Lmst

Meanwhile, back in Scandinavia, there is also diamond dust and extreme cold...
I left Antarctica only a week ago and it already feels far away and a long time ago.
But even here I can enjoy the fascination of atmospheric physics.
It's extremely cold in Scandinavia and we have diamond dust during the day too.
#CircumZenithalArc #Icetodon #Frostodon #Norway #Winter #DiamondDust #ClearSkyPrecipitation

First stretch on the way home.... Yes I have #FlightShame #Flygskam.
But honestly, flying at 5000m in an unpressurized cabin is more of an "Experience" than a luxury.
Last evening in #Antarctica at #WolfsFang
#iQ2300

I guess it's possible, but usually they're associated with a rather dry climate, which Scotland definitely isn't. But maybe you'd get something similar in a couple of specific locations. More on penitentes here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitente_(snow_formation)

Hah yes that was a bit ambiguous, penitentes in this context are a structure you find in cold but dry climates, usually vertical spikes in low latitudes but here at high latitudes the low sun gives them an angle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitente_(snow_formation)

Not quite sunset yet, but #WinterIsComing

#Antarctica #iQ2300

Low angle but intense sun and sublimation have made these hedgehog like spines in the blue ice. They're like angled penitentes (usually found at high altitude, low latitude locations). Extraordinary #StrangeIce phenomena, #iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

"Good morning LISA - and how are *you* feeling today?"

Probably the last (long) day in our temporary lab at Wasa today. 10m of cores to process, collected from the ice sheet yesterday, but also a nice view to keep me company.
Reward will be genuine Finnish sauna at the neighbouring Finnish research station this evening, where we also have much #science to discuss!

#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

View over deep snow drifts to the glacier beyond and a rocky black nunatak under a blue sky

A polystyrene box containing a mess of electronic instruments and plastic lines - the LISA Box

Cylyndical cores of ice with darker bands representing refrozen meltwater lie in half tubes in the snow with a ruler for scale

Found the reflector!

Clément spotted a bright layer on a radargram taken over this glacier earlier in the season, so today we went back and drilled through 15m of snow and firn and nice to see what it was: a ~3cm thick layer of clear refrozen meltwater.

This one is coming with us for chemical analysis (along with the other 15m of core). Tomorrow will be a busy day in the lab.
We found many of these kinds of refrozen meltwater layers through the core, with lots of interesting features in the snow and firn pack associated with them. As so often in science, in seeking to answer one question, we end up asking many more as a result.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #Fieldphoto

A black -gloved hand holds up a 5cm thick section of an ice core, with the rim side facing the camera showing a thick band of clear ice between bubbly ice layers. The sky behind is dark blue and there is a snow cover on the ground

Long days in the lab...

I have spent the last 2 days processing shallow snow and firn cores in the lab, this is the last one (for now). Really nice datasets coming out, but a lot of concentration required.

At least I have a great view (when I remember to look up).

#iQ2300 #WasaStation #Antarctica #Fieldwork #LabView #LabWork #LISAbox

Heading back to Wasa after a few nights out in the field...
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto #PolarForskningsSekretariatet

The story of a box. This one I borrowed from a colleague at DMI. It's been to Greenland and back Los. Times and even to the North Pole on Oden. Now it is storing my ice cores until we return to process them with the LISA box.
To be continued...

A wooden box about 80cm long and 50cm high, on the front is printed Meteorologiske institut in danish. It sits on snow with a mountain range in the background under a blue sky with whispy clouds

The same box filled with ice cores wrapped in plastic

The cores are padded with foam viewed from the top

The box is closed and has been dig down into a hole in the snow

View from my sleeping bag this morning through the ark window at our neighbours, a post for #FensterFreitag #FensterFriday

Later I had to o dig out the samples I'd put in my snow pit to keep cold.
The cold wasn't a problem but the fresh snow was...
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

Snow layers: I'm quite fascinated by these ice lenses, not melt exactly but glaze, very thin (~1mm) and a product of high winds and intense solar radiation
From last night's snow pit...

#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #FieldPhoto

🐧👋

Ah sorry, Danish Meteorological Institute! I also have a full mastodon account where this is spelt out (I think). @ruth_mottram@fediscience.org
But I prefer to keep the field photos separate!

That's a great point! You'd think we'd be doing a better job of looking after it really too.

I have been inside the last couple of days due to weather, and misbehaving kit. One compensation is the view outside the "lab" window ..
#iQ2300 #Fieldwork #Labwork #LabPhoto #FensterFreitag #FieldworkPhoto #Antarctica #WasaStation

A large crescent shaped snowdrift is lit by low angle sun with jagged rocks on the ground. In the distance, a snow covered glacier with a rising nunatak of black rock and flowing glaciers on the horizon under dramatic clouds.

The same view framed by the window with an ice core in a plastic tube to one side.

The Polar might is drawing in, the neighbouring nunatak
Ploegen, with the sun almost setting behind it.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Fieldwork #PolarScience #ClimateScience #FieldPhoto #FieldworkPhoto

Farewell site RF1, for now. A total of 54 metres of ice, cored and processed. Then time to head home before the weather comes in, with a quick coffee stop to admire the wildlife: incredibly small lichens that somehow hang on at the nunatak Fossilrygen.
#iQ2300 #FieldworkPhoto #FieldPhoto #Fieldwork #Antarctica #ice #icetodon #frostodon #mosstodon #DronningMaudLand

Today has mostly been about melting and processing ice cores, so there's been a lot of voting an building snow walls to shelter from the sun. But I also found time to dig a snow pit, and to admire the rime patterns on the sastrugi.
#iQ2300 #Antarctica #Antarktis #FieldPhoto #Fieldwork

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