PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP APRIL 2001 NEWS FROM THE LAB. Brett Pickering, Asst. Supervisor, Laboratory Operations April brought the end of the summer science season to Palmer Station. The remaining LTER grantees left in early April, with the exception of Dr. Bill Fraser (BP-013-O) who remained on station until the end of the month when he left on the R/V Laurence M. Gould for a Southern Ocean Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (SO GLOBEC) Cruise. During his time on station Dr. Fraser continued collecting late season diet samples and demographic data from Adelie Penguins and Giant Petrels as well as preparing equipment and materials for the GLOBEC cruises. The R/V Laurence M. Gould made two scheduled port calls during the month. During the first stop science team members from the GLOBEC Mooring Cruise gave an informal lecture concerning the work they had conducted during their time in the Marguerite Bay area. During this port call Palmer Station's Glacier Search and Rescue (GSAR) team was called out to rescue a group of people from the ship that had gone out of the safe travel zone on the glacier. Two individuals fell into a crevasse, one was able to extricate himself, the other was brought out with assistance from the GSAR team. Luckily there were no serious injuries. During the late April port call of the LMG at Palmer Station, the R/V Nathanial B. Palmer came into Arthur Harbor to exchange supplies and equipment with Palmer Station and the LMG. April's weather was less than ideal, having 13 days with peak wind speeds above 33 knots. The strongest gust recorded was 66 knots. Precipitation fell on 24 days during the month with a total melted accumulation of 67.8 mm. Most of this precipitation was in the form of snow. The depth of snow at the snow stake began the month at 14 cm, melted down to 0 for 19th and 20th and then built up to 26 cm by the month's end. The average temperature was 1.5 C with a high of +5.0 and low of 7.4 C. The following programs were involved in research at Palmer Station: GO-052-P GPS CONTINUOUS OPERATION REFERENCE STATION. J. Mullins, Principal Investigator, U.S. Geological Survey. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Zip drive failure continued to be a problem this month. All attempts to repair or replace the drive have been unproductive. Given that Iomega Zip drives have been rather unreliable, it's difficult to know if the problem lies in the box or the drive. Several replacement drives were installed, including internal SCSI and external USB, none of which worked. Drive Software was replaced, as were the drivers. Since this drive is scheduled to be replaced by a CD burner, we will not likely spend a great deal of time trying to repair it. As a simple alternative, the Science Technician is currently sending zip data to the network drive and downloading onto Zip drive on another computer for archive. GO-091-P GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH STATION AT PALMER STATION. R. Butler, Principal Investigator, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The Seismic station is functioning normally. Z mass voltage level is drifting slowly downwards again. The winter-over science technician arrived in late April. He will be making Z mass adjustments to the system after conducting turnover activities with the current science technician. There was a brief interval at the end of the week when the automatic transfer of seismic records was failing to take place. A review of the logs revealed that the seismic station was not attempting any communication with the host. A coincidental hang of the Data Processor during a tape transfer required cycling the power to clear. Automatic FTP to the grantee resumed normally after this. AO-106-P STUDIES OF LIGHTNING-INDUCED ELECTRON PRECIPITATION OF THE IONOSPHERE. U. Inan, Principal Investigator, Stanford University. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Stanford representative arrived on site to perform maintenance and system upgrades to the Broad Band and Narrow Band equipment. Science Technician was an integral part of this work. The preamp and signal cable running up the glacier were calibrated. Reset the posts used to elevate the signal cable above the glacier, thirty in all. This should be the last time that the posts will need to be drilled into the ice, as temperatures have been holding below freezing on average. Sent digital tapes and CD archives of Broadband and Narrowband data to Stanford. Removed the old Ampex recording unit and returned to Stanford. Ionospheric conditions were ideal this month to produce a large array of high quality ducted whistler events. Worked throughout the night on several occasions capturing, analyzing and archiving very large volumes of data. The heavy amount of disk space used interfered with normal data collection for a short while, until enough space was cleared from the Broad Band computer to resume normal data operation. FTP'd approximately 40 megabytes of data