Sunset.

Antarctica is located at the bottom of the globe. It is one of the two places on earth that sees almost exactly six months of winter and six months of summer. The seasons are dictated not by snow, which we see year round, but rather by the presence or absence of the sun. In the summer the sun is in the sky for more hours than in the winter, the same is true all over the world. Right now in Oregon the sun is staying in the sky for an extra ~2.5 minutes longer each day, so the days are getting longer. Here in Antarctica the opposite is happening.

Here the days are getting shorter as we enter winter. For the next 48 days the length of our days will decrease by 30 minutes a day. This means that we lose in one day more then you gain in one week!

But don't worry. It will not be until mid March that I start to really feel the effects of the darkening skies. At that point the days will start becoming noticeably shorter, for now we will just be having darker nights, which will be pretty fun.

And there are good things to look forward to. First of all when the sun sets we will finally be able to see stars! Also with the darkening skies we get to see sunsets and sunrises, and most importantly we may be able to see the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights.

Aurora Australis are formed by a group of charged particles that reach the Polar Regions from the sun. Through a series of collisions these particles increase their energy and then lose excess energy in the form of light. The reason these lights are often seen in polar regions is that a wind and very cold temperatures are needed to see the brilliant colors; however, they can be seen as far south as Montana.

I will not be seeing the Aurora for some time yet, but for now we can see the moon in the dusky sky, hanging over our camp like a silent reminder of what is yet to come...

SoLaR EcLiPsE...

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, potentially blocking out all sunlight and throwing parts of the earth into midday darkness. A partial solar eclipse occurred here in Antarctica just last week. The eclipse that we saw had 80% coverage, so the sun was not completely behind the moon. In America when partial eclipses occur you can look at the sun with special lenses or OMSI glasses and still observe the moon slowly creeping along in front of the sun. Depending on where you are and the percentage of the sun that is blocked, it may even still look like the sky is darkening.





The eclipse that we saw was very interesting. All of the scientists in Crary Lab went outside at around 4:20 in the afternoon and looked up at the sun with goggles and camera lenses as eye protection. (Remember that because we are so far south the sun was still very high in the sky, at 4pm the sun looks like it does at 11am in the States!)



Even though the eclipse was not total the sky did darken slightly, it looked like dusk was coming on, which after having the last month of 24 hour sunlight was quite a lot! But because there is so much snow and ice covering the ground in Antarctica the little sun that did shine through got reflected off the white ground and scarttered across McMurdo so that it still seemed bright to us.



Keep in mind that these pictures show the sun in a darkened sky because that is the only way the camera will produce a shot.

Girls in Science:

Please pass this on to all who might be interested! Join an expedition to discover the world of glaciers Girls on Ice is a unique eleven-day leadership program for teenage girls that combines leadership, mountaineering and science. The program takes place *July 28-August 7, 2008 * and is free to girls who qualify via amerit-based application process. It is open to girls 15-18 years old who have shown a keen interest in exploring the world of science and the outdoors. Nine young women will be selected and the ideal candidate willbe an inquisitive, adventurous girl who would like to learn more about scientific inquiry, research, careers in science and the North-West environment. It is the only program in the nation that combines leadership, scientific inquiry and mountaineering for teenage girls. Itprovides a rare opportunity for young women to feel at home in the wilderness while observing the natural world through the unique lens of science under the guidance of professional female glaciologists and mountaineers. Applications due March 15, 2008 Please visit Girls on Ice for more information and an application packet or feel free to contact Erin at epettit@pdx.edu.

Finding WATER in a DESERT.

Water is the most interesting naturally abundant substance on Earth, it is the medium of life, and it is scarce, especially in the desert. One of the most important reasons the Dry Valleys need to be protected is because the ecosystem here is so simplified. Unlike the forests and groves of the Portland valleys this area has little influx of nutrients from rain, rivers, or animals. Furthermore, it also has limited macro organisms to disrupt the balance of the microbial life in the lakes.

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."

-Henry David Thoreau-

First the Facts:

Ninety-seven percent of the water on the planet is in the form of salt water. Only 3 percent is fresh, and two-thirds of that is ice.

Water molecules are made of one oxygen and two hydrogen's bonded together.

Water is a POLAR molecule so each side bears a slight charge, the Oxygen side is partially negative and the Hydrogen side is partially positive.

Water is relatively incompressible.

Water has a very high surface tension which allows you to fill a glass up above the rim without spilling anything on the floor (make sure to be very careful!!!).

When cooled to its freezing temperature (0°C, 32°F, under standard pressure), water changes to a colorless, crystalline solid (ice).

Water is one of the only liquids on earth that expands during freezing and is therefore less dense in its solid form (ice) than as a liquid at 4°C.

Water is the universal solvent (which means it is the best liquid to dissolve particles in).

The United States uses three times as much water a day as the average European country, and many, many times more water than most developing nations.

The main fact is that WATER is LIFE.

Here in Antarctica our research takes place where the life is—beneath the ice. Remember that when ice forms it incorporates only pure water into its crystalline matrix. The molecules that remain are in the water and the concentration of these compounds changes based on depth (this is because temperature and ambient light also changes with depth). So water beneath ice has an extremely different composition from other water. The water beneath the ice holds trapped dissolved CO2 (not commonly found dissolved in lakes), dissolved O2 (present in other lakes, remember seeing small bubbles in the water?), and is very saline (salty), all of the compounds work together to give life to the extremophiles that habitat the water columns.

The BIGGER picture:

The Lakes of the Dry Valleys are treated scientifically like a baseline of research. When they are understood it is possible to further understand the more complex ecosystems of this world. More importantly due to the fragile state of this ecosystem the effects of global climate change or climate warming are drastically expressed by the lakes. When lake ice thickness diminishes it changes the amount of ambient sunlight that reaches the lower depths of water. Slight increases in temperature or increases in the amount of light can both have drastic effects on the microorganisms of the lakes. Changes like these can influence metabolism, temperature regulation, reproduction, and evolution. All of these things together lead scientists to believe that the changes in the lakes of the Dry Valleys are a good representation of the changes that could occur in our world if global warming continues.