PALMER STATION SCIENCE MONTHLY REPORT August 2005 NEWS FROM THE LAB Janice O'Reilly, Winter Assistant Supervisor, Laboratory Operations August was a busy month at Palmer Station as staff worked hard to meet deadlines on many work orders before the arrival of the first ship. Lab floors were cleaned and polished, fume hood auto dialers were installed, chemicals were inventoried and MSDS records were updated. The Logistics department called forward science cargo from the PA Warehouse, processed re-supply orders and monitored the movement of science materials through the cargo tracking system. Station-wide, staff reached completion on numerous projects in preparation for the fast approaching summer season. Significant visual milestones were achieved on the IMS project. The exterior siding package is complete and scaffolding removed from the jobsite. The inside has become much brighter with the addition of white floor tiles. Walls were touched up, doors hung and the interior trim package completed. The electricians finished the installation of the branch circuit's conduit and wiring. Mechanical system controls were installed and tested, and fire detection system devices were put in place. Fiber optic cable was pulled from SATCOM and the fibers spliced. In September the Palmer Station intranet will be extended to the IMS building. Final clean up is under way in preparation for the addition of the furniture and the return of the ship. Station personnel are planning an informal open house to mark the conclusion of a successful season, highlighted by the addition of Palmer Station's newest building. August's weather was windy and unpredictable -- in other words, normal for Palmer at this time of the year. Wind gusts peaked above 25 knots on more than half the days, with a maximum gust of 65 knots on the 11th. Average for the month was 10 knots. While snowfall, 27cm, was about normal, the total melted precipitation of 30.7mm was roughly half the 15-year average of 56.6mm. Temperatures swung from a maximum of +2.0C to a minimum of -19.9C; the average for the month was -6.1 which is very close to the typical average. On the majority of days the wind came from either the northeast or northwest, continuing to keep the pack ice off shore. The Gerlache and Neumayer remained relatively ice-free throughout the entire month. Sea ice in front of the station, however, was generally solid, although not under pressure. Hero Inlet was tested behind the trolley line and found to be 12" thick or more, suitable for safe travel by station snowshoers and skiers. The thick sea ice cover didn't discourage animals from visiting Palmer Station during August. There were limited seal sightings early in the month, including a Weddell seal resting on the surface of Hero Inlet next to a chewed-out hole in the ice, an elephant seal lying on an ice floe in Arthur Harbor and a leopard seal observing some backyard hikers from Arthur Harbor. Several bird species were identified, including giant petrels, snowy sheathbills, kelp gulls, blue-eyed shags, snow petrels, Pintado petrels and Antarctic terns. On August 18 a pair of gentoo penguins walked into Hero Inlet, retracing their tracks the next day. Two days later a group of 18 gentoos waddled their way from Arthur Harbor to the end of Hero Inlet and rested for the evening. Some of the best wildlife photographs of the winter were taken during August. PALMER STATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATE MONTHLY REPORT August 2005 G-052-P GPS CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING REFERENCE STATION. Jerry Mullins, Principal Investigator, U.S. Geological Survey The Research Associate operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Throughout the month, 15-second epoch interval GPS data files were collected continually at station PALM, compressed, and transmitted to the NASA/CDDIS in Greenbelt, MD. G-090-P GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK (GSN) SITE AT PALMER STATION. Rhett Butler, Principal Investigator, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) The Research Associate 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 real-time to the U.S. Geological Survey. O-202-P ANTARCTIC METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTER (AMRC) SATELLITE DATA INGESTOR. Charles Stearns, Principal Investigator, University of Wisconsin The Research Associate operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The AMRC SDI computer processes satellite telemetry received by the Palmer Station TeraScan system, extracting Automated Weather Station information and low-resolution infrared imagery and sending the results to AMRC headquarters in Madison, WI. O-204-P 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. O-264-P 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 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. Air samples are collected on a weekly basis by the station physician. O-275-P DHS-EML REMOTE ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM (RAMP). Colin Sanderson, Principal Investigator, Department of Homeland Security, Environmental Measurements Laboratory 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. The Research Associate operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Over the course of the past several months, EML has noted a decrease in system resolution. During July the Research Associate performed