PALMER STATION SCIENCE MONTHLY REPORT January 2003 Dr. William Fraser, Station Science Leader NEWS FROM THE LAB Rob Edwards, Lab Supervisor As noted by several projects below, the biggest news is the exceptionally sunny, storm-free weather throughout the month of January. Six days were either clear or partly cloudy, with average wind speed of 5 knots and precipitation totaling 21 mm of rain. The precip. mostly fell on just one stormy day, when the winds gusted up above 50 knots. The rest of the days often had a feeling of wonderment to the Palmer community, struck by the abundant sunshine and the appearance of old Sol himself for at least an hour or so. The good weather meant that the Zodiac fleet was well used by project personnel, and access to study areas was essentially continuous throughout the month. January is always a change of pace at Palmer Station, as most LTER personnel head out for the summer research cruise aboard the ARSV LAURENCE M. GOULD. New personnel come in to fill the gap, this year including a returning research project, BO- 022-P (Amsler, Baker, and McClintock), two artists, a journalist, and additional seabird researchers. There also were RPSC site visitors from the Environmental team and the new Planning group, and Dr. Polly Penhale as NSF Representative. The new Laboratories are midway through their shakedown year, with positive reviews and lots of new bench space, but also lots of valuable suggestions from researchers for refinements. These are all being compiled and passed on to RPSC Facilities division and the NSF Program Managers. Rob Edwards took over the on- site Lab Manager duties from Cara Sucher. Wildlife is running at full force during the month, from the chaos of the penguin colonies to the shoreline hunting by Leopard Seals. This past month has been an especially vigorous one for Touristicus interruptis, with multiple tour ships visiting every week. Disruption to research, however, has been kept to a minimum by careful planning and implementation of the tour program for Station visitors, primarily through the efforts of Brenda Walker and Joe Pettit. Feedback from the tour operators has indicated that the groups have all been impressed with the station facilities and research program, not to mention the friendly guides, the display aquarium, the store, and of course, the brownies. The following projects conducted research at Palmer Station this month: BP-013-P: PALMER, ANTARCTICA LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: CLIMATE MIGRATION, ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE AND TELECONNECTIONS IN AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT: SEABIRD COMPONENT William R. Fraser, Principal Investigator, Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, MT. and BO-198-P: MONITORING THE EFFECTS OF TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY ON ADELIE PENGUINS AT PALMER STATION, ANTARCTICA William R. Fraser, Principal Investigator, Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, MT. Personnel on station: Chris Denker, Brett Pickering, Cindy Anderson, Heidi Geisz, Jennifer Jerrett, Donna Patterson and Bill Fraser. The arrival of the Laurence M. Gould on January 4 increased our personnel by four people, Bill Fraser, Donna Patterson, Jennifer Jerrett and Heidi Geisz. Two of our field team members, Heidi Geisz and Brett Pickering, however, departed January 6th on the annual LTER cruise. This left four personnel on station to continue the Palmer-based component of our LTER and tourist impacts studies. Weather and ice conditions during January were, like December, nothing short of extraordinary in terms of relative warmth, an absence of rain and high winds and negligible amounts of ice. This resulted in an unprecedented 31 days of continuous access to our research sites. As a result of this remarkable weather, we experienced no delays in the start of several time-sensitive studies, including Adélie penguin diet sampling, the application of presence/absence and satellite-linked transmitters and dive-depth recorders. Together these data serve as indices of krill availability in the marine foraging environment of Adélie penguins, and as proxies for looking at changes in krill demography that may be important to understanding other aspects of the ecology of these penguins. By mid-month we also completed several censuses used to assess interannual variability in breeding chronology and chick survival, and also concluded our studies on Adelie Penguin breeding biology initiated in early October. The calm weather also permitted us to reach remote study sites on the Dream and Joubin islands and on Biscoe Point, where a significant time series on Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins is being developed that includes data on population trends, breeding success and foraging ecology. As in past seasons, we have continued the acquisition of basic data on the demography, breeding biology and foraging ecology of Giant Petrels, Kelp Gulls, Blue-eyed Shags and Brown and South Polar Skuas. These data add to several species-specific time series that began in the mid-1970s. One or more large tour ships and several smaller sailboats visited Palmer each week during January. Coincident with these visits, we monitored Torgersen Island to obtain data on tourist flow, and to compare aspects of Adélie penguin reproductive biology