Frostbytes
www.frozensouth.com, www.antarcticimages.com. Visit YouTube to view some of Anthony's work (http://www.youtube.com/user/Antzarctica)
Bio Link
Anthony Powell is a Photographer (who specializes in time-lapse images) and Satellite Communications Tech who has spent many years working in Antarctica with his wife Christine.Currently working on editing together a feature length film about what it is like to spend a calendar "Year on Ice" made up mostly of unique time-lapse footage.
Photo Site:
Video Clips:
Frostbytes
Ice Caves and 24 Hour Sunlight
The sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day now, and won't set for another 4 months.
For some reason I find it is actually easier to adjust to 24 hour darkness than it is to 24 hour sunshine.
There is something just plain weird about stepping outside in the middle of the night and having to put on sunglasses.
I am finally due to be getting out of here November 10th for some much needed time off in the real world, Christine will be following a few days later.
In the mean time, last weekend we joined in a trip up the coast to Cape Evans in some Delta trucks to have a look at the newly formed ice caves in the Erebus Ice Tongue Glacier...
Delta dragging a sled of emergency survival equipment across the frozen sea ice.
Later this summer this will be open sea water here.
Christine and I down inside an ice cave
Climbing back out into the light
Outside the cave looking back towards the sun and the Delta parked on the sea ice
Alas the Deltas don't like soft snow and get stuck very easily. This one had to be dug out about 6 times on the way back to town.
McMurdo Station as seen from a recent helicopter trip to Black Island.
Mount Erebus is smoking in the distance in the background.
For some reason I find it is actually easier to adjust to 24 hour darkness than it is to 24 hour sunshine.
There is something just plain weird about stepping outside in the middle of the night and having to put on sunglasses.
I am finally due to be getting out of here November 10th for some much needed time off in the real world, Christine will be following a few days later.
In the mean time, last weekend we joined in a trip up the coast to Cape Evans in some Delta trucks to have a look at the newly formed ice caves in the Erebus Ice Tongue Glacier...
Delta dragging a sled of emergency survival equipment across the frozen sea ice.
Later this summer this will be open sea water here.
Christine and I down inside an ice cave
Climbing back out into the light
Outside the cave looking back towards the sun and the Delta parked on the sea ice
Alas the Deltas don't like soft snow and get stuck very easily. This one had to be dug out about 6 times on the way back to town.
McMurdo Station as seen from a recent helicopter trip to Black Island.
Mount Erebus is smoking in the distance in the background.
T3 Syndrome
Summer is here.
Today the temperature is only about -10C / 14F.
A week from now the
sun will be above the horizon 24 hours a day.
The station
population is up to around 800 people now.
It's a lot for my
toasty winter-over brain to deal with, but the sunlight and activity is starting
to relieve the typical T3 symptoms.
Polar T3 syndrome is
an unusual thing that typically affects people who spend the winter down here
the hardest.
It is thought to be
caused by a combination of things, lack of sunlight, lack of new stimulus, low
vitamin D levels, and T3 hormone being diverted from the brain to the
muscles.
Common symptoms are
fatigue, short term memory loss, zoning out with a 1000 mile stare, or
forgetting every day things.
It's something you
just get used to and typically have a laugh about. It also means that you have
to be very well organized and write everything down, or there is no way you will
remember to do something.
Thankfully the
effects are only temporary, and go away once you get a bit of time off the
Ice.
In the recent
interviews I have been doing with people for the Year on Ice movie I'm making,
I've been getting them to give examples of how it affects
them.
Here's a few
examples people have given me:
-Constantly
forgetting appointments, meetings, and social functions.
-Walking into the
next room to grab a tool you need to do a job you are working on, when you get
there you have absolutely no idea what you went there for.
-Suddenly forgetting
the name of someone you have known well for years.
-Forgetting common
random words halfway through a sentence and having to stop to remember what the
word was.
-Trying to remember
which day of the week comes first, Wednesday or Thursday.
-Forgetting the phone
number of the house you have lived in all your life.
-Forgetting the name
of every day objects like the salt shaker on the dinner
table.
-Forgetting which key
opens the office door you unlock every morning at work.
Consequently people
typically become less articulate.
