PALMER STATION SCIENCE MONTHLY REPORT July 2005 NEWS FROM THE LAB Janice O'Reilly, Winter Assistant Supervisor, Laboratory Operations Palmer Station seemed quiet during July with the absence of any ship visits, however the 20 station crew continued working through various winter tasking lists. Laboratory-related activities included inventorying chemicals, updating MSDS records, preparing new spill kits, and maintaining equipment. FEMC cleaned and serviced laboratory fume hoods and freezers, and completed many work orders. Significant progress had been made on the IMS building during July. Interior partition walls have been drywalled and painted, the ceiling tiles set, and the windows are boxed and trimmed. The completion of the walls allowed the electricians to bring permanent power inside the building. Both interior and exterior lights have been installed, and the building is being heated with its own two furnaces. The exterior siding continues to make progress with two of three sides completed. Preparations are under way to run the fiber optic cable and all call speaker wiring from SATCOM to IMS July was a mixed bag, weather-wise. Frequent storm fronts passed through, with intervening calm days and partially clear weather. Daytime clouds and fog often cleared at night, revealing spectacular starry skies. Temperatures swung rapidly with each storm, peaking at high of +3.2C during an early July warm front, and dropping to a low of -16.6C on the last day of the month. The average temperature was -5.7C, almost a degree lower than the historical average of -4.9C. The sun reappeared above the glacier on July 14th, bathing the station in direct sunlight after an absence of 41 days: a welcome sight. Melted precipitation, coming down as rain, snow, or snow pellets, was 31mm, about two-thirds of the normal for July. Yet snowfall, mostly dry and airy flakes, was 45cm, very close to monthly average of 47cm. Between the colder-than-normal temperatures and lack of rain, the total snow accumulation at the end of the month stood at 70cm, a new record. Winds averaged 8 knots, with a peak gust of 56 knots. On the majority of days the wind came from the north or northeast, pushing the seasonal pack ice away from Anvers Island. By the end of the month however, and with the help of a few storms from the west and south, the pack ice finally arrived in force. Although there were still patches of open water in the Gerlache, Neumayer, and around some of the local islands, floes, icebergs, and pancake ice stretched to the horizon. With only a few days of open water and the formation of dense sea ice, boating activities ended early in the month. Most wildlife observations were limited to the immediate Palmer area, Bonaparte Point and Kristie Cove. Some of the wildlife still present in the area included snowy sheathbills, kelp gulls, blue-eyed shags, giant petrels, snow petrels and leopard seals. Early in the month a fur seal was seen resting on the shore of Hero Inlet. Periodically, elephant seal belching could be heard from nearby islands. The following are summaries of research projects taking place on Palmer Station: PALMER STATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATE MONTHLY REPORT July 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. 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). Imagery was provided for station operations and upcoming cruises, especially ice concentration images of the northern Weddell and South Orkney Islands area. 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 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. The system power supply failed late in the month and was soon diagnosed and fixed. 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 installation of a backup meteorological system, utilizing a smaller array of calibrated instruments, has been successfully completed. Temperature, humidity, dew point, barometric pressure, wind speed and wind direction are now recorded on an independent system. The instruments are located on the same mast as the PalMOS instruments, allowing for a reasonable intercomparison between systems.