You are browsing the archive for Antarctica Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
3 September 2010
Science Journalist Lee Hotz Talks About Antarctica and Climate
My trip to Antarctica last January was an amazing adventure but not just for what I saw and experienced. The people I met and those selected to go like I was made it unforgettable. One of those people was Lee Hotz of the wall Street Journal. He has been a science journalist for many years. This was not his first trip to the ice, but it would be his first …
16 June 2010
Historical Preservation in Antarctica
Here is a Great Google Tech talk on Antarctica. Having been in both Shackleton’s and Scott’s huts, I am of course a big advocate of preserving not only these sites but in preserving the last great unspoiled continent on Earth. Well worth watching. It’s also nice to hear a Christ Church accent again! What an incredible tragedy if these places and this continent is lost.
4 June 2010
As The Oil Slick Spreads, The Ice Keeps Melting and The Temperature Keeps Rising
Yes, they are most definitely related. I have been very busy reading lately. Books and papers. A presentation on the science underway in Antarctica is half finished, but I keep finding new things I just have to read right away. (I’m presenting at the AMS broadcast conference in Miami in three weeks.) There are some very interesting graphs and images I have stumbled onto and since the desktop folder (thankfully …
11 April 2010
A Quake! A Quake!..Sunset at The South Pole and a "Peer" Review
I saw this video over on the GEOGRAPHILE Blog. I just added it to my google reader and am glad I did. .. When Ann Posegate and I were at the South Pole in January she got to see an old friend from her days as an observer at Mount Washington. Nick Morgan is wintering over at the Pole (About 45 people are stuck at Amundsen Scott Station until Spring). …
1 April 2010
Science On The Ice- Part 2
Here is another video/slide-show of my January trip courtesy the National Science Foundation to see the Science underway in Antarctica. I am planing 5 parts now, because I want to spend more time on the astronomy and climate science being done. My travel colleague Ann Posegate of NEEF is also working on a similar project and I’ll post her’s here as well soon. This was all edited on my macbook pro. The …
27 March 2010
Science On The Ice- Part One
One of the main reasons the NSF took Ann Posegate and I to the bottom of the world was to foster student interest in science. This was fine with me because it is one of the main reasons I write this journal and the Wild Wild Weather Page. I’ve just finished putting together a 5 minute slideshow with embedded video about my January trip to Antarctica and the South Pole. …
21 March 2010
Life Always Finds A Way
One of the most fascinating places I visited in Antarctica was Lake Hoare Field Camp. It’s an amazingly beautiful spot. Some have claimed the Dry Valley’s of Antarctic are the most beautiful spots in the World. You won’t find me arguing with them. Why are scientists are so interested in Lake Hoare?? It’s one of harshest climates on Earth. Cold and dry. Very dry. Perhaps one of the driest spots …
19 March 2010
Places of Reverence – Frozen In Time
The only continent that humans did not naturally colonise is Antarctica. As I write this there are only about 250 people on the entire continent. They will be there through the long dark polar night. It will be spring before the New York Air Guard can fly a plane back in. The first person to reach the Pole at the bottom of the world did so just 99 years ago. …
15 March 2010
CSI South Pole
When our first attempt at landing in Antarctica was turned back by weather, I found myself with a real problem. I had neglected to use a boomerang bag. All of your luggage is packed onto a huge pallet in the C17. If you aren’t able to land, it stays there until you finally make it. Now, If I had put my shoes in a boomerang bag, I would have had …
10 March 2010
Raob (Weather Balloon) Launch from Station 89007
I’ve seen quite a few Raob launches over the years. RAOB stands for Rawinsonde Observation. You can think of them as weather balloons. They are vital for making forecasts. We live in an atmosphere over 100 km thick, but most weather happens in the troposphere, the bottom 15 km or so. To forecast weather knowing only what is happening at the ground would be like guessing the outcome of a …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.