Recently in the Dale Andersen's Field Reports Category

Perennially ice-covered lakes that host benthic microbial ecosystems are present in many regions of Antarctica. Lake Untersee is an ultra-oligotrophic lake that is substantially different from any other lakes on the continent as it does not develop a seasonal moat and therefore shares similarities to sub-glacial lakes where they are sealed to the atmosphere.

Last night our weather shifted from sunny skies to low-cloud, light snow and light but gusty winds, our highest gust today being about 30 knots. The forecast is for more of the same so we must be prepared tonight for high winds that could descend upon us at most any time.

We have been keeping very busy these last couple of weeks, trying to take advantage of the nice weather (mostly calm and with clear skies more often than not).

We have had pretty good weather since we arrived at Untersee and have kept pretty busy getting the camp pulled together and starting up the science ops.

We spent the last several days getting the camp established and today the last tent (the Weatherport to be used at the field lab) was put in place.

Our traverse went well and we all made it to Lake Untersee safely.

Our traverse to the lake has been delayed a day due to less than ideal weather moving in last night. The winds picked up (40-45 knots for awhile) with blowing snow which has resulted in very flat light and less than ideal weather for the trip.

Infrared Composite of Antarctica

We are almost ready to head to Lake Untersee, the traverse sleds are 90% packed and ready to go, we just have a few more details to attend to tomorrow.

After a very easy, uneventful flight south on the IL-76, we made it to the ice runway at Novolazarevskaya Tuesday afternoon.

We depart Cape Town in the IL-76 for Antarctica at 0900 local. We should be in Antarctica 6 hours later. Cheers, Dale