From the ice: An Update from Robyn, Feb 4th.

No launches again today due to high surface winds. Payload 2A was terminated at 1730 UT.  For those of you who haven't seen it, here's a link to an article about BARREL on the NASA website. There is also a video that Alexa put together. I can't view it myself but have heard it's great!

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-funded-science-balloons-launch-in-antarctica/

Also, some of you have been asking about our travel plans. Our SANAE team leaves around February 9th. They'll fly to Novo and then on to Cape Town from there. The Halley team will board the ship somewhere between February 17 - 20 and will sail to the Falkland Islands. We expect to depart from the Falklands on March 1st to return via South America. As such, the last possible launch date for the SANAE team is February 9th and the Halley team a few days later (we have to have our cargo on the line by February 15th at the latest). Although we've now launched 20 balloons, we'd very much like to replace the two that came down shortly after launch. So, each team hopes to be able to launch one more before departing. So far, surface conditions do not look great for the next few days. We have a possible launch opportunity from both stations tomorrow.


Robyn

From the ice: While the rest of us have freezing cold Weather...

The guys from the ice sent us a nice post card... It reminds me of growing up in WI. 

From Robyn, "Day after day, the sky has been white here lately. When the rest of your surroundings are also white, it can be a bit dull and dreary. Today, the sun came out finally, and we made the most of it! The clouds rolled in by the time we took the picture but it was quite lovely. With no wind, -7C doesn't feel too bad!"

To be fair, -7 C is 19 F. It's still pretty cold.

From the Ice: Jan 25th 2014

Hi all,
  We've still be experiencing 20 knot winds on the ground at Halley and not great conditions at SANAE either. The weather is predicted to improve at Halley through the evening and into tomorrow so we are hoping for a launch opportunity Sunday. We lost contact with Payload 2C this morning at 7:46:33 UTC.  The telemetry throughput for this payload has been lower on average than the others (~85%) so we suspect a modem issue may be responsible. The payload will terminate itself after 38 hours without contact but we will continue to attempt contact until that point. On a more positive note, this is the first hardware problem we've had this year and we have now satisfied our comprehensive success criteria in terms of the number of hours of observations. The attached plot shows a histogram of the total number of hours of observation at various L-values. To date, we have acquired 1380 hours of observations between L=3-7 (based on T89 field model with Kp=2).

Happy Burn's Night!

From the Ice: The Recovery of 2Z

Hi all, 

This morning (19 Jan) I went out and retrieved 2Z with a mountaineering expert, Roger.  The payload was 31km SW of SANAE base, and had been transmitting data as normal ever since it crash landed after it’s untimely return from 38km altitude.  We traveled to the payload via helicopter!  When we arrived at the payload, the chopper lightly touched down about 30meters from the payload.  We were concerned about crevasses, which due to the fresh snowfall in the past week, would have been nearly impossible to see.  I belayed Roger, seen in the photo, who recovered just the payload.  Portions of the balloon and parachute are visible to the right of the payload and buried in snow, but it was too dangerous to recover the parachute or balloon.  As the chopper took off again, Nick could see the GPS location of the payload rise, as he watched the ground station data back at base!  The mission went smoothly and we now have 2Z back in the lab.  The solar panels, even, show no signs of damage, even after a week of poor weather in Antarctica.  2Z is now ready to be tested, returned to the US for refurbishment, and eventually re-launched under another, hopefully more long-lived balloon.

Cheers,

Brett Anderson

From the ice: A note from Robyn, Jan 13th 2014

Hi all, 

Good evening from Halley!  Payload 2K was terminated today near McMurdo at 09:30UTC. It landed on the sea ice at 76.49S, 171.49E. Payload 2M was cut down at 09:45UTC, also landing on the sea ice at 76.71S 51.56W. We still have 5 balloons in the air, though some of them are at high magnetic latitude. Payload 2T is still truckin' - it's been up for 16 days and has been back on closed field lines since yesterday. At this point, we've well exceeded our minimum success criteria (8 payloads up for 3 days each) and still have 3 weeks or so left to go!

The SANAE team was not able to go recover 2Z last night because bad weather moved in just as the helicopter was supposed to take off. Hopefully they will be able to get out there tomorrow. We have a possible launch opportunity Tuesday morning from Halley. We expect a launch between 1100-1200 UT.

Robyn

From the Ice: A Note from Robyn Jan 11 20214

Hi all

It's been a busy and successful day for us in Antarctica!  The Halley team launched Payload 2M at 1112 UT. The SANAE team launched Payload 2Y at 1932 UT.  Payload 2W was successfully terminated at ~1227 UT. It landed about 240 miles southwest of Dumont D'Urville station, at 68.89S  133.8E. There are currently 7 payloads in the air. Payload 2T has is nearly back at Halley. By tomorrow, I expect it will have circumnavigated the pole!  We don't expect a launch from Halley tomorrow (Sunday) but SANAE is a possibility.

Robyn

Launch of 2M from Halley

Halley had another successful launch. 2M was launched at 11:12 UT and is now up on the SOC. The SANAE team also is hoping... well praying for a launch today.

From the ice: A note from Robyn and David Jan 5th

Hi folks,

  No launches today, but we were able to recover Payload 2J. Michael and Dave went out on skidoos with our mountaineer and brought the payload back in a sled. It's in quite good shape. The only obvious damage was that the mounting bracket for the Iridium antenna ripped off. Amazingly, the Iridium antenna planted itself upright in the snow and had the cable still attached so we could still communicate with it. We're trying to get a picture to you all, but the internet is very slow today.

At Halley, we are getting payload 1L ready, and the SANAE team was finishing up Payload 2Y. Both SANAE and Halley may have launch opportunities on Monday or Tuesday.

