before public exposure, but rest assured this is my original version.

This week at Davis has seen another hive of activity.

The Aurora Australis pulled in again last Friday bringing with it fresh faces, food and much awaited packages from back home.

We have a new team comprising of people from both the Navy and Geo-science Australia who are doing a hydrographic survey of the ocean floor around Davis along with a second boat the Howard Burton.

A flock (is that what you call them) of new divers and researchers also arrived to work on the various science projects.

Chris Wilkinson, our extra wintering mechanic, and Philip Samartzis here on an arts fellowship  completing some sound recordings until V4 also walked of the ship.

New faces coming in from the ship and container being craned off the barge.
Photo: N. Hill

Kim the Chef looking pleased with a delivery of mangos
Photo: N. Hill

  
The always exciting mail delivery
Photo: N. Hill

The down side of the ship being in town is that people that we have all become friends with leave, and this was no exception as we waved goodbye to twelve of our friends.

Waving Goodbye to departing expeditioners
Photo: N. Hill

Our senior IOAC (ice, ocean, atmosphere and climate) scientist and resident LIDAR  expert Klucky (Andrew K) has departed and left Jeff Cumpston, LIDAR operator, to fend for himself. Jeff was very excited as on his first solo night observation, he got some great data and observed some long-lasting noctilucent clouds, which appeared at about 9 pm and lasted for almost 7 hours. Klucky was viewing the same clouds from the Aurora Australis, then at Mawson station, and probably hoping that the LIDAR (also known as the Giant Frikkin Laser) was on at the time.

These clouds occur at around 85km altitude and are a measurable indicator of climate change. They occur only at the poles during the summer months, and can only be seen with the naked eye for about two weeks in the year. These sights are so rare that previous lidar operators have spent their entire year down here without seeing them. Let’s hope these great results prove to be typical of the observation season ahead!

 

Noctilucent clouds
Photo J. Cumpston

 

The Lidar in action
Photo J. Cumpston

Klucky was also one of the seven Andrews on station. Having seven Andrews out of around eighty total people seems a bit high to me. Co-incidence or not?

The seven Andrews
Photo K. De Laive

Poo has also seen a bit of interest this week at Davis, with Pete one of our plumbing team having to enter the sewerage ‘VAT’  to fix a faulty pump and Margaret donning her suit to sample the sewerage outfall in the name of science.  Microgastropods and amphipods where also collected for the Sewage Treatment Project ecotox experiments.

Pete and Tom working on the sewerage system
Photo: P. Hargraves

  
Margaret at the sewerage outfall
Photo: M. Powers

Bianca and Margaret Collecting samples.
Photo: A. Spurr

On top of all this our usual station atmosphere and antics continued unabated with the Davis band appearing Thursday night for a live rock performance.

An unscheduled appearance of the Davis Celtic Quartet "Numb Fingers" was appreciated on Friday night.

Spaggers (a.k.a Spagettio, a.k.a. Rob Lemme) trying to prove just how much he loves muesli went a whole week eating only muesli for every meal of the day, finishing on Wednesday’s hot smoko. He still claims to love muesli.

 Hellboy (Nick Helmore) bought an expensive set of darts, with precision flight control designed by NASA, guaranteed to improve your play, only to find he was much worse with them, and promptly offloaded them to Matt Azzopardi.

The Davis Band
Photo: N. Hill

 

The Davis Celtic Quartet
Photo: B. Sfiligoj

 

Spaggers with his muesli and hot smoko
Photo: N. Hill

Hellboy in the front and Matt Azzopardi in the back with their darts
Photo: N. Hill

Finally it is starting to feel more like Antarctica with temperatures dropping to -7 at night, more windy days, and darkness starting to appear at night.

Sun setting at Davis
Photo: G. Johnstone

Over and Out
Comms Davis