PALMER STATION SCIENCE MONTHLY REPORT July 2004 NEWS FROM THE LAB Sonja Wolter, Winter Assistant Supervisor Palmer Station seemed quiet, in a welcome sort of way, during July with the absence of any ship visits. Crew members settled into routines and began working through various winter tasking lists. Laboratory-related activities included continued winter inventory and cleaning, as well as the construction of a deck extension outside the aquarium, which will hold the new Environmental Room compressors. The "No Food or Drinks" rule in the labs had to be temporarily suspended while Labs 3, 7, 8 and 10 provided storage for the stationÕs canned and boxed foods during the installation of new flooring and shelving in the Dry Goods Room. No boats hit the water during July except to repair one of the bumpers on the pier, so wildlife spotted during the month was only in the immediate Palmer and Bonaparte areas. These sightings included: Antarctic Sheathbills; Kelp Gulls; Blue-Eyed Shags; Giant Petrels; Snow Petrels; and a Leopard Seal. The phenology can also include Elephant Seals in the "heard, but not seen" category. Additionally, July saw the successful capture of a flying insect and a caterpillar. The insect was euthanized for study, though a positive identification has yet to be made. The caterpillar was made to feel at home in a small terrarium where it progressed to the chrysalis stage. We have anxiously awaited its continued metamorphosis, but at this point we fear it may not advance to the moth or butterfly stage. For those anxiously awaiting the Sun Report, we have had numerous sightings, with the first being up on the glacier just after noon on July 6. Direct rays of the sun first hit station on July 13, though only for approximately five minutes through a well-placed hole in the clouds. The sun shone on station "for real" on July 22 and 31. In additional Sky News, station personnel were treated to two mornings with beautiful nacreous clouds. During July, a paltry 25.2 mm of melted precipitation fell on the station. This included approximately 20 cm of snow, which accumulated to a maximum of 46 cm at the end of the month. Temperatures ranged from a high of +5.8¼C to a low of Š19.1¼C, our lowest temperature of the winter to date. With the cold temperatures at the end of the month, we saw substantial sea ice formation in the area. Winds averaged 11 knots for the month and gusted to a maximum 57 knots. The following projects conducted research at Palmer Station during July: 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 GPS data was collected continually at station PALM, compressed, and transmitted to the USGS in Reston, VA. Real-time differential GPS was used to map the safe travel area on the glacier behind station. 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. The DP computer experienced several more "state exception vector" hangs this month, which were eventually correlated with episodes of broadcast packet flooding on the Palmer LAN. The source of the floods is uncertain at this point, though early signs point to a malfunction in an analog telephone adapter. Vigilant watch is being kept for future packet floods and DP hangs to minimize downtime. O-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. O-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 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-O DOE-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. 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 3 out of every 15 minutes each day, and broadband continuous data was recorded for 6 hours/day. Narrowband continuous data was collected for 12 hours each day. Low intensity LEP (Lightning-induced Electron Precipitation) events were observed sporadically in the narrowband data, and extra jpeg image files highlighting those events were prepared and transferred to Stanford. Several iterations of a post-observation processing routine were installed on the BBS computer in order to look for the signal from the South Pole Beacon transmitter. The preamplifier power supply blew a fuse several times this month. Following the first two failures there was no obvious short in the power lines to the preamp, so the fuse was simply replaced to allow operations to resume. The final blown fuse was accompanied by a highly variable partial short in the conductor pair carrying power through the main cable. After attempts to identify the cable section with the short were inconclusive, the preamplifier was rewired and jumper cables in the VLF hut were switched to allow the power to be carried on a spare conductor pair, bypassing the shorted cables. During the second half of the month, and particularly the period 23-27 July, extremely active magnetospheric conditions led to the burning of many additional DVD-Rs of broadband continuous data. T-312-O 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 and NOAA satellite telemetry, capturing approximately 25 passes per day. A weekly 85GHz SSM/I ice concentration image was produced and transferred to UCSB for B-032-P (Smith). An ice image of the area around 65S and 3E, at the very limit of the Palmer TeraScanÕs range, was provided to the captain of the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER. This area is the likely target of a cruise scheduled for approximately this time of year in 2005. T-513-O 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 projectÕs website www.biospherical.com/nsf/ . Scheduled absolute calibrations were performed on 02, 17, and 28 July. Calibrations performed in the weeks following the annual site visit demonstrated an unexpected drift, either in lamp intensity or system response. The systemÕs collector, upper optics, and PMT assembly were all examined closely for irregularities, but none were found. By the end of the month the drift had slowed to almost nothing, where it is hoped that it will remain. TIDE GAGE Tony Amos, Point of Contact, The University of Texas Marine Science Institute 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 semimonthly 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. A small bug in the Matlab scripts used to generate the monthly report was identified and fixed. The scripts were ill-equipped to deal with a day on which the wind blew from two different directions for the exact same amount of time, and encountering such a day resulted in a graceless termination of script execution. Repeats of the still unexplained glitches seen in May produced spurious air temperature and light sensor readings on several occasions. Most of these were single-point (one-minute) oddities or lasted for only a few minutes, but the final one, on 29 July, continued for almost fourteen hours. In all cases the readings returned to appropriate values with no intervention. Following the extended period, and after consultation with Coastal Environmental, the snow depth sensor inputs were disconnected from the data logger. This sensor has never functioned properly, and if its malfunctions occasionally produce a substantial current draw, they may lead to the erroneous values seen on the other analog sensor channels.