Dale Andersen's Field Reports

Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 26 November 2017: Busy Days at Lake Untersee

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
Dale Andersen
November 26, 2017
Filed under ,
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 26 November 2017: Busy Days at Lake Untersee

Dale Andersen sent this message on 26 November 2017 at :09:26 AM EST: “We are working pretty hard while taking advantage of the nice days we have had recently. I made a dive beneath the 3.5 m thick ice-cover yesterday afternoon to collect a few sediment cores at 17 m (depth) and make observations of the lake basin in the area around the dive hole.”

“Yesterday we also profiled (with a CTD) and collected water samples from a couple of small lakes located along the lateral moraine in the west side of the Anuchin Glacier, continued mapping the small dry valley next to Untersee and began assembly of a new climate station that will eventually take over from the older Lake Untersee station we have in place. We hope to get the new station operational by this afternoon or tomorrow morning, and if all goes well we will place a second station in the dry valley that we have been studying.

Once the stations are up and running I will be able to send you a weblink where you can see daily updates for the local climate variables, the data being transmitted via the Iridium satellite network. I think our weather will go down on Wednesday – the forecast predicts whiteout conditions at Novo that day, so our weather will likely be somewhat similar so assuming tomorrow and Tuesday are reasonable, we will be quite busy above and below the ice!

All for now, Dale”

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