PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP May 2002 NEWS FROM THE LAB Cherie M. Wilson, Winter Assistant Supervisor, Laboratory Operations Work on the laboratory remodel project continued throughout the month. Demolition activities were completed and construction of subfloors and walls were major projects. Most of the new doors were installed as were electrical, plumbing, sprinkler systems, ductwork, and a new boiler system. Both the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD and the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER visited Palmer Station. The R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD arrived on May 14 and departed on the morning of May 16. Palmer Station enjoyed an evening of science presentations for all the research projects being conducted on the ship. Equipment and supplies were transferred between the ship and station. The R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER arrived the same day the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD left. That evening, station personnel were invited on board for a barbeque, which was followed by an evening of "shore leave", with the ship departing in the early morning. Birds sighted during the month included juvenile Giant Petrels, Snow Petrels, cormorants, Storm Petrels, Snowy Sheathbills, Kelp Gulls, and Gentoo penguins. A solitary Gentoo penguin spent the night sitting on the grating in front of the pumphouse, where we also encountered a fur seal in the dark. There was a single sighting of a leopard seal hauled out on an ice floe and on the last day of the month, a pair of Humpback whales were sighted near Janus and DaLaca Islands. Humble Island continued to be a popular spot for Elephant Seals. Temperatures began to decline around the middle of the month, with occasional snowfalls of very dry, light snow that adhered poorly to the glacier. Pancake ice that did form went out with the tide. We have had a parade of icebergs in the harbor and smaller ones in Hero Inlet including one very large one that was about 1/2 the size of one of the ships during their visits. The following projects conducted research at Palmer Station this month: BP-013-O: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT (SEABIRD COMPONENT) Dr. William R. Fraser, Principal Investigator, Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, MT. George Ryan and Jennifer Jerrett concluded weekly weight measurements of southern giant petrel chicks on Humble Island. AO-106-P: GLOBAL THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE RADIATION BELTS AND THE LOWER IONOSPHERE Umran Inan, Principal Investigator, Stanford University. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The Stanford equipment receives and records Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio waves in order to study natural ionospheric and magnetospheric phenomena, as well as to study the distribution of the lightning strokes that are a principle source of natural VLF signals. Synoptic recordings were missed on 02 May at 1320 and 1335 UT due to an unplanned power outage of approximately ten minutes' duration. All four data acquisition computers were reconfigured with consistent names, network domains, and user names and passwords. Startup batch files on the computers running NT were modified (or created) to include a ten second pause prior to onset of data acquisition in order to allow various libraries and modules to load completely during boot-up. The BBC data acquisition program froze approximately halfway through its normal recording period on 13 May. The computer was rebooted, and collection was normal on subsequent days. Narrowband viewing software was received from the grantees and, after minor modification, successfully installed on both narrowband computers. Data will now be reviewed and summary plots will be transferred to the grantees on a daily basis. GO-052-P: GPS CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING REFERENCE STATION Jerry Mullins, Principal Investigator, U.S. Geological Survey. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Throughout the month, 15-second epoch GPS transmissions were collected continually at station PALM. Each day, the previous day's data file was examined for completeness, compressed, and transmitted to the USGS in Reston, VA. Static GPS surveys were performed on the benchmark COR1 on 05 May and on the benchmark PMR1 on 07 May. As many data files as possible were retrieved from old Zip disks in an attempt to fill in a gap in the local data archive that stretches from mid- December 2000 through March 2001. GO-090-P: GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK (GSN) SITE AT PALMER STATION Rhett Butler, Principal Investigator, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Station PMSA is one of more than 130 sites in the GSN, monitoring seismic waves produced by events worldwide. Data files are recorded to tape and also sent to the USGS in near real time, as the local Internet connection allows. OO-204-O: A STUDY OF ATMOSPHERIC OXYGEN VARIABILITY IN RELATION TO ANNUAL TO DECADAL VARIATIONS IN TERRESTRIAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS 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-264-O: COLLECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR FOR THE NOAA\CMDL WORLDWIDE FLASK SAMPLING NETWORK David Hofmann, Principal Investigator, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, 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 (RAMP) Colin Sanderson, Principal Investigator, Department of Energy, Environmental Measurements Laboratory. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. 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. One sample filter was exposed for the duration of each week, and a weekly schedule of calibration, background, and sample counts was maintained. Battery backup kept the system mainly operational during a brief power outage on 02 May, but the pump did not run while the power was out. OO-283-P: ANTARCTIC AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATIONS (AWS) Charles Stearns, Principal Investigator, University of Wisconsin. The Science Technician monitors data transmissions for the project. 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 failure within its electronics unit, and the Hugo Island and RACER Rock units remained off line. The recently received batteries were charged and placed in the new battery boxes, then boxes, batteries, cables, and the solar panel were placed aboard the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD for future deployment as needed at RACER Rock or Hugo Island. A visit was paid to the Bonaparte Point unit for further investigation of its failure to report a wind speed. Results of the visit were relayed to Wisconsin for commentary. TO-312-O: TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM Dan Lubin, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Throughout the month, the TeraScan system collected, archived, and processed DMSP and NOAA satellite telemetry, maintaining a schedule of 20-25 passes per day. After the discovery that the serial control cable in use with the older HR100 receiver is not compatible with the new HR300 receiver, the proper cable was put into place, and operation with the HR300 commenced. The system's global configuration file mysteriously vanished on 17 May and again on 19 May, with predictably catastrophic results for data collection. The problem followed a series of GPS error messages, a variety of which have plagued the system for some time, but it's unclear if the relationship is causal, meaningfully coincidental, or randomly coincidental. The configuration parameters were re-entered, and pass capture was resumed after a few hours of downtime on each occasion. Two infrared images of the Marguerite Bay region, two of the Grandidier channel, and one of the area around Crystal Sound were provided to the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD in support of the GLOBEC cruise. After the completion of the cruise, two more infrared images of Marguerite Bay, as well as 85 GHz SSM/I "ice concentration" images comparing the extent of the pack ice this year to the same time in 2000, were provided to the POC of the GLOBEC cruises. An 85GHz SSM/I "ice concentration" image was produced and transferred to UCSB for BP-032-P (Smith) on a weekly basis. TO-513-O: ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRORADIOMETER NETWORK Charles Booth, Principal Investigator, Biospherical Instruments, Inc. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The BSI UV monitor produces full sky irradiance spectra ranging from the atmospheric UV cutoff near 290nm up to 605nm, four times per hour, while the sun is above the horizon. Limited preliminary results are available on-site in near real time, while fully calibrated data sets are made available by BSI on a periodic basis. The system stayed operational on UPS power for the duration of the roughly ten minute power outage on 02 May, but the PMT warmed up a bit before the power was restored. Absolute Scans were performed on 06 and 21 May. Preliminary UV data files for the month of April were provided to Chris Hewes of UCSD. Preliminary UV data files were made available on-site on a daily basis for BP-016-P (Vernet). TIDE GAGE 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 height and sea water temperature and salinity are monitored on a continual basis by a gage mounted at the Palmer Station pier. Data collection was switched from a network drive to the local hard drive for the roughly six hours of a planned network interruption on 01 May. SYNOPTIC WEATHER OBSERVATIONS Each day, three synoptic weather observations were performed, coded, and sent to Rothera Station via HF radio. Continuing the retroactive QA/QC of the weather records, observations from January and the first half of February 2002 were checked, and corrections were made wherever necessary and possible.