Dec 3rd – Day 337 on Ice

Weather: Clear and calm up until yesterday. Now windy with plenty of blowing snow. Temperatures are warm, around -20F.

Summer turnover is wrapping up at SPT, and we’ve completed most of our critical summer maintenance. Soon we will be fully beginning uninterrupted Summer observations (and by we, I mean the new winterovers, not me!). We have to change our observing field during summer because the sun begins to enter our field and cause contamination in our CMB maps (so we basically just shift over to avoid it).

The first of three South Pole overland Traverses (SPoT) arrived a few days ago, bringing with it more than 100k gallons of fuel (and quite a few new faces!). The galley now seems overwhelmingly full, especially after a week of level yellow (socially distanced seating in the galley).

Flight schedules are always being updated, rearranged, delayed and moved around here at the South Pole due to various things. There is a possibility that I will be flying North starting next week (Wednesday the 9th). From there I’ll likely be in McMurdo until the last C130 of the year arrives on the 14th, taking passengers northbound to Christchurch on the 15th.

We shall see if that plan holds up! 🙂