"That aint workin', that's the way you do it" -- Money for Nothing, Dire Straits.
I've been following the blog of my good friend, Andy Dixon, the wintering Met Tech over at Halley Research Station. Andy is an excellent communicator and has written some great pieces
about the science that BAS does over there. I thought I'd follow suit and write about some of the experiments that I am looking after here at Rothera.
Two of these experiments are radar systems. The Medium Frequency (MF) Radar and Skiymet are both looking at the way air moves in the middle and upper atmosphere. The three huge masts visible in the photo are three of the four corners of the square MF transmitter, which sends radio waves into the sky. When air parcels move past each other in the upper atmosphere, they rub and the resulting friction causes particles to become charged, or ionized. The radio waves from the MF reflect off these charged areas and three radio receivers, which are specifically tuned to pick up the MF waves, detect the reflected wave. By comparing which receiver received the reflected rays and in which order, the positions and directions of the charged air parcels can be calculated, and so the speeds and directions of winds high up in the atmosphere can be known. The Skiymet radar does a similar job, only this detects the ionised gas trails left by meteors as they enter Earth's atmosphere.
One of my favourite experiments around the base is the Very Low Frequency array of experiments. These detect the VLF radio waves generated naturally by lightning, or artificially by transmitters. When lightning strikes anywhere in the world, it emits radio waves with lots of different frequencies. Imagine your radio trying to play Radio 1, Radio 2, Virgin FM and good old Wrexham's Marcher Sound all at the same time. We hear that noise in Antarctica as a crackle as the radio waves travel from its point of origin and bounce up and down between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere -- that part of the Earth's atmosphere that is comprised of charged particles. Sometimes, a radio wave is produced that is so energetic that it can break through the ionosphere into space. When this happens it can return to the southern latitudes by travelling along Earth's magnetic field lines, and when it arrives, is can be detected. These particular energetic radio waves are known as 'whistlers' due to their characteristic sound when they are detected. By analysing the properties of the sound, information can be gathered about the region in which the radio wave traveled in, eg. outer space, prior to it being detected. As a result, the VLF experiments are used in world wide lightning location, and space weather prediction, amongst others.
More recently, I have had the chance to get out into the field to perform maintenance and data collection on an array of GPS receivers. These are part of an experiment set up by Newcastle University where by the motion of the snow and rock can be monitored over a long period of time. This work involved flying out to some spectacular sites for some spectacular sights and then trying to do as neat a job as possible with frozen fingers.
On a return journey from one of these sites, the pilot of our Twin Otter aircraft took us over some areas where melt pools had formed over the summer season. It was fascinating to see all these little rivers in the middle of the snow with their own little tributaries and ox bow formations. In the same area, we flew over something that reminded me of the mine remnants from back home in Wrexham, only here it had been formed by naturally occurring processes instead of human activity.
December has been busy, with my fellow electronics bod, John, off base. But all work and no play makes Ross a dull boy, so I've done my best to have some fun. A few of us organised ourselves into a band for New Years Eve, and along with three fantastic sets from DJ Wedders, DJ Bowen and DJ Haymaker, a good night, and morning was had by all. The band, The Dominic Savage Experience, consisted of myself, Fraze "Axl Rose" Prescott, Riet "Keith Moon" Van de Velde, and of course, the legend that is Sir Dom Savage.