and ecology with control sites not visited by tourists. Although this effort repeats work done in past seasons as part of a long- term monitoring study to look at human impacts, our work this season is focusing more on tourist flow patterns that may contribute to habituation of Adelies to human presence, as formal experiments dealing with habituation are planned for next season. Our work this month benefited greatly from the able help given us by many Raytheon employees, but especially Laura Hamilton, Bob Jirschele, Doug Fink, Tom Cohenour and Jeff Kietzmann, BO-022-P: THE CHEMICAL ECOLOGY OF SHALLOW- WATER MARINE MACROALGAE AND INVERTEBRATES ON THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA Bill Baker, University of South Florida Personnel on station: Bill Baker, Kevin Peters, Dan Martin Activities commenced 5 Jan with collection of experimental animals by SCUBA. With dives targeting the sponge Suberites sp., we were able to secure the necessary two dozen animals within the first week and a half. Other experimental animals, including the sea stars Odontaster validus and Perknaster sp., were collected in sufficient numbers in the same time frame, allowing aquarium experiments to commence by the third week of January. Those experiments will continue through the end of S-022's field season. Opportunistic collections of other specimens of interest were also carried out. Laboratory chemical isolations were carried out on two species of continuing interest with aquarium bioassays implemented to direct those efforts. WO-221-P: TERRA INCOGNITA: ANVERS ISLAND AND SURROUNDING AREA Scott Kelley, Groundfish, Inc. Arrived at Palmer Station on 4 January, 2003. Within 24 hours, my lab was set up and I had completed boating I and II courses, and on the 6th, spent most of my day at Bonaparte Point, either taking pictures for future reference or drawing on site. Additionally, I began to collect specimens from the various sites visited: rocks, bones, feathers, pieces of wood, etc., as allowed through my NSF permits. This was essentially the pattern that I would work with for the duration of my time on station: go out in a zodiac in the early morning, work in my lab in the afternoon, and perhaps go out in a zodiac in the evening, all contingent upon the weather. In this way, I was able to visit most of the islands within the 2-mile limit, and gather visual and physical material relevant to each island, as well as photograph countless icebergs in the general area. During my stay, I gave a science lecture regarding some of my most recent works prior to coming to Antarctica, as well as offer a watercolor workshop for station personnel. Additionally, I exhibited my Antarctic work, along with Jim Woodside, so that everyone on station could get an idea of what we accomplished while at Palmer. Upon departing Palmer Station, I had accumulated a large inventory of both paintings and specimens. I completed approximately 35 paintings, half of which could be considered significant works, the other half sketches done as reference. Additionally, I filed over 1500 digital photographs, shot over 80 rolls of film, and filled two large 18x18x18" tri-wall boxes with specimens. None of this would have been possible without the efforts and enthusiasm of Joe Pettit, station manager, or Polly Penhale, NSF Representative, who went out of their way to facilitate my travels from island to island. Bill Fraser and Donna Patterson also deserve thanks, always willing to taxi me from island to island, and answer my endless questions. Additionally, Cara Sucher, Rob Edwards, and Doug Fink were each indispensible in their own way, and my time on station would not have been as efficient or as productive, had it not been for their help. WO-223-P: TO PAINT IN ANTARCTICA James Woodside, Walnut Hill School Coming to Palmer, my plan was to do oil landscape paintings from direct observation, working outside as much as possible, conditions and weather permitting. This plan worked out better than I could have ever anticipated and it was an extremely productive and magnificant month for me as an artist. I painted every day, and completed well over 20 oil paintings. In addition, I did numerous works on paper, including both pencil drawings and oil pastel drawings. Upon first arriving at Palmer, I did most of my work in the immediate vicinity of the station ( views of Arthur Harbor and the glacier, Hero Inlet, etc.), however, the real substance of the work I did, and the experience I had painting, was at Old Palmer where I had a tent set up as a kind of "field studio". Here Ii did oil paintings of various views from that sight. This was a fantastic place to work and I could've painted for months there. As stated, the weather was exceptionally cooperative, and I only had to actually retreat inside the tent to paint once or twice. I could go on and on about this experience, but I leave it at that for now. Suffice to say, it was sublime.....a dream coming true for me. Back on station, the lab/studio was a wonderful base of operations for me. While I didn't paint there, it was very useful as a place to organize my thoughts and materials, and to plan each painting excursion/day. Having it really helped me to utilize my time productively. Moreover, EVERYONE on station was incredibly friendly, supportive and helpful to me, answering questions and helping me solve problems