Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me...

Digging The Melt Tank


As April disappears, the encroaching darkness ushers May in. While the UK celebrated one of its warmest Aprils on record, we enjoyed, if that is the appropriate phrase, the coldest April ever recorded at Halley in the 50-odd years that there has been a research station here. With a mean temperature of -29.1°C, it was frequently below -40, the point at which the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales intersect.

The Sun Rising to its Zenith
Photos taken every 30mins on 22nd April


While the rising temperatures in the UK can be understood amidst concerns over global warming, it is predicted that any rise in global temperatures may lead to a paradoxical cooling at Halley. The concerns over climate change are supported by data collected by BAS and other scientists across the Antarctic peninsula (where the station at Rothera is situated), over the last 50 years, which has demonstrated a clear 2.5°C increase in temperatures, a rate 5 times faster than the global mean, with an associated loss of coastal ice and retreat of glaciers. Meanwhile at Halley, the collection of meteorological data as part of long term monitoring projects is one of the tasks of the Met Observing team on the Simpson platform.

Aurora Over the Simpson


There is one word that has almost the same effect as the fire alarm in rousing people and, unlike a fire alarm, clearing the platform into the cold, dark outdoors. Mainly uttered by the nightwatchman 'Aurora...!', usually preceded by a knock on the pit room door to waken the occupant, who has indicated he wishes to be woken should one occur, results in a rush-hour like squeeze in the boot room as people try to clothe themselves in order not to miss any part of the display. The outside safety light is doused and some take up positions on the platform, while others scuttle to the bottom of the stairs to enjoy a more uninterrupted horizon. The first out, however, are rarely the photographers, as they struggle to ensure that everything is set perfectly so that there is minimal handling of the cold metal bodies of the camera and tripod, which sap heat from exposed, fiddling fingers.

Aurora Over the Science Platforms
The aurora invariably appears in the southern sky centred towards the magnetic pole


Despite all the photographic preparations, as can be seen it is difficult to capture all the colours and movement associated with the appearance of an auroral display. Aurora, named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, aptly reflects the ability of the display at times to almost completely illuminate the sky as if the sun where returning, yet each appearance has a unique nature. The science dealt with by the Piggott platform concentrates on the nature of the upper atmosphere and sun-earth interactions. More of this another time but aurora are the most visible manifestation of some of the areas studied through work at Halley.

Renovating the Signpost



A fair bit of my spare time over the last month has been turned over to renovating the heavily photographed signpost. As with all things here, it needed digging out and raising from the advancing snow level, so it seemed an appropriate time to repaint some of the more battered areas, the sort of task that always takes longer than expected but it is back up again, with its obliterated destinations and distances now legible again.

The Union Flag Over The Laws


Despite being surrounded and living on fresh water, its frozen state means that its use remains at a premium. Water saving alterations have been made on every device and showering becomes an infrequent and cursory ritual, with the shower heads turned on as little as possible. That being said, we don't find ourselves deprived of water in the least, it merely makes one realise how profligate we are with it as a commodity in the UK.

Filling the Melt Tank at 9am
A weekly rota ensures a team of three keep the tank topped up


Water, unsurprisingly, is obtained by melting ice in a large melt tank, situated 35 metres under the ice in the Laws tunnel system. This requires a daily detail (regardless of the weather) of 3-4 people to dig and shovel snow into the long neck of the tank situated on the surface. This is made easier by weekly using a bulldozer to fashion a large volcano of ice around the tank opening. Starting a bulldozer at our current temperatures requires about three hours of pre-heating the engine (hence it cannot be used daily) and should it spend prolonged periods below -40° C/F then even the weekly fashioning of a mound of snow becomes impractical as the 'dozer will not start. Nonetheless it is still a good half an hours work on a good day and considerably longer if the gashman has done several loads of washing and the snow is heavily frozen.

Jim and Sune Next to the Melt Tank


There are two tunnel systems, one near the Piggott and the larger system that runs between the Laws and the Simpson. While the latter contains the main melt tank, both systems contain flubbers, large rubber fuel double walled bags filled with Avtur, to supply the generator sets on the respective platforms.