Another
often-wintered couple, Tom and Lynn along with Christine & myself have had
people comment to us quite often about how we seem to communicate by grunts and
pointing. When it comes right down to it, it is amazing how little articulation
is actually required to communicate.
Here's a couple of still photos from recent time-lapse film sequences...
Crescent Moon setting over the Royal Society Ranges
Nacreous Clouds in the sky behind one of the small satellite dish enclosures
Here's a couple of still photos from recent time-lapse film sequences...
Crescent Moon setting over the Royal Society Ranges
Nacreous Clouds in the sky behind one of the small satellite dish enclosures
End of Winter Start of Summer
The Winfly plane flights came and went a couple of weeks ago, now everyone is ramping up for the first flights of summer which were supposed to start happen this week.
So far the weather has prevented any more planes from getting in, which means there is now a backlog of 4 flights worth of people waiting in Christchurch, taking up a lot of the available motel space in the city.
So far the weather has prevented any more planes from getting in, which means there is now a backlog of 4 flights worth of people waiting in Christchurch, taking up a lot of the available motel space in the city.
Once all the new people do actually start to make it down here things start to get really hectic. The station population will increase about 4 fold, and the summer research programs really get underway.
Most the winter-over staff will head north to warmer climates over the next couple of weeks, but Christine & I will be here until the start of November.
I had changed a bit since she last saw me at the start of winter...
Da Plane Da Plane
The first plane after winter has arrived.
It brought with it new people, mail, fresh fruit and vegetables, and of course most importantly my darling wife.
It tends to be a time of sensory overload for the winter staff, seeing unfamiliar faces, and some old faces back again.
The new people look really strange with their tanned skin. After getting used to seeing nothing but pale winter staff for so long, the new people look orange to us, as though someone has turned the saturation up too high on the TV.
Eating a fresh banana is like mana from heaven. Your body is craving the fresh fruit after going without for so long. Of course, not being used to it, it makes for lots of grumbly tummies afterward too.
The other bad thing about this time of year is typically new cold and flu viruses will be introduced by the new folk.
Living in close quarters with so many people typically means they spread very fast too.
Over the winter all the cold and flu viruses had burned out, so our immune systems have not had much to work on. Any new viruses tend to hit us quite hard.
Hopefully the new policy this year of requiring everyone to have a flu shot will relieve most of that this time around.
The sun is up for 8 hours a day now. It's still taking a while to get used to seeing the sun in the sky again.
Return of the Sun
Yesterday I finally got to see the sun again for the first time in just over 4 months.
It rose last week, but because of Mount Erebus being in the way to the north, you can't see it unless you get out of town just yet.
It is up for a few hours a day now.
In another 3 weeks it will be above the horizon 12 hours a day, 4 weeks later and it will be above the horizon 24 hours a day, not setting again until late February.
This is what it looked like at just after 1.00pm in the afternoon...
It rose last week, but because of Mount Erebus being in the way to the north, you can't see it unless you get out of town just yet.
It is up for a few hours a day now.
In another 3 weeks it will be above the horizon 12 hours a day, 4 weeks later and it will be above the horizon 24 hours a day, not setting again until late February.
This is what it looked like at just after 1.00pm in the afternoon...
48 Hour Film Festival Winners
The votes for the Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica were tallied, and this is the result...
Best Film: Tied for first Place
Rothera (UK)
FNG
Neumayer (Germany) Neumayer
Nemesis
Best Acting:
Casey (Australia) -Don't
leave Home
Best Cinematography:
Rothera (UK)
FNG
Best Screenplay:
Casey (Australia)
-Don't leave Home
Best Use of Required Elements:
Casey
(Australia) -Don't leave Home
See the links in the previous posts for where you can watch the films.
Nacreous or Polar Stratospheric Clouds
Here's another couple of photos of the Antarctic Nacreous Clouds from today at Black Island...
They are most impressive to see in real life. It looks like the whole northern sky is on fire.
Regular photos really do not do them justice.
I took a whole lot of High Dynamic Range shots, but they will have to wait until I get back to McMurdo to be processed.
They are most impressive to see in real life. It looks like the whole northern sky is on fire.
