The Wind at Black Island
Posted by Anthony and Christine Powell at 7/15/2008 9:40 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
I had to make
another emergency traverse out to the Black Island Satellite Station yesterday
to make some repairs.Three of us are going to be here for a couple of days doing repairs, and
waiting for the weather to clear. It is
surprising that McMurdo and Scott Base can miss so much of the bad weather that
hits out here, as they are not all that far away.
It gets pretty windy
out here on a regular basis during the Antarctic winter. I've never really given
it too much attention, as it is just one of those things you get used
to.
Then Ken Klassy, one
of the guys traveling with me this time pointed out that right now we are in
the middle of the equivalent of a Category 3 Hurricane.
Well, looking at it
that way, out here we pretty much get a category 1 hurricane every week or two
in winter, and a category 3 hurricane once a month or so.
A couple of years
ago we had the equivalent of category 5 winds here. One of the smaller satellite
dish housings blew away then.
It's a hard this to
photograph or film stormy weather effectively. It's dark outside, and even with good lighting
you can only see a few paces in front of you in the blowing
snow.
In the living area
the preway heater is turned up to maximum, and extra rooms closed off, and it is
only just keeping up with the heat.
At least the urinal
is still working. It will often freeze up, meaning we have to go in a plastic
drum inside until we can get outside to remove the offending frozen bits with a
heat gun.
It may sound like a glamorous job working as a Satellite Engineer in Antarctica, but wrestling with barrels of frozen pee and manhandling large plastic containers of frozen poo soon puts that image to rest in a hurry.
It may sound like a glamorous job working as a Satellite Engineer in Antarctica, but wrestling with barrels of frozen pee and manhandling large plastic containers of frozen poo soon puts that image to rest in a hurry.
With the very fine
snow and big winds, it also means that the smallest gap in any door seal will
let through a lot of snow...
All this snow came in through the gaps in the door seal
The Kitchen area at the Black Island Camp. Note the large "I" beams running through the structure for strength.
Looking at some of the satellite equipment electronics
All this snow came in through the gaps in the door seal
The Kitchen area at the Black Island Camp. Note the large "I" beams running through the structure for strength.
Looking at some of the satellite equipment electronics
Muy lindos videos, la verdad no puedo creer la belleza que hay en un lugar que la gran mayoria o la totalidad desconoce.. muy buenos videos, espero que sigas subiendo más. saludos desde Argentina.
Bruno.
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Gracias!
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