The Laws Flubbers
Avtur, unlike diesel, will not freeze at the temperatures in the tunnels


Tunnels as confined spaces, pose a hazard anywhere in the world, no less so here and with various people needing to work in them on a frequent basis, there is always a risk of injury. Therefore, before the darkness descended, we spent an afternoon running through a scenario involving rescuing an injured casualty on a stretcher using the various bits of specialist kit on station.

Tunnel Rescue Team
Including our headless dummy- photo by Tom Spieß


Thinking about how to remove a casualty from a confined space safely and learning to assemble stretchers and winching gear is one of the very different skills I have had to learn as a doctor down here. Things that may seem obvious such as stretchers, you rarely come across in hospitals but have become very familiar from pre-deployment training and teaching first-aiders while South.

Ascending the Fuel Shaft
The stretcher with dummy is winched out, while I follow, roped up for safety


The sun has finally disappeared, in a fashion that it has been threatening to do for several weeks, the exact date was a matter of great debate around the dinner table, as each science group uses slightly different definitions and calculations to ascertain 'sun-down'. Regardless, we celebrated its last appearance on the 2nd May with the lowering of the base flag.

1340Hrs 2nd May
The sun makes its last appearance for 14 week, though local time is GMT, the sun's zenith given our longitude occurs at 1340


Traditionally the base Union Flag is replaced at sun-up and flies over the base until sun-down, when it is lowered and 'retired' by being raffled off between the winterers. At times it appeared doubtful if this flag would make it all the way through to sun-down given the battering it receives from the wind. As such, Pete (Z-Base Commander), as the oldest member of base, with a short speech, lowered the tattered remains of the flag.

Pete Lowers the Base Flag
Photos courtesy of Ant Dubber


Never needing much of an excuse for a party, the evening disappeared into a barbecue and Hawaiian cocktail night. Sun-down also means the start of one of my research projects associated with the effect of the loss of light on the winterers.

Full Moon Over the Laws

Some Real Survey Work

The last few weeks have focused on ensuring the base is ready for the disappearance of the sun. With the last pre-darkness winter trip back on base, there have been a few last pieces of off-base science work to complete.

Sunset Over the Drewry


One of these meant an opportunity for me to escape with Sune (Field Assistant) for a day, to carry out some survey work to provide data for the glaciologists working on the Halley long term survival project, attempting to predict when the next calving event of the Brunt Ice Shelf is likely to occur. By collecting highly accurate GPS (Global Positioning System) data on a 3-monthly basis from a network of stations around the ice shelf, any unusual change from the baseline measurements, could indicate the presence of a crack and would provide warning of a potential calving event.

Collecting GPS Data


The yellow briefcases hold highly accurate GPS equipment, which supposedly allows the resolution of the position on a point on the globe down to less than a centimetre using multiple satellites. They do come, however, come with a disclaimer that they cease to function when travelling of speeds greater than 1000 knots per hour, ensuring that they would be of little use on an intercontinental ballistic missile! Fortunately, they are also fairly robust as travelling around on the back of a ski-doo for the 60 kilometre round trip is enough to destroy quite a lot of things particularly at -35°C.

Sunset On The Brunt
Sune finishes off the survey work


It is batteries, however, that are the limitation to work at this temperature, be that powering the GPS units, in the UAV, starting a bulldozer or in the ubiquitous digital cameras. All types of battery have a particularly limited life but can be temporarily resuscitated by warming them up. Digital photography and field work therefore require either a heat pack to keep the battery as warm as possible or in the case of the former, a succession of batteries being rotated from pockets to camera and back again. Moreover, the ski-doos, which have a pull-cord to supplement the battery in starting them, will not tolerate temperatures much colder than -35°C either, meaning that field work late in the season is hampered by temperature as well as darkness.

