To the edge of the ice

December 12, 2010 4 Comments

In early December, 2010, Chip Haldeman from Rutgers University and Clayton Jones from Teledyne Webb Research voyaged to the edge of the Antarctica to deploy an underwater glider. These are a few of the images from their journey.

: Before researchers are allowed to spend time out on the ice, they must first spend a day at Happy Camper snow school, which trains them how to survive out on the glaciers. Rutgers glider technician, Chip Haldeman, was not content to spend his night out in a tent, so he built an igloo to sleep in.

: One of the first lessons of Happy Camper training is how to make water.

: Here Happy Camper students are hiding from the fierce Antarctic winds, as they await the arrival of their instructors the next morning.

: Finding a good place to launch a glider from the ice edge is not easy. The pack ice must be sturdy enough for a helicopter to land, and clear of nearby sea ice. In this image you can see a tidal crack in the sea ice. The launch point was seaward of that crack.

: While a helicopter brought glider RU26d close to the ice edge, a sled was used to carry it the final few yards.

: Before launching the glider, scientists placed a current meter in the water to make sure that the glider wouldn’t be pushed under the ice by the prevailing currents.

: Clayton Jones holds RU26d while it prepares to dive. There was very little room for error. Because time was short, the normal test missions were scrapped and the mission was started prior to deployment.