Jonathan Eisch’s Weblog

Well, here I am, back at McMurdo. It took us a lot longer to get to the base from the ice runway than it did last time. That’s because the two icebreakers have broken up the ice that we used to drive on. It’s all in preparation for The Ship, which brings a lot of the big equipment and supplies here to McMurdo, and then to the other bases (including the South Pole). I think the IceCube water drill is on the ship, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, my transition to a daytime schedule is still in progress, and I’m feeling a little sleepy. Luckily, this time I have a room to myself (for now, given that it has five beds), so I should be able to get a nap in before dinner. Hopefully I’ll get out to do some exploring tomorrow. We’ll see.

That’s news for now,
-Jonathan

Hi All,

Well, yesterday was the (slightly delayed) New Year’s Eve party, which was lots of fun. There was live music, dancing, beverages, snacks and Jell-O. A good time was had by all. After that, I decided that I’d get back to a daytime schedule, so I went to sleep. I woke up refreshed and ready for breakfast. Or at least I thought I was ready for breakfast. It turns out that I had slept for about an hour, and I was really ready for Lunch (my body’s schedule) and I was only refreshed because my body thought it was early afternoon. That was disappointing, as brunch wasn’t for another six and a half hours. But I persisted. I think I managed to return to a sleep-like state a couple more times, until finally it was brunch time, and I got up.

Understandably, soon after that I felt a bit sleepy (my body thought it was night time), but I stayed up, and packed, and went out to SPASE, and took pictures of the station. Now I’m about ready to go to bed, in my nice warm bed, here at the South Pole…

I’m going to miss it here. I had a good time, learned a lot, got a lot done and met a lot of really neat people. I hope I have an opportunity to come back in the future (maybe next year?). At the same time, I’m also looking forward to being home with my family, having missed celebrating the holidays with them. I’m also looking forward to being back at River Falls with my friends. But one thing at a time. My plane (should) be leaving here around noon local time. Then I’m going to spend two days in McMurdo (another flight opened up on the 7th) and then three (maybe more) in Christchurch, then I get on the first of a series of planes to take me home.

Again, thanks for reading and thanks for the comments,
-Jonathan

Hi All,

I uploaded some more pictures. So, go take a look at those. The last page or two is from inside a C-130 (the type of plane that I took from New Zealand to McMurdo station and from McMurdo to here) that was left at the end of the runway many long years ago after it crash-landed. Over the years, it has mostly filled with snow, and it’s completely covered with snow (we have to climb down about 10 feet to get to the top). It was a couple mile hike to get out there, but it was fun. A group of us went (me with Chips Ahoy! in my pockets) and we had a good time. None of us brought a flashlight, so we only had light in the cockpit, from the escape hatch. I went back into the cargo area, and just blindly snapped pictures, using the flash to guide my way (that’s why there are so many pictures). By the way, even though that plane crash landed, everyone escaped without major injuries, they’re impressive planes.

Then I called my favorite older sister Sara’s house and talked to her and my nephews and niece over there. They all had good questions for me (I was very impressed). When I asked Luke if he wanted to be a scientist when he grows up, he said “sure.” That sounds pretty promising to me! I tried telling Matthew (the youngest) about penguins, he shouted “ducks!” a few times, so I gathered that he made the association about both being birds that like the water. Both Jacob and Julia mentioned that their weather was a lot warmer than mine. I tried calling my older brother and my other niece (Afton, who also wants to be a scientist) but they weren’t home. Afton wasn’t very impressed with my lab at River Falls though, because I didn’t have “bubbling test tubes and stuff.” I guess she’s just more interest in chemistry.

After that, I spent most of my day working on programming. Now, I think I’m going to bed. Enjoy the pictures! (oh yeah, at some point I’m going to add descriptions of the pictures.)

-Jonathan

Well, it turns out that there are these cupboards in the galley. In these cupboards there are boxes of Chips Ahoy!, Oreos, Goldfish crackeres, salteens, and a whole bunch of other goodies. These things are just there for people to take. Just like home!

So now I have a package of Chips Ahoy! in my room. And, boy, are they yummy!

-Jonathan

Well, I didn’t have much of a log for yesterday, so that’s where I’ll start for today.

Yesterday (or should I say last year) was pretty much business as usual. Going out to the tanks, sweeping the snow off the surface of the ice, sending out the daily log files back to Bartol, etc. I had John’s help though, so that made things go faster. The shipment with the DAQ computer and other equipment hasn’t gotten here yet, so John will be running out of things to do pretty soon. I’ll try to keep him busy though.

As I mentioned, we gathered out by the pole at midnight, to celebrate the new year. As we go by New Zealand Daylight Time (as if we could get more daylight) which is GMT +13 hours, we were with the first to bring in the New Year. As Glenn (Dr. Spiczak to me) mentioned, it only takes a beer or two to get you tipsy at this attitude, and that’s all anyone had, at least by that point. So kickball wasn’t State-Street-in-Madison-on-Halloween drunk, just a little tipsy.

After that bunch of us went in for MIDRATS (MIDnight RATionS, yes, everything here has an acronym) to get in from the cold and have a bite to eat. Some of the more rambunctious of us went to the smoking bar for some New Years frivolity, but I didn’t feel like it. I’m pretty much on the night shift these days, up from dinner to breakfast, so midnight is about my body’s lunchtime, and I have plenty of work to do during the night (my afternoon). So, I got some work one on my analysis program (mostly cleaning up code still) and then made some phone calls from the phone down in the lab. After that, breakfast and sleep.

