PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP SEPTEMBER 2001 NEWS FROM THE LAB Brett C. Pickering, Winter Assistant Supervisor, Laboratory Operations September was a busy month for winter personnel preparing for the in coming grantees and station personnel. At the end of the month the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD brought 18 individuals to Palmer Station nearly doubling the on site population during the port call. The scheduled week long port call was abbreviated to four days due to travel difficulties after the tragedy of September 11th. The summer science season began at Palmer with the arrival of Alison Murray's group, BO-179-O, who quickly began to move into the lab. Lab, Marine and Logistics personnel worked quickly to receive and deliver science cargo to the group during the port call. Among the summer personnel who arrived on station were the returning Supervisor Lab Operations and Boating Coordinator as well as the new Instrument Technician. A Hazardous Waste Technician also arrived on the ship to audit the hazardous waste storage, packing and paperwork, as well as to take over the responsibility of managing the hazardous waste at Palmer Station. As a change of station policy there will now be a hazardous waste technician on station at all times who will take over haz waste tasking that has been managed by the lab staff. The Biolab beam sandblasting and painting project continued in September, with nearly three quarters of the work being finished by the end of the month. Clean up beneath the building was begun and 44 drums of lead paint contaminated debris were produced. The late winter weather at Palmer Station continued to be very turbulent and wet. There was only one day without precipitation of some type and two days without snow during September. The melted precipitation was 87.7 mm, which was the highest value for this month from 1989 to 2001. This precipitation fell in the form of 72 cm of snow, giving us measurements as high as 99 cm at the snow stake and a great deal of drifting station-wide. Despite the significant precipitation of September, 2001 is a dryer than normal year at Palmer Station. The average accumulation of precipitation (melted) and snow since 1990 through the month of September was 585 mm and 303 cm, while for this year we have only received 499 mm and 253 cm respectively. The temperature range for the month was between 15.8 and +3.8 C, with an average of 4.3 C. As expected, September was windy with an average speed of 15 knots and a peak gust of 70 knots. As September progressed more wildlife was seen around Palmer Station. In Hero Inlet Three Weddell seals returned to give birth. Many birds seem to be returning to nesting sites and the calls of the Kelp Gulls have become more abundant. The following animals were sighted during the month: Adelie Penguins, Antarctic Terns, Blue-eyed Shags, Elephant Seals, Giant Petrels, Kelp Gulls, Pintado Petrels, Sheathbills, Snow Petrels, Weddell Seals, and an unidentified bird that was probably an Antarctic Petrel. The following programs were involved in research at Palmer Station: BO-179-O GENE EXPRESSION IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: EXTENDING MICROARRAY TECHNOLOGY TO UNDERSTAND LIFE AT ITS LIMITS. Alison E. Murray, Principal Investigator, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada. Personnel on station: Alison Murray, Brandon Carter, Alison Kelley (Desert Research Institute). The BO-179-0 field team arrived at Palmer Station the morning of Sept. 25th on the L. M. Gould, about 6 days later than expected due to travel delays in the USA. We spent the first day and a half receiving materials that came in on the ship and setting up the lab. Arthur Harbor and the local Bismarck Strait region were completely covered with approximately 2 ft. sea ice upon our arrival. Sea ice conditions had been checked by the GSAR leader, Brett Pickering, who notified us that the sea ice may potentially be open for travel to sampling sites. Since the L. M. Gould was in port for a few days during station turnover, it was arranged between the Palmer Station Lab Manager (Rob Edwards), the MPC and Captain of the L. M. Gould to take the ship out for a sampling mission near LTER Station C on Sept. 27th. We departed at 10:30am, and returned around 3:00pm. Near station C (3/10 mile short of the Palmer LTER Station C), we rigged a peristaltic pump to get seawater off the side of the ship. We collected 221 L from a depth of 45m. We also sampled 221 L of "surface" seawater from the moonpool seawater intake system. The bacterioplankton from 400 liters of this seawater was concentrated using a Pellicon-2 tangential flow filtration system. The remainder of the seawater was filtered for DNA extractions (20L) and bacterial enumeration, chlorophyll determination, and in situ hybridizations. Using the SBE-19 CTD from Palmer Station, we took 3 CTD casts, with help from the ship's crew using the A-frame on the LMG. We thank the Captain and crew of the L. M. Gould, the help from the ET, and marine science support staff in making the day trip a successful venture which really helped us get a jump start on our quick season. Likewise, the support of the Palmer lab staff was excellent in helping us get the materials and instruments needed and in working order to get our project started. BP-032-O LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH (LTER) ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT. Raymond C. Smith, Principal Investigator, ICESS, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. The Laboratory Supervisor conducts the weekly sampling. Water was sampled weekly from Palmer Station's seawater intake. Water and air temperatures as well as sea ice coverage was noted during each sampling. The samples were then filtered in a darkened laboratory and stored in a 70 C freezer for subsequent processing. 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. The system has been operating smoothly. However, the FTPing of data ran into problems during the last week of September. Changes where made to the client's ftp server. Our script was expecting the message "221 Goodbye." Their server now sends the message "221 Thank You". Our script has been updated so future changes to the 221 message should not affect it. Immediately after that it was discovered that the clients FTP server was full and data could not be uploaded. They corrected this problem. 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 Z-mass drifted out of spec. Client was notified. The vacuum in bell jar was good so the Z-mass' position was changed. System is running smoothly. 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. There was a small roof leak discovered 05 September. A mouse had to be replaced due to water damage. Some data was not recorded during the time taken to replace the mouse. Plastic was placed over the equipment to protect it incase of more leaking. A work order was placed with FMC to check the roof. Ice was removed from the data cable running up the glacier. The Data cable was re-hung on one post. 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. The computer crashed during the XMIT operation on 10 September. The computer was rebooted. System resumed normal operation. Performed weekly filter changes and monthly filter blank. 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 continued to send an invalid wind speed, presumably due to a CPU failure. RACER Rock transmits telemetry during midday. It is believed that bad batteries are the cause of the lack of telemetry over the past months. The Hugo Island unit still remains off line. Repair of the AWSs is contingent on the arrival of new parts and on vessel scheduling. 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. The acquisition computer had become unstable. Another computer has been configured to run as the acquisition system. The system is running smoothly. On 24 September the tide gauge was snagged by the tractor scoop during snow removal and was lifted up. There seemed to be no damage. The client was notified and it is his determination that just pushing it back down to its original position will work. This will be done when the milvans on the dock are moved out of the way. 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. There was a system crash on 9 September. System was down for about two days. A call was made to Sea Space for technical help getting the system back up. Apparently one of the configuration files had been corrupted and the system replaced it with a default version. All is working well. Ice images where sent to the LMG during part of the month. 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. A change has been made to the SOP. Now level measurements are made and recorded once a week for the PSP and the TUVR instruments. The wavelength potentiometer deviated significantly from the wavelength control and the wavelength counter. The system was recalibrated. A day's data was not collected and some data may not be usable due to a wavelength shift. The problem first showed up on 22 September. A calibration was done. The problem showed up the next day. A call was made to BSI on Monday 24 September to resolve the problem. The system has resumed normal operation. 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. NOTE: THIS PROJECT HAS REACHED THE END OF ITS FUNDING CYCLE. 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.