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Journal Entries
2005-06
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| Jump to a specific journal entry by Marianne Kaput: | ||
| August 2005 | 23 | |
| October 2005 | 31 | |
| December 2005 | 15 29 30 31 | |
| January 2006 | 1 3 4 5 7 9 10-11 12-14 15 16-17 18-19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | |
| February 2006 | 1 2 5 6-8 10 | |
| Click here to access journal entries by Giancarlo Lopez-Martinez or Luke Sandro. | ||
January 24, 2006 — Palmer Station, Antarctica
Time passes so quickly here because there is always something new and exciting to do. My team went into the field today to search for more of the mighty Belgica, but I stayed behind to work on some of my many incomplete projects. I am getting ready to conduct a distance learning lesson later this week and there’s a lot that needs to be done to prepare for it. I will teach students from Antarctica by connecting with them in their classrooms in the U.S. Our connections will allow me to interactively teach hundreds of students at one time — I love technology. The hard part is narrowing it down to just 45 minutes. I began my work by interviewing some of the scientists that are currently on-station. There are about six different groups and they are very willing to share what they are doing with me.
I had an appointment to interview Caroline, who is working with plants, but she unexpectedly got tied up with a film crew from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The crew is filming a TV documentary on Palmer Station and other areas of Antarctica.
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They too were trying to meet with all the Palmer Station scientists. I had to fit my work in between theirs, which was really no problem because I share well. While waiting for Caroline, I noticed some very interesting buildings on the top of the hill, so I decided to head up there to explore these odd structures.
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Steve Dobbs, the technician who monitors and maintains all the equipment, met me and we began talking. I found out that he was a science teacher too! Go figure. He really is an awesome educator and taught me so much as he shared his work. He explained, "I maintain all the geophysical equipment and transmit data to the scientists. Most of the equipment is computer monitored, so it pretty much takes care of itself." He showed me a GPS (Global Positioning System) that uses satellite data to pinpoint a specific location. For example, if a scientist needed to know a very specific location, he or she could take a backpack model and use the correctors of the equipment at the base to determine the location within a foot or two; this is much more accurate than many handheld models. Steve currently is supporting one experiment in which a research vessel is going around the circumpolar current around Antarctica to measure sea level. Imagine that — did you know that sea level varies? More on GPS here.
There is also a seismometer, which measures and detects seismic activity as part of a worldwide monitoring system. When correlated with the RASA (another piece of equipment which detects presence of nuclear particles in the atmosphere) scientists can determine whether there has been an earthquake or nuclear explosion and even know its location. There is another seismic station which records just seismic activity and Steve showed me some graphs detecting the recent earthquake in Indonesia, which caused a devastating tsunami. Click here for more information on the tsunami.
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UV (ultraviolet) radiation is a big issue in Antarctica because of the "hole" in the ozone layer of the atmosphere. Have you noticed how quickly you can get sunburned in the summer if you are outside for a long time and you forget your sunscreen? It's much worse in Antarctica because the UV radiation is quite intense. The ozone layer is a big absorber of the UV radiation. As the ozone concentration decreases, UV radiation increases. I never go out without loads of sunscreen...well, I did go out Sunday just for a short time and forgot to put it on got sunburned. Lesson learned. Thank goodness it wasn't too bad.
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Ever look up into the sky at night watching the stars? And then you notice that one star is moving? If it moves quickly and fades, then it’s a shooting star. If it moves slowly, it’s probably a satellite circling the Earth. Click here to learn more about the orbits of satellites. Another computer that Steve takes care of is receiving data from some of these orbiting satellites. Through the information collected by these satellites, scientists are monitoring the changes in the ice that covers Antarctica.
Cool research, eh? Could you picture yourself here in Antarctica conducting scientific studies? What kind of experiments would you do? I would like to hear what you see yourself doing, so write me an e-mail and send it to: mariannekaput@sbcglobal.net
I think I would like to explore the aquatic life...and then birds...or even the glaciers...and microscopic studies...and geologic studies...
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- Kaput-on-Ice