to Stanford, by special request. The PI was extremely interested in the effects and interaction of a recent solar Gamma Ray burst on the Earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere. The data transfer was hampered considerably by the restricted throughput of the Palmer LES-9 link, but eventually all records were successfully moved. Experiment operated well throughout the month, though there was a mysterious shutdown of the Broadband data collection software overnight on 20 April. Several hours of data were lost. The Data Collection software is new, as of the Stanford site visit, and is working quite well, with the exception of an occasional hang up. OO-204-O MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC O2 IN RELATION TO THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE. Ralph Keeling, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Air samples are collected on a semi-weekly basis by the station physician. The goal of this project is to resolve seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric O2 (detected through changes in O2/N2 ratio), which can aid in determining rates of marine biological productivity and ocean mixing. The results are also used to help determine the terrestrial and oceanic distribution of the global anthropogenic CO2 sink. The program involves air sampling at a network of sites in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Palmer Station is especially well situated for resolving signals of carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. Samples taken from the station are return-shipped to Scripps where the analysis of O2 and CO2 content takes place. OO-254-O CHLORINE-AND BROMINE-CONTAINING TRACE GASES IN ANTARCTICA. R.A. Rasmussen, Principal Investigator, Oregon Graduate Institute for Science and Technology. Air samples are collected on a weekly basis by the station physician. Samples are returned to the Oregon Graduate Institute for analysis of a number of trace components, mostly chlorine-and bromine-containing gases. These elements in particular 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. David Hofmann, Principal Investigator, Environmental Research Laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Air samples are collected on a weekly basis by the station physician. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory team continues its long-term measurements of carbon dioxide and other climate-relevant atmospheric gases. The Palmer Station air samples are returned to the NOAA laboratory for analysis as part of NOAA's effort to determine and assess the long-term buildup of global pollutants in the atmosphere. Data from this experiment will be used in modeling studies to determine how the rate of change of these parameters affects climate. OO-275-O DOE-EML REMOTE ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM. C. Sanderson, Principal Investigator, Department of Energy, Environmental Measurements Laboratory. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Performed weekly filter changes and monthly disk change. Monthly control filter cartridge was prepared. Filters and data tapes were shipped to the grantees. OO-283-P ANTARCTIC AUTOMATED WEATHER STATIONS. Charles Stearns, Principal Investigator, University of Wisconsin. The Science Technician monitors data transmissions for the project. Automated Weather Station (AWS) transmissions from Bonaparte Point, Hugo Island, and RACER Rock were monitored using the TeraScan system. The Bonaparte Point unit continuedto send an invalid wind speed, presumably due to a CPU failure, the Hugo Island unit currently is not broadcasting, and reception of broadcasts from the RACER Rock unit has been erratic since 06/07 October. Repair of the AWSs is contingent on the arrival of new parts and on vessel scheduling to access the remote sites. R-035 TIDE GAUGE. Tony Amos, Point of Contact, The University of Texas Marine Science Institute. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Tide Gauge: System operating normally. FTP'd data to Tony Amos on a regular basis. TO-312-O TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM R. Whritner, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Provided continuous image support for the South Pole Medevac. A request was made to provide up to five images per day. Also began providing ice image support to the LMG during the GLOBEC cruise, though cloud cover has so far had a negative impact on image quality. Archived clear satellite passes for BP-032-O. Shipped TeraScan and SeaWiFS data tapes to their respective facilities. TO-513-O UV MONITORING NETWORK. C. Booth, Principal Investigator, Biospherical Instruments, Inc. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Noticed leakage around the outside of the equipment "roof-box" where it penetrates the roof of the T-5 building. The leak was subsequently repaired. Recent driving rains have shown the repair to be successful. The system has been operating normally. Performed bi-weekly Absolute Calibration scans.