Location: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Elevation: 2838 m
Weather: -27C, 10 kts

A radar sends energy down into the ice sheet; some of that energy is absorbed by the snow, but some is reflected by horizons in the ice sheet, and by the bedrock below the ice sheet.  By sending out pulses of energy, and then recording the reflections, we can learn about the internal structure of the ice, how it flows over the bedrock, and how the ice thickness is different from place to place.  These systems can be complicated, and so careful testing is required both before shipping your instrument to Antarctica, as well as after you arrive.

Testing the instruments is a fairly simple concept: set up the equipment, turn it on, and see if it works.  If all goes well, everything works as expected; if not, the process of troubleshooting begins.  Here at South Pole, testing radars is a bit more complicated.  There are many science experiments active at any time, as well as communications between various parts of the station by radio.  Since our systems could interefere with other experiments, we need to coordinate the time and place for our tests with the station staff, as well as with other scientists.  Ideally, these tests are planned at least 24 hours ahead of time. Today, we were able to try out our systems about 3km outside of the station, for about 2 hours.

When traveling, we will have three radars in Sembla, one out in front of Lasse (the crevasse-detecting radar), and Kirsty's radar will be on the last sled.  Today, when turning our systems on in Sembla, we promptly blew a fuse, as we were trying to draw too much power.  Ooops!  After fixing that problem, we were able to get four of the five radars working satisfactorily.   We would have been able to get the last one working, but we ran out of time.  Hopefully, we will be able to make a second test on Thursday morning if all goes well.  In the meantime, we will figure out how to connect things without overloading the circuits in poor Sembla!

Tom and Stein examine the crevasse-detecting radar on Lasse. Photo: Ted Scambos.