several calibrations and system tests at the direction of EML to identify the cause of the deterioration. As suspected from the outset, the culprit was determined to be the NaI detector. Although the system is still working, albeit at a substandard level, a replacement sensor is being shipped to Palmer. O-283-P ANTARCTIC AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATIONS (AWS). Charles Stearns, Principal Investigator, University of Wisconsin The Research Associate monitors data transmissions for the project. AWS transmissions from Bonaparte Point, Hugo Island, and Racer Rock were monitored using the TeraScan system, with only Bonaparte Point currently operational. AWS data received was also forwarded to UCSB for B-032-P (Smith). A-306-P GLOBAL THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE RADIATION BELTS AND THE LOWER IONOSPHERE. Umran Inan, Principal Investigator, Stanford University The Research Associate 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 synoptic data was recorded on a schedule of three out of every 15 minutes each day, and broadband continuous data was recorded for at least nine hours per day. Narrowband continuous data was collected for 12 hours each day. Additional data recordings were collected this month in support of the High frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) campaign and also Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash (TGF) events. T-312-P TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM. Dan Lubin, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Research Associate operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Throughout the month, the TeraScan system collected, archived, and processed DMSP, NOAA, and ORBVIEW-2 satellite telemetry, capturing approximately 25-30 passes per day. A weekly 85GHz SSM/I ice concentration image was produced and transferred to UCSB for B-032-P (Smith). Ice concentration images were provided to the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD and grantee group B-050-L for planning and support of upcoming cruises. Throughout the winter season, the Bransfield Strait and Gerlache Strait have remained relatively ice-free, with the bulk of the pack ice remaining to the south and west of Anvers Island. By the end of August pack ice and brash had moved north of 60 degrees south latitude. A-357-P EXTENDING THE SOUTH AMERICAN MERIDIONAL B-FIELD ARRAY (SAMBA) TO AURORAL LATITUDES IN ANTARCTICA Eftyhia Zesta, Principal Investigator, University of California Los Angeles The three-axis fluxgate magnetometer is one in a chain of longitudinal, ground-based magnetometers extending down though South America and into Antarctica. The primary scientific goals are the study of ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) waves and the remote sensing of mass density in the inner magnetosphere during geomagnetically active periods. Palmer's magnetometer is also a conjugate to the Canadian Poste de la Baleine station, allowing the study of conjugate differences in geomagnetic substorms and general auroral activity. The station Research Associate maintains the on-site system. B-390-P: THERMO-SALINOGRAPH Vernon Asper, Principal Investigator, University of Southern Mississippi Sea water is pumped continuously through a TSG sampling system, recording the temperature, conductivity, salinity, and fluorescence. The real-time data, including graphs and web camera images of the ocean in the vicinity of Palmer Station, are compiled by a local server into web page format and relayed to a mirror site at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which is a collaborator in the project. The URL for the WHOI mirror site is http://4dgeo.whoi.edu/tsg/. T-513-P ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRORADIOMETER NETWORK Charles Booth, Principal Investigator, Biospherical Instruments, Inc The Research Associate operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. A BSI SUV-100 UV spectroradiometer 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. A BSI GUV-511 filter radiometer, which has four channels in the UV and one channel in the visible for measuring Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), is located next to the SUV-100. Data from the GUV-511 instrument is made available on a daily basis on the project's website at http://www.biospherical.com/nsf. TIDE GAGE The Research Associate operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Tide height, seawater temperature, and salinity are monitored on a continual basis by a gage mounted at the Palmer Station pier. METEOROLOGY The Research Associate acts as chief weather observer, and compiles and distributes meteorological data. At the end of the month a summary report is prepared and sent to interested parties. Weather data collected using the automated electronic system is archived locally and forwarded twice each month to the University of Wisconsin for archiving and further distribution. Synoptic reports are automatically generated every six hours by the Palmer Meteorological Observing System (PalMOS) and emailed to the NOAA for entry into the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Current weather observations for all Antarctic stations, including Palmer, are available on the web at: http://www.wunderground.com/global/AA.html. The PalMOS server was upgraded in August as a part of a normal life-cycle replacement.