Wednesday 24 January 2007

the lab





The CASlab.






A lonely place in the clean air sector and a long walk......











Some of the instruments within.









A minor jigsaw puzzle to unwrap.










The mass spectrometer.










The men behind the machine. From L to R. Bob stickel, Greg huey, Steve Sjostedt and Dave tanner.

Halley the station

An aerial from one of the twin otters. The caslab (my work place) can be just about seen on the left of this photograph. It is about one km from the main eating and sleeping quarters (Laws building).








The snow at Halley and the view.







A closer inspection of the setup. Four buildings drewry (summer excess accommodation), Simpson (meteorlogical platform), piggot, (aerial and radar platform), CASlab( chemistry, atmospheric analysis), Laws (home).





Our sleeping accommodation (Laws). Everything is built on metal stilts so that when the snow depth increases each year then the platform can be raised. Very 70's.







A summer BBQ, its only -4 oC. A few warm clothes and we are all happy.

relief from the ship

Arrival at the ice. We are still another 50 km from Halley and so the work begins unloading the ship with the cargo and instruments and then loading with waste etc. This can take upto about 10 days depending on the weather. Shifts of 12 hours begin. A night shift beckons







A snowcat and sledge. The sledge can carry upto 8 tonne and sometimes are pulled 3 at a time.






What can happen??????stuck in the snow, but help is at hand.









The challanger.......








As robert frost would say, a road not taken .......