Fog Comes In Off The Weddell Sea


Even for the day's travelling around the Brunt between Halley, the Rumples (see map) and the survey points, though we were never further than 30 kilometres from base (20 miles), between the two ski-doos it is obligatory to carry a standard half unit sledge, effectively an emergency pack in case the weather changes rapidly or a ski-doo breaks down. No different from the sledges taken on the winter trips, they carry enough food, in the shape of Man-food boxes (as opposed to the now non-existent Dog-food boxes), along with fuel, tents, radios and spares to survive six weeks in the field. Amongst boxes carried on the sledge is the Field Medical Box.

Contents of a Field Medical Box


Packing and checking the several field medical boxes forms one of my more tedious jobs. They supplement the Immediate Aid Packs (First Aid packs) carried out in the field. The boxes contain an enormous range of drugs and medical supplies to deal with a wide range of eventualities that could occur not only 20 kilometres off base but also on the summer deep field projects, when immediate evacuation to a base may be infeasible due to huge distances and poor weather. The 106 different types of items carried range from Plaster of Paris kits to dental instruments, various antibiotics to injectable painkillers and spare sunscreen to airway adjuncts.

The Simpson at Sunrise


Given the absence of ambulances, all of those BAS personnel who go into the field undergo an extended first aid course, focusing on likely problems while South, moreover a few wintering personnel spent the best part of a week covering some more advanced topics with the BAS Medical Unit in Plymouth before coming away. Also in each of the boxes is a copy of Kurafid (as in Cure-A-Fid...) the BAS medical handbook now in its fifth edition, backed up by radio advice available from the base doctors on HF (High Frequency) radio should the need arise.

The Container Line
Shipping containers from a long line north of the base providing extra storage


The Field Medical Boxes end up weighing about 20kg (45lbs) and are of the standard Man-food box size such that they fit snugly on the sledges. Not only do the contents spend most of their time at below freezing temperatures, they are at risk should the lid fit loosely as fine snow has an ability to rapidly find any hole and fill the dead space, freezing rapidly to a solid block.

In The Piggott Tunnel


As sunlight is rapidly becoming a precious commodity, there is a slight pressure to ensure that the base is ready for the ensuing darkness and dropping temperatures. It has already hit -45°C and now lies frequently below -40°C (-40°F). Part of the work of the carpenter is to monitor the temperatures in the two tunnel systems that lie under the base. That meant a rare opportunity to see inside the smaller tunnel that lies underneath the Piggott platform, acting as a store for fuel and carrying cabling to scientific cabooses, too warm and the ice around starts to melt and buckle the shape of the tunnel, too cold and the contents freeze.

Ice Crystals in the Tunnel


The constant sub-zero temperatures in the tunnel has meant that some spectacular ice crystals have had the opportunity to form over years, illuminated by the pale orange lights. The previous two incarnations of the Halley base (Halley III and IV), were both underground installations but the pressure of the accumulated ice meant that they had to be abandoned. (The current German Antarctic base at Neumayer some 500 miles away is almost completely underground).

Moving Petrol Drums



The full complement of 18 people back on base has meant an opportunity to get us all in front of a camera for the first time. The dining room is lined with a photo of each of the wintering teams, classically in black and white and processed on base with a frame produced in-house, we have yet to claim our place on the wall but in the interim here we all are...

Halley 2007


1- David Evans – Meteorologist; 2- Andy McConnachie – Generator Mechanic; 3- Alex Gough – Data Manager; 4- Thomas Spieß – UAV Meteorologist; 5- Pete Milner – Base Commander; 6- Neil Brough – Air Chemist; 7- Richard Corbett – Doctor; 8- Sune Tamm-Buckle – Field Assistant; 9- Anton Dubber – Chef; 10- Dean Evans – Communications Manager; 11- Matt Richardson – Vehicle Mechanic; 12- Brian Hunter – Plumber; 13- Julius Rix – Electronic Engineer; 14- Mark Wales – Electrician; 15- Kirsty Stead – Meteorologist; 16- Tamsin Gray – Meteorologist; 17- James Morrison – Carpenter; 18- Chris Oakley – Electronic Engineer

The encroaching darkness has also meant some sleepless nights watching aurora- more next time.