Robyn

From David

Today we launched the search and rescue operation for Payload 2J which had been sitting tantalisingly close to Halley since it was cut down 2 days ago. The Halley GA, Al Davies, who arrived back last night after a long spell of relief duty at the ship, gallantly agreed to take Mike McCarthy and myself off base to attempt the recovery. Travelling on 3 ski-doos roped together we drove off into the flat light of a snowy and overcast day, heading straight for the GPS location which the payload told us was about 5 miles South West of base.

Within half an hour of hour of setting out we spotted a small black speck in the white expanse which we recognised as the payload box as we drew closer. The magnetometer readings had indicated that the payload had come to rest upside down, this was quickly confirmed as we saw that the box was inverted with the magnetometer boom still firmly attached. The only apparent damage was to the Iridium antenna mounting which had been torn off its posts leaving the antenna dangling by its cable but still pointing at the sky in a gesture of defiance! The flight train and parachute were stretched out on the ground but there was no sign of the balloon itself. However, Al soon found the white rip panel cord and followed it just a few yards to the nearest part of the balloon which was all but invisible in the whiteness as the clear plastic film was covered in a thin layer of snow. A number of large holes were found in the balloon but it was impossible to determine which, if any, were the cause of the failure and which were due to damage inflicted upon landing. We had to inflict even more damage to persuade the billowing envelope into the small box sled we had brought along to pick up the remains. The fun continued as we joined Robyn back at base and had to resort to cutting the balloon into pieces to get it stuffed into a couple of empty payload boxes in addition to the original cardboard box which the balloon was packed in, and even then it didn't go quietly!

That's probably the end of payload 2J's Antarctic adventure for now but it may well end up back on a flight line in the Northern Hemisphere before too long - watch this space!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers,

Dave

From the ice: A note from Robyn, January 1st

Hi all, 

Today, both the Halley and SANAE teams had strong surface winds, so we worked on getting our next payloads flight-ready. The winds are still expected to be strong tomorrow but one never knows in Antarctica. If we can't launch tomorrow, Friday looks much more promising. Solar and geomagnetic activity are picking up as well. We've continued to observe somewhat weak but intensifying precipitation at two balloons.  There were also two M-class (an Alexa side note, one was almost an x-class, or in other words a big one instead of a moderate one) flares on the sun today, so we have a chance for some increased activity over the next few days.

Robyn

From the ice: A note from Robyn Dec. 31st 2013

The last day of 2013 turned out to be an exciting one for the BARREL team. The Halley team launched Payload 2I at 1144 UT. The balloon reached float altitude of 38 km at 1344 UT.  One member of the SANAE team acted as ground station for Halley while the rest of their team set up to launch their first payload. At 1735 UT, the SANAE team launched Payload 2W, with Halley acting as their ground station. The balloon reached float altitude of 38 km at 1930 UT. Both payloads are working nominally and have been transferred to the UCSC MOC. Payload 2T continues to move around the continent, maintaining an altitude above 35 km. Some weak precipitation was observed by it earlier today despite the fact that geomagnetic activity was quite low. We are looking forward to a possible increase in activity in the next few days due to a coronal hole coming into view on the sun. Fingers crossed! We don't anticipate another launch tomorrow. The winds are predicted to be high for the next day or two.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Robyn

From the ice: A Note from Robyn Dec. 30th

Hi all, 

The Halley team got Payload 2I flight-ready today and were set up to launch, but had to cancel yet again due to the surface wind conditions. Today was expected to be a bit marginal anyway.  I'm sure our luck will improve soon! The Halley forecast for tomorrow looks more favorable, so I hope to have better news for you then. The SANAE team are also ready to launch, so just waiting for better weather.

Robyn

From the ice: A note from Robyn, Dec. 29th

Hi all,

    We got the rest of our cargo today including flight batteries! So, we got Payload 1I assembled and bench tested. We expect to have it flight ready early tomorrow if ground conditions are good. We have a possible launch opportunity at Halley in the afternoon Monday. The SANAE team is flight ready and are now just waiting for some good weather. The winds are expected to be too high for a launch there tomorrow.

Payload 2T continues to look good and is now well past  the Antarctic peninsula. Everything is working nominally and the altitude profile looks great. We actually detected a gamma ray burst early in the morning and some very weak precipitation later in the day. Nothing too exciting yet, but it's great to see that things are working well.

Robyn

From the ice: a note from Robyn Dec. 28th

Payload 2T continues to look good and is now halfway across the Antarctic peninsula. Everything is working nominally and the altitude profile looks good so far.

At Halley, we are hoping for another launch opportunity tomorrow morning. Payload 2U is ready to go.  The winds are expected to be low again in the morning, so we plan to set up first thing and launch before noon if the weather holds.

The SANAE team have checked out their inflation system and have their first payload just about ready to go.  However, they have 20 knot winds predicted for tomorrow so we don't anticipate a launch from SANAE tomorrow.


Robyn 

From the ice: A note from Robyn Dec. 27th

Today we had our first launch from Halley. Payload 2T was launched at 1208 UT. The payload reached float altitude (~38 km) at 1410 UT. So far the balloon looks healthy and the payload is working nominally. A small photo is attached.

As a reminder, you can view the data live at http://soc2.ucsc.edu. The default view is our "live data" screen which may not be your favorite way to view data. But, you can click on the buttons near the top to view a map, or make plots. Quicklook plots of the x-ray count rate will also be posted once per day.  Other plots of mostly housekeeping data can be viewed at: http://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/mccarthy/BARREL/2T

We don't plan to launch another payload tomorrow. The SANAE team expects to have a payload ready Sunday and the Halley team has a possible launch opportunity Sunday. I'll provide a weather update in tomorrow's status.

Robyn

Payload 2T on its way to float altitude