Regular photos really do not do them justice.
I took a whole lot of High Dynamic Range shots, but they will have to wait until I get back to McMurdo to be processed.
Winter International Film Festival Antarctica
We got a total of 12 entries in the 48 hour film making competition from around the continent.
The randomly drawn requirements the films had to contain were the following:
-A Cardboard Box
-The character of an FNG (New Guy)
-The line "What do you mean you want a day off for mid-winter?"
-A bodily noise other than speech.
We received films from:
McMurdo Station -USA (four films)
Scott Base -New Zealand (two films)
Halley -Great Britain
Neumayer -Germany
Casey -Australia
Rothera -Great Britain
Mawson -Australia
The films can be viewed here...
http://cid-f32c1f3f4fb6d9e5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Antarctic%20Movies
Direct link to the movie from Rothera...
http://greenmug.co.uk/rothera
Be warned, some of the movies contain offensive language, so view at your discretion!
Voting is still underway to decide the winners.
Any winter residents in Antarctica are eligible to vote.
I was most impressed with the overall quality of the films.
We had our screening here at McMurdo on Saturday night to a capacity crowd that had a great time.
There were some very clever ideas of how to integrate the character of the new guy in a winter film. At most stations we have no outside contact with the rest of the world during the winter.
I'll post the results of who won what next week.
In the mean time, light is returning to the sky for us here. The stars have disappeared in the middle of the day now, and the sun is due to peek over the horizon next week for the first time in 4 months.
Here's a picture looking north from Black Island, with some polar stratospheric or nacreous clouds in the sky.
PSCs form when ozone depleting gases in the upper atmosphere crystallize in the extreme cold at this time of the year...
The randomly drawn requirements the films had to contain were the following:
-A Cardboard Box
-The character of an FNG (New Guy)
-The line "What do you mean you want a day off for mid-winter?"
-A bodily noise other than speech.
We received films from:
McMurdo Station -USA (four films)
Scott Base -New Zealand (two films)
Halley -Great Britain
Neumayer -Germany
Casey -Australia
Rothera -Great Britain
Mawson -Australia
The films can be viewed here...
http://cid-f32c1f3f4fb6d9e5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Antarctic%20Movies
Direct link to the movie from Rothera...
http://greenmug.co.uk/rothera
Be warned, some of the movies contain offensive language, so view at your discretion!
Voting is still underway to decide the winners.
Any winter residents in Antarctica are eligible to vote.
I was most impressed with the overall quality of the films.
We had our screening here at McMurdo on Saturday night to a capacity crowd that had a great time.
There were some very clever ideas of how to integrate the character of the new guy in a winter film. At most stations we have no outside contact with the rest of the world during the winter.
I'll post the results of who won what next week.
In the mean time, light is returning to the sky for us here. The stars have disappeared in the middle of the day now, and the sun is due to peek over the horizon next week for the first time in 4 months.
Here's a picture looking north from Black Island, with some polar stratospheric or nacreous clouds in the sky.
PSCs form when ozone depleting gases in the upper atmosphere crystallize in the extreme cold at this time of the year...
Antarctic Winter 48 Hour Film Making Competition
This weekend Stations all over Antarctica will be taking part in the first ever continent-wide 48 hour film making competition.
I have run them locally at McMurdo Station and Scott Base the last two years, but this year I thought I'd see if people at the other Antarctic stations that have a winter crew were interested in joining in.
So far teams from McMurdo Station (US), Scott Base (New Zealand), Mawson Station (Australia), Casey Station (Australia), South Pole (US), Palmer Station (US), Neumayer (Germany), Halley (British), and SANAE (South Africa) have all said they will be participating.
So just how does it work?
A random draw of elements that have to be included in the film will be done on Friday afternoon, and an email sent out to everyone at the time.
Films then need to be completed by Sunday night. Films can be any length from 5 seconds to 5 minutes long, and be on any topic or style they like.
All the stations that submit films will be eligible to vote for what they think is the best.
This is the film I made two years ago for the local competition.
The required elements for the films that year were they had to contain an ice cream cone, a bowl, the sound of a phone, a sleeping person, and the line "We've lost another one"
The Wind at Black Island
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