Attitude can mean "a physical posture, either conscious or unconscious, especially while interacting with others", or "the angle of a spacecraft in relation to its direction of movement" (Encarta¨ World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation). The latter is more relevant to the "attitude adjustment" of which Hal is in need! The first two deployments for Hal have been to work out the "kinks". We are getting close, but a few others remain! By spying on Hal with our underwater camera, we could see that he was not moving horizontally on his frame. He is supposed to lower the probes into the mat while taking measurements - which takes about 20 minutes - then raise the probes back up out of the mat, slide a couple centimeters down the frame, and re-lower into the mat for another profile. Alas, he is not sliding down the frame. So, today we raised Hal to just below the surface again. It is easier to work on him when he is up off the bottom; then we don't have to worry about disturbing the mat. We also planned to move him to a new location, so we figured we would do a few modifications while he was "in the air" rather than on the bottom. Repairs were made, and Hal is redeployed. We'll see how tonight goes!
Bryan, who is in camp with another group from the LTER project made his debut as the person to hook a sling load to the bottom of a helicopter. It was impressive to see how he struggled to stay standing under the fierce winds of the B-212 helicopter! He successfully hooked their sling load and off it went. They moved their sling load from Lake Hoare to Lake Bonney which is up the valley from here.
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A view across Lake Hoare. The winds were blowing quite strong this morning. It cooled temperatures tremendously! It is wonderful to lie inside the tent bundled in my sleeping bag and listen to the wind whip around outside. Getting out of the sleeping bag is another story! I love the dramatic changes from moment to moment on the lake. The winds blew for quite a while, then all was quiet again and the temperatures warmed up!
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Meet Barry - in the red Hawaiian shirt, Gifford - in the blue Hawaiian shirt, - Sandra, with the black sunglasses on, and Rae- with the brown hat. Barry is a helicopter pilot. Gifford is the "helo-tech" who rides with Barry. Sandra works at Lake Hoare assisting with all the daily tasks that need to be done. Rae is the camp manager. Today was Gifford's birthday, so Rae and Sandra made him cookies; he was very excited. In case you are wondering.... Saturdays are Hawaiian shirt day in the Helo hanger!
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Bryan tries to steady his feet while the B-212 lowers above him. The wind was incredible!
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Can you imagine standing under a moving helicopter like this?
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The sling load moves on to Lake Bonney.
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Hal and the camera "spy". We have named the camera r2d2. They seem to be chatting to each other. I wonder if they are complaining about the cold. My dry suit leaked a little bit today... trust me.... it's COLD!!!!
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Hal, suspended "in the air". Actually, he is in the water. The lift bag is up against the bottom of the ice. This was one of my tasks today. I had to attach the lift bag, fill it with air, and raise Hal - without disturbing the mat, or losing control of Hal, to the surface. All went smoothly. It seems a bit odd to just leave him hanging there! But there is nothing in the water to disturb him and no worries about anything tipping the lift bag. That would be disastrous. If the lift bag dumped its air, Hal could go crashing back to the bottom. Not a good scenario!
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I only took one picture of the "lift off" mats today. I'll take more in the future. This is an eerie area where oxygen bubbles have gotten trapped under the algal mat causing it to lift off and raise to the surface. I will capture some surface mats tomorrow. Once the mats reach the surface, they get trapped in the ice, slowly move upward through the ice, and then get released at the surface of Lake Hoare. It then becomes part of the surface ecosystem. It takes quite a journey!
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•Ms. Ellwood - rellwood@sau50.k12.nh.us
Questions may be posted with the answers on the page below.
• Questions and answers about the trip.
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Antarctica 2006 
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