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GOLF 0-5-6 Antarctica Expedition 2016

Reports

Daily Report 47 -- Saturday 10 December 2016 -- The Antarctic Treaty
Twelve nations signed the Antarctic Treaty on December 1, 1959. The Antarctic Treaty reserves all latitudes south of 60ºS for the international community to advance the sciences. The signatories envisioned a peaceful continent, where nations could collaborate to meet scientific objectives. Outlined in the articles of the Antarctic Treaty: 1. prohibits military bases, operations, and weapons testing2. preserves Antarctica for scientific investigation 3. grants public access to the research...
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Daily Report 43 -- Tuesday 06 December 2016 -- What is ice?
Ice is the solid phase of H2O. The phase of pure water depends on the ambient temperature and pressure. At sea level, the atmospheric pressure is 1 atm and ice forms at 0ºC. As pressure increases, the temperature required to freeze water becomes colder, while the temperature required to evaporate water rises. If different solutes mix with the water, then the temperature at which the solution freezes declines. On average,  the ocean contains 35 ppt dissolved salt. The salinity of the ocean...
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Daily Report 37 -- Wednesday 30 November 2016 -- How to Describe Temperature
The Celsuis and Farenheit scales are the two primary scales used to measure temperature. The Celsius scale is based on the phase changes of water at sea level. On the Celsius scale, 0ºC is defined as the temperature where liquid water freezes to solid ice, while 100ºC is the temperature where liquid water evaporates to water vapor. On the Fahrenheit scale, water freezes at 32ºF and boils at 212ºF. You can convert between the two temperature scales by applying this simple formula:T°C  = (T°...
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Daily Report 32 -- Friday 25 November 2016 -- How cold is it in Antarctica?
In Antarctica, the wind speed and air temperature combine to create cold conditions. At the South Pole Station, the temperature ranges from -25.9 °C to -58 °C, on average, while the wind speed can exceed 55 knots- or 102 mph.  The high speed wind blows against our exposed skin and causes us to perceive a temperature lower than the air temperature.  This windchill is a function of wind speed and the ambient air temperature:           ...
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Daily Report 26 -- Saturday 19 November 2016 -- Where in the world are you? Degrees vs. degrees, minutes, and seconds
You can specify your location on Earth using latitude and longitude. There are many different ways to represent latitude and longitude, for example in decimal degrees or in degrees, minutes, and seconds. A degree is 1/360 of the arc of a circle, a minute is 1/60 of a degree, and a second is 1/60 of a minute. 1º       =           60’       =     3600’’  1 degree   ...
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Daily Report 23 -- Wednesday 16 November 2016 -- Maps: How to Divide the World
The Earth rotates along its spin axis which intersects the surface at the North and the South pole. Equidistant from the two poles, lies the equator. The equator, an imaginary great circle, divides the Earth into the Northern hemisphere and the Southern hemisphere. When you describe your location north or south of the equator, you specify your latitude. Latitude ranges from 0º at the equator to 90º at the north pole and -90º at the south pole. Parallels of latitude are perpendicular small...
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Daily Report 15 -- Sunday 10 November 2019 -- Where is the South Pole?
Earth’s geographic poles are located where an imaginary pole aligned along the spin axis would intersect the surface. At the geographic poles the rotational speed is 0 Earth’s magnetic poles, on the other hand, are located where the inclination- the angle between the horizontal plane and a magnetic field vector- is either -90 and straight up in the southern hemisphere or +90 and straight down in the northern hemisphere. The current South Magnetic Pole is at S64.28º E136.59º, while McMurdo...
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Daily Report 7 -- Wednesday 02 November 2016 -- Why doesn't the sun set at McMurdo Station?
The Earth’s axis is inclined. 23.5º relative to the ecliptic plane- the plane along which Earth travels as it orbits the sun. As the Earth revolves around the sun, the axial tilt remains the same, so in the Northern hemisphere Polaris- the north star- will be fixed above geographic north. Although the Earth’s axial tilt doesn’t change, the orientation of the north and south hemispheres relative to the sun changes during its orbit and causes seasons. Summer occurs when a hemisphere is tilted...
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Daily Report 5 -- Thursday 27 October 2016 -- Greetings from Antarctica!
We have made it to the ice! Our trip to Christchurch was long but uneventful: 3 hours from San Diego to Dallas, 16 hours from Dallas to Sydney, Australia, and then another 3 hours to Christchurch totalling 22 hours of flight with about a five hour lay-over in Sydney and Dallas. Our 36 hours in Christchurch included 1.5 nights of good sleep, some sightseeing, collecting our ECW gear, and then a 6 hour flight on a US Airforce C-17 jet to McMurdo. Our main impression of Chirstchurch: It is still...
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Daily Report 1 -- Sunday 23 October 2016 -- Getting Ready for our 2016/17 Expedition
An expedition to Antarctica takes a massive amount of preparation, that begins with writing a competitive scientific proposal and making detailed plans about the field work, and laboratory follow-up. We received the green light from the National Science Foundation earlier this year when we started talking to the Antarctic Science Contractor about what we needed from them on the ice.  Then we needed to go through a series of medical checkups to show that we are physically qualified and we...
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