PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP JUNE 1999 NEWS FROM THE LAB. Diane Wetterlin, Winter Asst. Supervisor, Laboratory Operations The labs are a ghost town now as the last field team members from projects BO-036-O and BO-037-O (Sidell and Detrich) have departed. Their departure, in addition to that of several ASA personnel, has reduced the station population to 26. Several projects were undertaken in the Laboratory this month. All equipment and supplies from the departing groups were returned efficiently thanks to their help and cooperation. All laboratory Capital Equipment was also located and inventoried during June. The 701 Laboratory Van, 700 Science Van and Laboratory Flammable/Corrosive storage were all organized, cleaned and inventoried. The front half of the volatile storage building is currently being inventoried. Reviewing and doing practice synoptic weather observations before actually starting to report the daily 1200 GMT (800 LT) was also accomplished. A broken plastic filter in the seawater filtration system allowed sand to enter the feed lines, which resultantly clogged valves feeding some tanks in the aquarium. The corresponding reduction in water flow to a couple tanks resulted in the death of some of the fish. The problem could be temporarily alleviated by turning the valve on full force to flush the sand out, thus a simple, short-term solution was implemented of periodically checking the water flow and flushing the valves. The assistance of the Science Technician, who works later hours than the rest of the station, was greatly appreciated in these efforts. No further fish kills were experienced. Long-term solutions are being evaluated. Finishing touches have been completed on the Communications room remodel project, including: carpeting, shelving, caulking, staining, painting, and the installation of two desks, one for the weather station and one for the phone booth. Lab One is nearly clear of the items stored there during the remodel. The first floor GWR remodeling project also continues as planned. Merchandise was transferred into the new store and it is now in full operation. The new Medical Suite has been sheet rocked, taped and mudded. Although work continues on the new exterior stair tower, it is now in full use as the interior stairs in GWR have been removed. The Boathouse Addition is also coming together nicely. It is now enclosed with sheet rock including mudding, taping and insulation and they have begun to put up siding on the outside. The fire suppression system has been roughed in as well as electrical and mechanical systems. The two windows removed have been walled off and new windows put in on the new outside wall. The rock removal team also arrived on station this month. Their task is to locate and eliminate the rocks that occasionally come into contact with the ship. The survey work was completed and they have conducted several test blasts to determine what the resulting pressure will be on the pier. Positive results were found and the project is proceeding on schedule. Fortunately, the R/V LAURENCE M GOULD had a much lighter schedule this month at Palmer Station. It experienced three docking delays due to inclement weather (high winds), twice for one day and once for two. Upon its first arrival, Palmer Logistics and Marine Operations did a brief but efficient off-load of necessary cargo to facilitate a quick departure for a much needed fishing trip. The other two departures were necessary to ensure delays to the rock removal project were not encountered, as diving or blasting efforts cannot be conducted with the vessel at the pier. The wildlife continues to keep us entertained. There was a feeding frenzy about a quarter mile off Gamage point last Sunday. We could see a lone Leopard seal continuously dive and come to the surface and spend a minute munching down something. A few days later while working off the pier the divers made the next siting of a Leopard seal. The seal made no aggressive moves but the diver did not wait around long enough to do any behavioral studies. We were also visited by a humpback whale this month. Again winds were the most memorable phenomena this month. There were 16 days (half the month) that had peak winds over 30 knots. The average wind was unchanged at 12 knots with a peak of 65 knots on 24th (last months peak was 63 also on the 24th). The average temperature dropped from last month's -0.6 C to -3.8 C. We received 27 cm of snow in the 24 days with precipitation. The station experienced an incredible 5 clear days this month, more than I have ever seen in a one month period! This left 24 days of overcast and 1 day of partly cloudy. The following programs were involved in research at Palmer station: BO-036-0 EVOLUTION OF AN OXYGEN-BINDING PROTEIN IN AN UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT: Myoglobin in the hemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes. Bruce D. Sidell, Principal Investigator, University of Maine Personnel on Station: T. Grove, T. Moylan, The past week marked the end of the 1999 field season for projects S-036 (Moylan, Grove) and S-037 (Yergeau, Hann), with members of both projects completing final laboratory work and preparing for departure from Palmer Station. So as to not impede the rock removal efforts currently underway at the Palmer pier, the LMG departed Palmer on 6/22 and conducted site visits in the local area to Port Lockeroy and Paradise Bay. On board the vessel were resident artist David Rosenthal (W-005) and several Palmer Station ASA personnel. On 6/25 the LMG returned to Palmer and retrograde cargo loading operations began. The 1999 field season proved a successful one for S-036. The data and samples collected will further our studies of the physiological and evolutionary implications of variable expression of myoglobin among the Antarctic icefish family. We are returning to our CONUS laboratory tissues from icefish species that express or do not express the intercellular oxygen-binding protein myoglobin for subsequent biochemical and molecular biological analyses. The R/V LAURENCE M GOULD departed Palmer 0900 on 6/27 bound