whether it was part of their designated area/job assignment or not. I can´t thank them enough. NSF MEDIA PROGRAM: AUDIO JOURNALISM AT PALMER STATION Dan Grossman I spent a month at Palmer as part of the NSF Media program, and my stay there was highly productive. I spent much of my time reporting on the research of Bill Fraser and Donna Patterson. I plan to produce a number of public radio documentaries and shorter shows about Adelie penguins and giant petrels. I also did some reporting on the chemical ecology research of Bill Baker and his team. Finally, a good deal of time was spent producing material for a web site about my trip, and about life and research at Palmer Station (www.wbur.org/special/antarctica). The site was largely completed by the time I left Palmer, though some additional material will be added later. 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. GPS data was provided to the British Antarctic Survey to help improve the accuracy of their aerial helicopter surveying around Rothera Station. Rothera’s own GPS base station was not operating at that time. A portable GPS system capable of receiving differential broadcasts from Palmer’s base station was set up and provided to RPSC Safety & Environmental personnel to help survey some small, old dump sites. The survey information will help with estimating the volume of debris to be removed. 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 real time. A cooling fan that had failed in the data processing computer was replaced. The backup batteries for the data acquisition computer inside the seismic building were replaced. The seismometers were adjusted at that time as well. 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 strikes that are a principle source of natural VLF signals. Broadband continuous data collection was increased from 9 hours/day to 24 hours/day for most of the month to coincide with data collection by VLF instruments carried by high altitude balloons that were launched by the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan. Data archival alternated between DVD’s and Betamax magnetic tapes. Although it was expected that the balloons would circumnavigate Antarctica, they stalled a little less than halfway around and eventually descended toward the west coast of Chile. This 24/7 VLF data was also to be used by Stanford in conjunction with a sprite research project that was conducted on the Space Shuttle by Tel Aviv University, Israel. Sprites are massive but weak luminous flashes that appear directly above thunderstorms. A new version of the post processing software for the narrowband system was installed and debugged that will monitor transmissions from the new South Pole VLF Beacon antenna. Extra raw and processed broadband synoptic data files were transferred to Stanford where they are being examined for detection of transmissions from the new South Pole VLF Beacon antenna. 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 semiweekly 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 sent 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 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. 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 RACER Rock anemometer is broken. The Hugo Island AWS is not currently transmitting. On 12 January 2003, the temperature values from Racer Rock AWS suddenly shifted downward 17°C. Over the following 4 days, the temperature values drifted back to values that are fairly believable. 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, capturing approximately 25 passes per day. An 85GHz SSM/I “ice concentration” image was produced and transferred to UCSB for BP-032-P (Smith) on a weekly basis. Ice images were provided to the Laurence M. Gould for use in planning and navigation on their LTER cruise. Images were also sent to the POC’s of the upcoming LMG03-02 and LMG03-03 cruises for use in planning. 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. 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. New predicted tide data files were received and installed early in the month. The files were initially incorrect but problems with both the files and the acquisition program itself were determined and repaired. Later in the month, new tide prediction calendars were received from the University of Texas and distributed to interested parties. METEOROLOGY The Science Technician acts as chief weather observer, and compiles and distributes meteorological data. Each day, three synoptic weather observations were performed, coded, and sent to Rothera Station via HF radio. At the end of the month, a summary report was prepared and sent to interested parties. The spreadsheet macro that generates the real time graphs for the PALMOS system was modified to improve the wind direction chart. The Report Generator software from Coastal Environmental Systems, which was specified to replace the synoptic observations using PALMOS data, has never been successfully implemented. Dialogue between RPSC and Coastal as to how to provide Palmer Station with a program that will function according to the original specifications had bogged down in previous months, however a new chief engineer at Coastal was assigned to the project and senior RPSC personnel have assisted in trying to push this project to completion. Meanwhile, the thrice daily manual synoptic observations will continue.