By Kelly Schick While PIPERS involves primarily water going vessels, the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) team of PIPERS has four unmanned aircraft taking to the skies above the ice. When conditions allow (both weather and ice), the UAS team…
Author Archive for John Cassano
Embracing the Unpredictable
by John Cassano • • 13,698 Comments
By Kelly Schick Winter in Antarctica isn’t always auroras and penguins – the chance for high winds, snow and rapidly changing conditions is a real factor that affects our day to day life on the ship. A fair portion of…
Murder! In the cargo hold. With a slice of toast.
by John Cassano • • 13,832 Comments
by Jeffrey Mei Lying, deceit and paranoia have taken over the ship as friend turns on friend in pursuit of glory as the final survivor. For the past week, our morale team have put together a game of Assassins. Each…
The Copper Rush
by John Cassano • • 13,727 Comments
By Sam Gartzman, University of Rhode Island “Fire bottles 23 and 24” is the phrase to know when the CTD is coming on board. The CTD (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) is a water profiling and sampling package that we regularly…
LiDAR ice survey
by John Cassano • • 13,906 Comments
By Julie Parno We are about a quarter of the way into our cruise. It being my first, I feel like I am settling in to boat life well. As with any field work, flexibility is key and Mother Nature…
Into the Belly of an Ice-Breathing Dragon
by John Cassano • • 13,835 Comments
By Guy Williams As I write, we are at ground zero of a hurricane-strength (65+ knots) katabatic wind event in the Terra Nova Bay polynya [164 21ºE, -75 S]. It is quite incredible to experience such an epic demonstration of…
The Trouble with Mr. Mini
by John Cassano • • 11,671 Comments
By Peter Sedwick In my last post, I provided some background on my group’s goal of measuring the levels of iron in the Ross Sea during late fall and early winter, when deep mixing brings this essential “micronutrient” up from…
Ice Stations: Physics in the endless white
by John Cassano • • 13,896 Comments
By Maddie Smith The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) has for many years provided scientists and support workers with a critical piece of gear to survive frigid work on the ice – bunny boots. When I first heard of bunny…
Iron and the Importance of the Wintry Mix
by John Cassano • • 10,973 Comments
By Peter Sedwick I’m writing this from latitude 63 degrees south, where the research icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer is wallowing through a building swell that’s been whipped up by a night of 30 knot winds. Outside it’s gray and wet…
Steel-toes, bunk beds and “What day is it anyway?”
by John Cassano • • 13,058 Comments
(by Bettina – technician and lab manager in the OEAS department at ODU) Life onboard a research vessel changes everyone’s tried and true daily routine completely. There are no 9-5 work-weeks or weekends. Safety comes first for everything. And…