Thursday 5 December 2013

APECS OCEANIA IN ANTARCTICA

For the next 2 months APECS Oceania's Treasure Ms. Mana Inoue will participating in the Aurora Basin Ice Core drilling Project. During this time, Mana will be blogging from Antarctica to share her experiences with you. Below is her first blog. 

My name is Mana Inoue. I am a PhD student from Antarctic Climate Ecosystem & Cooperate Research Centre (ACE CRC)/Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), at the University of Tasmania.

During my time in Antarctica, I will be participating in the Aurora Basin Ice Core drilling Project (http://www.antarctica.gov.au/science/climate-processes-and-change/antarctic-palaeoclimate/aurora-basin (AAD site), http://tasabn.blogspot.com.au/ (Tas’s traverse blog)). This is my first trip to Antarctica. In this blog, I will talk about my experiences living in Antarctica and about life at Casey station and in the field.

Dec 3, 2013: Departure day
On December 3rd, we board our plane for Antarctica. Traveling by plane is much easier and faster than by ship, but less sentimental.  

Thankfully our flight was delayed by four hours which meant I could sleep a little longer.  (Otherwise I have to be airport at 3:30 am!) I was super excited that I couldn’t sleep well though.

During our flight we had great weather, which allowed us to see seven mile beach, few islands, and beautiful southeast Tasmania. Water/tea/coffee and hot meal was served on the flight.

Our First Iceberg
About 3 hours into the flight we saw our first iceberg. It was a tiny little white thing in ocean that I could barely recognise whether it was an iceberg or a patch of cloud. Then another one came up, little bigger. Then more and more and more, bigger and bigger and bigger. We saw beautiful blue ice and I think, I saw one ice berg just flipped. I think. I hit my forehead and nose on window glass many times. 

Antarctica!
Then we our flight reached Antarctica! The pilot gave us a little tour flying over Casey station.White continent, sea ice, ice berg, ocean. It was awesome, amazing, beautiful view. It was just beautiful.

After ~5hr from departure, we landed on Wilkins runway. It was smooth landing and I finally, got to step onto Antarctica! It wasn’t cold at all with full survival gear on. Blue sky, no wind, strong Sun.
Sun is really strong here. One guy was walking around with sunscreen tube, asking people to put it on, and telling us that the sun is killing us here!

We get on the bus and drive to Casey station. A couple of photo stops, and after a 3 hr drive, we arrived at Casey station. Welcomed by Station leader, get some induction and settled in accommodation.

It was long exciting day. And now happy to get into the bed.

People in the field

Over 6 weeks some 24 scientists and support personnel will work at the Aurora Basin ice core driling site. Two teams are planned, with about 16 people in each team. The first team will work the first 3 weeks, before a partial change-over of some team members in the second 3 weeks. About 7 people are scheduled to work the full season. Read more about the Aurora Basin project team in the following profiles.


Some Photos


 







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