for Punta Arenas, Chile. At the request of Rob Edwards, a stop was made at Cape Shirreff (Livingston Island) on 6/28 for the purpose of retrieving low level radiation waste and conducting swipe tests of the radiation use area within the field camp. The weather cooperated and Moylan (S-036), Sleister (MPC), and Weber (ET) made a successful landing via zodiac. Both waste removal and swipe tests were completed. The swipe tests will be returned to Palmer station for processing. The R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD resumed its northward course by 1230. With the end of 1999 field season at hand, we would like to thank ASA and R/V LAURENCE M GOULD personnel for their essential contributions to a very successful season. BO-037-O Structure, Function, and Expression of Cold-Adapted Tubulins and Microtubule-Dependent Motors from Antarctic Fishes. H. William Detrich, P.I., Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Personnel on Station: Steven Hann, and Donald Yergeau D. Yergeau arrived at Palmer Station on LMG 99-5 cruise to join S. Hann for the completion of our 1999 field season. Our work during June was focused primarily on the hematopoietic program and the light-dependent DNA repair system of Antarctic fishes. First, D. Yergeau continued to characterize the blood cells of both red- and white-blooded notothenioid fishes, including the rockcods Notothenia coriiceps and Gobionotothen gibberifrons, the dragonfish Parachaenichthys charcoti, and the icefishes Chaenocephalus aceratus, Chionodraco rastrospinosus, Champsocephalus gunnari, and Pseudochaenichthys georgianus. Second, S. Hann amplified presumptive DNAs encoding the repair enzyme photolyase from RNAs of C. rastrospinosus and C. gunnari by use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Third, nine testis extracts from N. coriiceps and G. gibberifrons were prepared to support subsequent purification of the cytoplasmic chaperonin CCT at our Northeastern University laboratory. Finally, Hann and Yergeau sampled numerous tissues, both from icefishes and from red-blooded notothenioids, for use at NU. In conjunction with members of Project S-036 (Sidell), Hann and Yergeau conducted several fishing trips on the ARSV LM Gould to our established fishing grounds at Low Island and Dallmann Bay. The success of these fishing trips was limited by the severe weather encountered in early and mid June. Furthermore, failure of the Palmer Aquarium seawater system caused the death of approximately 40 specimens of N. coriiceps. Despite small fish catches and the unexpected fish losses, sufficient specimens were available to support our critical project activities. On 29 June project members Hann and Yergeau departed Palmer Station for CONUS on board the R/V LAURENCE M GOULD. We conclude our 1999 field season having accomplished all essential goals. We extend our special thanks to the ship and station personnel for the excellent assistance that they rendered to our project. GO-052-P GPS CONTINUOUS OPERATION REFERENCE STATION. J. Mullins, U.S.Geological Survey The station science technician has monitored the system. During the month, GPS transmissions were collected continuously, converted daily to a RInEx format, compressed, and transmitted to the US Geological Survey in Reston, VA. Files from the oldest six Zip disks in the revolving set used for data storage were written to a CD-R as the beginning of a permanent local data archive. For roughly five hours on 17 June, data transmissions were recorded from only 0-2 satellites, rather than the normal 7-12. It is unknown whether the GPS receiver or the logging software caused this glitch, which corrected itself without operator intervention. GO-091-O GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH STATION AT PALMER STATION. R. Butler, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) The station science technician has operated the system. Global seismic events were recorded throughout the month. Correcting the clock on the DP computer on 26 June proved to have the unfortunate side effect of killing the acquisition process. After stored data was written to tape as a precaution in case of further difficulties, acquisition was easily restored. A power outage of approximately one hour on 30 June interrupted the transfer of data packets from the DA computer to the DP computer, but when power was restored, all the packets that had been buffered by the DA were transferred successfully. AO-106-O STUDIES OF LIGHTNING-INDUCED ELECTRON PRECIPITATION OF THE IONOSPHERE. U. Inan, Stanford University The station science technician has operated the system. The Stanford receiver records very low frequency (VLF) radio waves for studying ionospheric and magnetospheric natural phenomena. Minor changes were made to the three Beta tape recording periods to ensure the existence of an overlap between tapes despite the drifting of one recorder's clock with the power line frequency. An adjustment was made to the external frequency standard that provides the timing signal for the programmer clock, which now needs less intervention to keep proper time. After nearly a month of good behavior, the HAIL PC experienced undesired restarts on three sequential nights, which happened to be the coldest nights yet this winter. The snap thermostat for the fan in the wall heater had been identified previously as a noise source, and it had been replaced. This time the fan was wired directly to the thermostat that controls the heating element, bypassing the suspect snap unit completely, and the restarts disappeared. Even though its incoming line power was fine, the UPS that supplied various clocks and the HAARP system stopped providing power on 22 June. Thanks to a virtually immediate discovery, the affected systems were switched to line power with almost no data loss. The batteries in the UPS were changed, and it was returned to service on 25 June. Following a consultation with the grantees, several devices that had been added to the UPS in recent years were returned to line power. While the UPS was being reinstalled, a new battery was installed in the programmer clock. OO-204-O MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC O2 IN RELATION TO THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE. Ralph Keeling, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Air samples are collected on a semi-weekly basis by the station physician. The samples are return shipped to Scripps for analysis of O2 and CO2 content. The goal of the program is to resolve seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric O2 (detected through changes in O2/N2 ratio) which can aid in the determination of rates of marine biological productivity and ocean mixing and aid in the separation of the global sink for anthropogenic CO2 into terrestrial and oceanic components. The program involves air sampling at a network of sites in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Palmer Station is especially well situated to resolve signals due to carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. OO-254-O CHLORINE-AND BROMINE-CONTAINING TRACE GASES IN ANTARCTICA. R.A. Rasmussen, Oregon Graduate Institute for Science and Technology Air samples are taken on a weekly basis by the station physician. The samples are returned to the Institute for analysis of a number of trace components, especially chlorine-and bromine-containing gases. These elements have been implicated in the chemical processes that contribute to the austral-spring depletion of the ozone layer over Antarctica. This work will contribute to a better understanding of the buildup of trace constituents, particularly those of high-latitude marine origin. OO-264-O COLLECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR FOR THE NOAA\CMDL WORLDWIDE FLASK SAMPLING NETWORK. James T. Peterson, Environmental Research Laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Air samples are taken on a weekly basis by the station physician. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory team continue long-term measurements of trace atmospheric constituents that influence climate. The Palmer Station air samples are returned to the NOAA laboratory for analysis of trace constituents, including carbon dioxide. These measurements are part of NOAA's effort to determine and assess the long-term buildup of global pollutants in the atmosphere. This data will be used to determine how the rate of change of these parameters affects climate, particularly by including them in climate model studies. OO-275-O UM/DOE-EML REMOTE ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM. C. Sanderson, Department of Energy, Environmental Measurements Laboratory The station science technician has operated the system. One sample filter was exposed for the duration of each week, and a weekly schedule of calibration, background, and sample counts was maintained. The RAMP system is part of a global network seeking to characterize the quantity and distribution of radionuclide particles occurring both naturally and artificially in the atmosphere. After a brief power outage on 30 June, the counting program aborted because the MCA had turned off high voltage to the gamma ray counter. High voltage was restored and the count was begun again, but the accumulated two day background count was lost. A new background count was run for a single day, then a calibration count for a single day, after which the normal schedule was restored. OO-283-P ANTARCTIC AUTOMATED WEATHER STATIONS. Charles Stearns, University of Wisconsin The station science technician has monitored the local sites. Automated Weather Station (AWS) transmissions were monitored from Bonaparte Point, Hugo Island, and RACER Rock using the TeraScan system. Initial attempts by the winter LTER cruise to install a replacement AWS on Hugo Island were thwarted by inclement weather. TO-312-O TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM. R. Whritner, Scripps Institution of Oceanography The station science technician has operated the system. Throughout the month, the TeraScan system collected, archived, and processed DMSP and NOAA satellite pass telemetry, maintaining a schedule of 18-21 passes per day. NOAA and DMSP telemetry were archived for BP-032-O when the LTER grid was clear of clouds. Grantees for BP-032-O were consulted to determine a set of criteria for the archival of clear passes to their data tapes. Twice this month the TeraScan computer "locked up" with a continuous display of SCSI / hard drive related errors. In both cases, cycling the computer power restored proper operation. Beginning on 14 June, the LTER winter cruise aboard the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER was supplied with daily image support, consisting of a large scale IR image to show weather patterns, an SSM/I image to show ice concentration, and, when the weather allowed, a higher resolution IR image to show more detailed ice conditions. TO-513-O UV MONITORING NETWORK. C. Booth, Biospherical Instruments, Inc. The station science technician has operated the system. Throughout the month, raw irradiance data scans were collected daily and transmitted to BSI, and preliminary irradiances and spectral integrals were produced in support of Science. Absolute calibration scans were performed as scheduled. A correction was made to the program used to extract integrals from the preliminary databases. The values provided in the daily reports had not been correctly labeled. Recent users of preliminary data were informed of the error and were again reminded of the need to contact BSI for finalized data. Late in the month, an updated set of calibration values were received from BSI and were incorporated into the daily processing routine. The sporadic AXSS errors that had been plaguing the system disappeared after a serial cable was connected directly between the HRAD in the roofbox and the computer's Rocketport card. Artist Report (W-005): David Rosenthal Continued to spend time on the LMG and at Palmer Station gathering sketches for landscape studies. Working on small watercolor and small oil studies. The scenery is always changing and always beautiful. Presented a slide lecture about my work and the Writers and Artists program. People from the station and the ship attended.