Today we had the official pole moving ceremony. The station is on a glacier that is always moving, at about 10 meters a year. So the pole needs to be moved every year. Every year there is a new marker, designed by the winter-over crew from the previous year. Right now the pole is right infront of the station, but when the new station is decommissioned, in 40 years, it’ll be a quarter mile away. Kinda strange to think about. The official party (in one of the big garages) will be Saturday evening. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m a little disappointed because the LCD display on my digital camera stopped working, but I can still use the camera, so the pictures will keep coming, when I get a chance to post them.

For work today, we have some strange things going on with one of our sensors, so we’re trying to figure that out, we’re also trying to make a plan to get the ice to freeze faster than it is, but slow enough that we get good, clear ice. A little more work on the analysis code and transferring some more data, and that’s the evening for me. I’m going to try to get back on a regular daytime schedule, so that I can make the most of my time at McMurdo and New Zealand.

I think that’s all for today.
-Jonathan

Well, we celebrated the new year down at The Pole about 45 minutes ago. There was much cheering, drinking and celebrating. Many pictures were taken. Following the initial celebration, a game of drunken south pole kickball was started at the ceremonial pole. That was fun too, but now I decided to come in out of the cold.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe new years,
-Jonathan

Today, my main task was to train the new guy (John Kelley, from UW-Madison) on the software and hardware that we use in controlling the freeze process in the tanks. I think I did a good job, but we have a few more days of overlap, so I’ll be able to make sure. The tanks are still freezing. It has taken longer than we had hoped/expected, but the ice is looking good, and that’s my main concern.

I was hoping to help John hookup the DOMs in the tanks to the DAQ (Data AcQuisition) system. However, we found out today, that the DAQ is still in Christchurch, New Zealand. So, He’s not quite sure when it’s going to be here.

Jeff also taught John how to shutdown the whole SPASE system, so I paid attention, and now I know how to do that too. I already knew most of it, but it was good to hear from someone else.

Looking out the window at lunch today, I saw a couple tends next to sleds, and a bunch of people out at The Pole. I hear a group of skiers were dropped off at the 89th parallel, and they skied here from there. Like I saw on a t-shirt someone was wearing around here; “2 inches of powder, 2 miles of base.”

This evening (4:30am, morning?) I helped Ethan (the other winterover for AMANDA/IceCube) with a strange harddrive problem. It’s not related, but computers can act strangely down here, because of static electricity. There is so little moisture in the air, that the natural conductivity of things that you usually rely on to ground you, just isn’t there. So you can build up a considerable charge, and then shock a computer enough to get it to crash, or lock up. Not to mention giving you a bit of a jolt.

Being at the pole today means that I’m missing another holidays tradition, New Year’s Eve at the Morgan and Michal’s house. I’ll try to get a game of charades going, but it just won’t be the same.

Oh yeah, I didn’t get my picture taken at The Pole yet, but I will soon…. really… I will…

Off to bed (at 8:46am, local time)
-Jonathan

…but, I want to do my log.

Today started out going directly to lunch (I woke up around noon) then out to take a look at the tanks, and see how they’re doing. The tanks were still there, still freezing, etc. so there wasn’t much to do.

After dinner, John Kelley, a guy from Madison, who recently arrived, wanted to go out to SPASE to start hooking up the DOMs (Digital Optical Modules), the detectors that are frozen on the top of the water in the tank. We were out there for about five minutes before he cuts his thumb with a wirecutter. That ended that trip and we headed back to base to get his thumb taken care of. Later, I went back to SPASE to take care of some things that needed to get done, nothing too interesting.

This evening (and into the night, then morning) I worked on a program that I’ll use to analyze the data that I’ve taken from a tank that was deployed in a previous year. I also chatted online with my dad and brother for a while, then called Bartol (Research Institute) to talk to Tom Gaisser, the PI (Primary Investigator) for IceTop. I have some ideas about how to get the current IceTop tank design to freeze during the winter, so that we don’t have to worry about the freeze rate. Eventually I’ll put those ideas in a coherent e-mail.

Today is a nice, bright, breezy summer day at the pole, I think I’ll have my picture taken at The Pole (the thing that sticks out of the ground) today. We’ll see.

Anyway, I just had breakfast, so now I’m going to go to sleep.

Talk to you later.
-Jonathan

Hi All,

Today, our major task was to cut away some insulation from the sides of one of the tanks, in order to get it to freeze faster. The reason that the insulation is there in the first place, is to ensure that the ice forms top down. however, after nine tenths of a meter of ice has formed, the ice acts as such a good insulator (like on a lake) that the rest of the water takes a very long time to freeze. We don’t have a long time, as we are trying to get the water frozen as soon as possible. We want the water frozen by now because John Kelley, from UW-Madison, just arrived to start the next phase of the detector setup; connecting the detectors on the top of the ice to the data acquisition system. In order for him to test his connection, we will need to make the tank light tight, which will make any remaining freeze take even longer. Hopefully the insulation that we removed will help the freezing process move along.

That’s the good news. The bad news, is that I’m supposed to leave the pole on the 5th. I’d prefer to stay longer, but that’s not what’s got me a bit down. What I am disappointed about is that I’d leave here on the 5th to go to McMurdo, but my plane from McMurdo to Christchurch doesn’t leave until the 9th. That means that I have to spend four nights at McMurdo. It’s not so much that McMurdo is bad, it’s just that it’s not as cool as the pole, and I won’t know anyone, because it’s just a stepping stone for IceCube people like me, to go to and from the pole. So, I’m going to request to stay here longer, to try to help out John. We’ll see how that goes.

In other news, I’ve gotten a lot better with my yo-yo.

-Jonathan

If you new to my weblog, you might want to start at the bottom of the December Archive, because this page (the main page) only displays entries from the last 14 days.

-Jonathan