Airborne team ready for South Pole; Ice coring team starting Blue Ice Drill

Dec 18

Updates from the COLDEX Airborne Team

This week was a busy one, where taking advantage of beautiful weather we completed the full up testing of our instruments and declared readiness for survey. On Saturday, we completed a 4 hour first test flight (CXA2/F01), checking out our VHF radar system along with magnetometer and laser altimeter, after performing a series of ground tests. The airborne test was the first time we were able to transmit, and allowed us to find an issue with a loose coupler in the radar receiver. The magnetometer failed to perform and mitigations were applied. The flight path was a circuit over Allan Hills, an old Ice Bridge line and David Glacier, a scene described as mesmerizing.

That Sunday, we installed the delayed UTIG gravity meter, followed by the UHF radar system. After an extended install, we still had time on Monday to complete a short test flight (CXA2/F02) over Minna Bluff to confirm gravity operation and evaluate fixes to the magnetometer and the radar. While the radar and gravity meter performed perfectly, the magnetometer was not functional and we elected to replace it with a spare. Overflights of a GPS reflectometry experiment on McMurdo Ice Shelf were performed. Initial calibrations were performed on the UHF system, although the terrain was not ideal.

On Tuesday, we completed a third 4 hour test flight (CXA2/F03), which performed again proceeded over Allan Hills (going over the camp), a second Ice Bridge line, and David Glacier, along with sections over open water. All systems checked out, and we were able to have a slow day the following day, and begin packing up cargo and baggage preparations for the transit to Pole. Greg Ng and Megan Kerr will go up to Pole on Basler MKB with the flight crew, while the rest of us will going on a LC-130 Hercules; on the repositioning flight, we intend on flying over one of the seismic node arrays laid out by Stonybrook professor Weisen Shen as part of his project at Pole, which happens to coincide with a line that Texas flew in 1998. So far we have been stymied by weather at Pole, but we look forward to our arrival and acclimatization at South Pole next week, with local risk reduction flights planned if we continue to be delayed, and more detailed survey planning taking place. - Update from Duncan Young, University of Texas faculty member and Science co-lead for base operations and flight planning for project I-185

Basler MKB leaving for test flight CXA2/F03

Plans for test flights this week- the test flight above McMurdo Station was only partially completed, but is also a target as a backup if we do not transit to South Pole. Background is a MODIS image from December 11, 2023 download from worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov.

Updates from the Ice Coring Team at Allan Hills

Based on these photos sent by Oregon State University graduate student Julia Marks Peterson, all seems to be progressing well at Allan Hills! They are collecting transect samples and getting the Blue Ice Drill (BID) set up for another core. Director Ed Brook and postdoc Asmita Banerjee have safely arrived at the site.