Visiting the Dry Valley Met Stations with Hassan Basagic

December 23rd, 2007 andrea

I spent the last four days following LTER Science Technician/Portland State University Research Assistant Hassan Basagic around to various meteorological monitoring (met station) sites in the Dry Valleys while camped out at Lake Hoare next to the Canada glacier. Besides being an expert on glacial ecosystems, Hassan is an electronics expert who provides support for several LTER projects.

This trip we traveled to three met station sites via helicopter where Hassan was checking and replacing equipment and downloading data: Taylor Glacier, Lake Bonney and Bonney Riegel. Here is a recording of part of our flight to Lake Bonney, with the voices of Hassan and the pilot:

Met station data: http://www.mcmlter.org/queries/met/met_stations.jsp
More about Hassan’s research: http://web.pdx.edu/~basagic/

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Measuring Ozone at the South Pole with NOAA’s Andy Clarke

December 18th, 2007 andrea

Yesterday I spent the day at the South Pole (3 hours there and back on a C-17 from McMurdo), and by chance met NOAA ozone measurement specialist Andy Clarke. He just happened to be launching a balloon sounding to measure ozone concentrations in the stratosphere that afternoon, so I was able to videotape the process with Andy’s expert commentary.

Here are some sounds- the first is an excerpt of the sound of blowing up the balloon:

and the balloon data in real time with explanation from Andy:

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Anne Dalvera’s tour of Pressure Ridge

December 15th, 2007 andrea

Today I went on a lovely tour of Pressure Ridge, an area just outside Scott Base where the ice shelf meets the sea ice and creates giant natural ice sculptures where often seals can be found. The tour was led by Anne Dalvera, an amazing field guide who was one of a group of four women who were the first women ever to ski to the South Pole. She cross-country skied over 600 miles over several weeks in the bitter cold.

It was a beautiful clear and quiet day, even more quiet on the ice. We found a group of about ten Weddell seals sunbathing. This recording presents some excepts of our trip, I think it really expresses the stillness of the day. Extremely quiet and at about 15 minutes, this one is only for the most dedicated and patient listeners - seriously.

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Castle Rock Loop

December 15th, 2007 andrea

Today Tia and I hiked the Castle Rock loop. We took our time (about 6 hours!) and shot a lot of footage in almost 30mph winds. Tia made some beautiful, subtle recordings with the boom mic. Here is a binaural (headphones recommended as usual) recording I made of inside one of the shelters. You can hear the winds outside and Tia coming in the shelter door at the end. When I first listened to this, the spatialization at the end is so strong that I was startled, I thought the door sounds were actually happening in the world outside the headphones.

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Observation Hill Hike

December 11th, 2007 andrea

Everything about this binaural recording is wrong: there’s wind noise, sounds of clothing rustling, radically fluctuating audio levels, but somehow when I listen to it (through headphones), I feel like I am right back on that hill:

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