The Aurora Australis and Jupiter Over The Laws

Sun Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Midday Sun

Sun Rise Against Stratocumulus Clouds


Time runs away; now back from my winter trip and with the last trip due to return at any moment, the sun is disappearing rapidly. At the moment we are losing an hour of daylight every three days. That though, has not stopped the appearance of some spectacular atmospheric phenomena. The first are Sun Dogs or parhelia, which though they can be seen anywhere in the world, are more prevalent here at the moment as the sun runs a low arc across the horizon.

Sun Dogs


The shot above was taken at midday (note how low the sun is), over our satellite dome and HF (High Frequency) radio masts, which form our channel of communication with the outside world. There are a variety of phenomena related to the refraction of light through ice crystals (in this case fine crystals called 'diamond dust'), the photo below illustrates those we could identify on this occasion, though the nature of the lateral arcs, despite consulting all our textbooks is unclear. The parhelia given that they refract light have a similar appearance to a rainbow. For more information see Atmospheric Optics.

Halo, Arcs and Parhelia


Though, fortunately, there are significant periods of time when there is little for me to do medically, there is always plenty of need for an extra hand around base. The platforms (Laws, Simpson and Piggott) themselves need continual monitoring, due mainly not to the movement of the ice sheet as such, but the accumulation of snow around each of the legs.

Out Surveying With Jim


The responsibility for the surveying and maintenance falls on the base Carpenter, Jim, who celebrated his 21st birthday on the voyage South from Signy and is the youngest person on base. He, like everybody else, has had to learn new skills to cover all the jobs around base, so along with building shelves and refitting offices as accommodation for the increased number of people expected for the building work in the summer, has to learn the skills of a steel erector. This has meant a couple of cold afternoons hanging off the building in a harness, raising part of the platform, admittedly by fractions of millimetres at a time, to keep the whole thing level.

Jacking the Laws Platform
Jim and I raise the platform on one of its legs


A further expectation is that the base doctor bears some responsibility for baking birthday cakes, at least the previous two docs convinced me of this and so with Ant- our chef- away I had a go at my first one of the season, having found good reasons not to make any others to date.

Tom's Birthday Cake


Tom, our German UAV pilot and meteorologist, ended up with a frog due to a German connection between weather forecasting and frogs. Birthdays acquire a special significance here as they from a suitable focus to throw a party. Dave (one of the meteorologists), chose an 80's theme for his a fortnight or so ago resulting in attendees from striking miners, through Miami Vice and Button Moon characters to Crocodile Dundee and a Wall Street yuppie.

Dave's 80s Party


The Easter Bank Holiday weekend started with the first winter barbecue of the season. Though it took a good couple of hours to get going in the -30°C weather, Ant's (Z-Chef) skill with everything food related, meant that all was edible, rather than reverting to its previously frozen state that has thwarted barbecues in the past.

The Barbie Gets Going
Ant modeling a BAS-issue warm Canada Goose jacket


The greatest danger at these barbies is of a can of beer freezing to your tongue, for at this temperature metal conducts any heat away from exposed skin, so rapidly that they freeze solid together, to the point where pulling the metal away will simultaneously remove a large chunk of the dermis. Admittedly, it is usually more of a problem when climbing and fiddling with kit without gloves on but fortunately it did not claim any lingual casualties on this occasion, as the recommended remedy when climbing is for a partner to urinate on the affected metal to warm it up.

No Burnt Sausages Here


The concept of a Bank Holiday seems incongruous when the only banking required in this cash poor economy, is for buying beer and wine at the bar, even at that time the transaction is reduced to an honesty tick sheet which produces a (usually) small bill at the end of the month, particularly given that the British Antarctic Territory does not charge duty on alcohol! There can be few other jobs that provide all lodging, toiletries, clothes and food with someone even to cook it. However, a couple of extra days off and some good weather has meant plenty of time outdoors, kiting and cross-country ski-ing.

Kiting By Moonlight
Dean returns home from a kite-boarding session