Ken’s posterous

I woke up this morning in Pine Island Glacier. We are surrounded on three sides by the towering cliffs of the floating tongue of the glacier. They rise 50 or 60 m above the water and therefore 500 or 600 m below. I've never seen the white cliffs of dover but I imagine they would look small and yellow compared to these. (Maybe H will take me there someday).
 
A CTD cast was coming up at the beginning of my shift. I spent the first hour doing samples, and the rest of the night should be easy. We'll be doing bathymetry mapping swaths and no sampling, so my job will be to enjoy the view.
 
Weather: -2.5 (Air) -0.5 (Water)
Location: lat:-74.9601, lon:-101.6803
 
Bright sun, blue sky, blue water, white cliffs, some 'berg bits and a few gigantic tabular icebergs floating in the bay.
 
In other news, someone commented on my blog! (Thanks Mom). No, the sun moving West to East is not a typo. Normally the sun moves east to west, but at night it needs to 'reset' to the east, so relative to you, it moves west to east around the back side of the planet. Since I'm close enough to the pole to see over it (so to speak) I get to watch the sun move in a circle 24 hours a day. After it moves east to west during my 'day' while I am sleeping, I watch it move west to east on the other side of the earth during our 'night'.

Yesterday we excited the ice (on the Southern side) into a polynya in the Pine Island Bay. The water turned from a clear dark blue to green. We are sailing through the most biologically productive ocean on the planet. I'm not sure but the seas here might have even more life than a rainforest. And it stinks.
 
The smell is subtle inside, but when you are working outside or with the doors open there is a strong smell of rotting vegetables.
 
In other news, land ho! We still cannot see the mainland but have passed some small islands. The islands are on the maps from satellites, but we are charting new waters and making our bathymetry maps as we go. We should see the continent (or at least the ice sheet covering the continent) within a day or two depending on our meandering path.
 
Current location: lat:-74.104 lon:-105.423
Current Temperature: -1.3C Air, 1.2C Water
Wildlife today: Billions of diatoms one Minke whale and a seal.

Does anyone know the scientific term for the path of the Sun as it travels toward the horizon or away from the horizon without crossing it? We no longer have sunset and sunrise.
 
We have hours of dusk and dawn but it isn't easy to distinguish when one turns into the other. These are getting shorter as we head south faster than the Sun appears to be retreating as Earth moves toward a Northern Hemisphere Summer.
 
A month from when we are still down here it should start getting colder. On our return trip North the darkness should greet us much farther south than where we left it.

Photo is from two days ago. Got off the boat to help with sea ice sampling. Drilled through 2m of ice, measured salinity, structure, temperature.
 
Today:
 
Current Location: lat:-73.6133 lon:-106.7283
 
Temperature: Around 0C. Going outside in just jeans and a sweater for most photos and a look around. Wearing much more gear when actually spending time working outdoors
 
We've just left the thick sea ice and are now in the open water of pine island bay. Ice coverage is around 10%, small chunks the size of a table, with gigantic tabular bergs every once in a while.
 
Worked out this morning on the rowing machine. Didn't seem to help the boat move any faster. We move around 10 knots and stop every three or four hours for a few hours while we deploy stuff, then continue. 10 knots now that we are out of the sea ice, 3 or so when in the ice.

(Out of Order Repost)
 
And this morning there are more... I woke up and looked outside and at a glance there are 30 icebergs within view off the starboard side of the ship. Still no sea ice but that should show up within a day or two.
 
And we've crossed into the Antarctic circle, and it is close enough to solstice that the sun won't set anymore. It is low to the horizon. I'm expecting the next 6 or 7 hours to be a rosy dusk/dawn. Hopefully the icebergs will turn pink.
 
lat: -66.788, lon: -95.924

(Out of Order Repost)
 
And this morning there are more... I woke up and looked outside and at a glance there are 30 icebergs within view off the starboard side of the ship. Still no sea ice but that should show up within a day or two.
 
And we've crossed into the Antarctic circle, and it is close enough to solstice that the sun won't set anymore. It is low to the horizon. I'm expecting the next 6 or 7 hours to be a rosy dusk/dawn. Hopefully the icebergs will turn pink.
 
lat: -66.788, lon: -95.924

(Out of Order Repost)
 
The iceberg I saw a few hours ago was a sign of things to come. We are now surrounded by a dozen or so of them. Big and small, nearby and drifting over the horizon. These are just big ice cubes, nothing huge and tabular yet, and no sea ice yet.
 
And playing near the ship are a pod of Minke whales.
 
Not a bad day at the office...