Ross Sea Connection

Antarctica is renowned for having some of the fiercest weather on Earth. At any time of year, torrents of cold air can stream off the Antarctic continent and create vicious gales on the sea. So far we’ve been lucky to have calm seas and winds—especially on our visit to notoriously wind-whipped Cape Adare (see Jan […]

The Palmer spent all day cruising back toward McMurdo Station to refuel. The ship travels at a steady 10 or 11 knots (about 12 mph), and we had about 300 miles to go. The scientists took this opportunity to review their data and decide where to visit during the second leg of our expedition. Yesterday […]

See exactly what the glider sees during this video montage from a glider test dive. In the first part of the video, the glider is launched from the zodiac, then it travels to a depth of three meters, and finally surfaces. As the glider prepares to surface you can hear the sound of the pump changing the buoyancy.

In walkie-talkie etiquette, you call to the person you want to talk to, then identify yourself. So when ‘Glider Base, this is Zodiac’ comes over the radio, it means that someone in a little inflatable rubber boat (called a zodiac) wants to talk to the person who is running the gliders. Six of us were […]

Last night, Captain Yousri Maghrabi steered the Palmer toward Station A, at 76.5 degrees south, 170 degrees east. It’s just a patch of open water about 40 miles northeast of Ross Island, but oceanographers have been measuring water here since the mid-1990s. When we got there, the only land left visible were Ross and Beaufort […]

Josh Kohut talks about nutrients, deep currents, and how robots will be used to scout water masses in the Ross Sea.

Underwater gliders don’t have an easy job collecting data in the harsh environment of the ocean. But sometimes, even getting to the experiment location is a tremendous challenge.

RU26D, our deep glider, is ready for shipment to the west coast of the U.S for delivery to McMurdo station in Antarcitca.   Along with the installation of a new  quick release nose recovery system, the glider has passed all the final hardware and software checks in our lab at Rutgers.   We are confident it […]