Skivvies, SuperDARN and proper field tests

Last Sunday we had the big 'Skivvy-day' (Skivvy is 'SouthAfrican' for cleaning), which meant that we all had to help out cleaning and tidying the base and the surroundings. This happens every year during take-over, and every year there is also an inspection team being flown in, from one of the other Antarctic bases, to check that we behave accoring to the rules stated in the Antarctic treaty and that we are not making a mess on the cleanest continent in the world. This year, the inspection team consists of five Japanese, who are currently at the Russian base Nova. I was asked (told?), as an international collaborator (and female, so a minority group, sorry Tobbe!), to have tea with the inspection team when they get here, so I've been waiting for their arrival with quite some excitement... someone told me the nice cookies are saved for this occasion! So ever since Sunday, we have been trying to keep the base and working areas tidy, and to look neat ourselves... but the visit hasn't taken place yet! Due to bad weather, the flight is being cancelled all the time, and every day we are expecting the inspection, and every day we get to hear that it has been cancelled.. Which at least leaves me with more time to practise my Japanese.. One of the improvements made to the base is that a new, klick-in wooden floor has been put in the dining area, you see a picture of it and what the dining area looks like on the photo below.

Dining area with new wooden floor and hungry Antarctic explorers.

Some of the scientists have been busy working on the SuperDARN antennas here at the base (there are 17 SuperDARN stations around the world, monitoring convection patterns in the ionosphere), and today was the first day they got it working again after reinstallations! We went down to the antennas to have a look and met the whole team on their way to celebrate their success with champaign in the radar hatch. A common way to commemorate a successful project it seems!

The SuperDARN antennas.

Tobbe and me took our portable system for a last test yesterday, to see if the signals looked better down at the radar antennas and in the old Astrid-2 dome. With the weather being really lovely we decided to do it the hard-core way and go there on skis. Below is Tobbe on skis, with the system packed into his rucksack and the white 'whip'-antenna attached to his back, on his way to our field tests. In the end the data didn't look much cleaner from down there, so we are going to stick with the system we have at the moment, which is sort-of working.

Tobbe and antenna going on big adventures.

One last photo this time is of the base, taken from the 'Northern Buttress', which is the nunatak opposite the base. The nice thing about this photo, apart from a clear idea of how the base is located, is that you see the place where the dozers push the snow they've been cleaning over the edge of the cliff (big snow pile in the middle), as well as the 'Lolly' to the left, which is the waste water from the base. It has been processed, but is still of a grey colour as it is being thrown over the edge.

From left to right: Lolly, base, unwanted snow, HF antenna, nunatak edge