Antarctic's "Endless" Polar Night

John Priscu is a veteran of Antarctic research, having spent 23 seasons in Antarctica and building himself a reputation as an international expert on the region. He normally shares the continent with scientists from all over the world during October and December of each year.

This year is different though. This year, along with 17 members from his personal team, John will be spending two and a half months during the beginning of Antarctica’s Polar Night.

A total disappearance of daylight and temperatures reaching negative 55 degrees Fahrenheit are the conditions Priscu and his team can expect to face. And the newly married Priscu was looking forward to it!

Some would wonder why it is necessary for anyone to venture in to the dark of Antarctica during its most frigid period. To them, Montana State University scientist Priscu has one thing to say; "Antarctica doesn't stop in the winter.”

Priscu has been preparing for this trip for nine years. He asked the National Science Foundation – those who fund his research – if he could go at a different time of year. He knows that, while spending a few months in Antarctica at the same time of year each year is invaluable, it doesn’t compare to checking in at different times of the year.

And the Polar Night will be especially useful for Priscu and his team, who are intending to look at how microorganisms adapt to the dramatic and total loss of light. The team of researchers knows that microbes stop converting sunlight in to energy and switch to consuming organic carbon. But they want to learn m ore. They want to see what effect this has on global warming and carbon balance, says Priscu.

Priscu joined his team members from New Zealand after he married Barbara Vaughn. His team had travelled to McMurdo Station from New Zealand on board a C-17 military transport airplane. From the glacier they landed on, large-tracked vehicles took them to McMurdo.

However to collect and process the samples they desire, the team members will be flying by helicopter to field stations located near the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, near the Transantarctic Mountains. The camp has one building where the researchers will work with their samples. A diesel generator will provide them with the electricity for the building, while they sleep in tents. Moving around camp will require headlamps or flashlights. That is, when the auroras or moon aren’t providing light.

"I have never had to turn a light on before in the field camp," said Amy Chiuchiolo, an MSU research associate who has traveled to Antarctica six times in the past.

The team is likely to leave Antarctica on April 17, conditions allowing. And for Priscu, who is 55 years young, he doesn’t believe he’ll be returning for another Polar Night, considering that this trip took just under a decade to plan. "This is not an old man's game," he said.

Nevertheless, he will be returning for his normal Antarctic summer research trips.

As for his team members? "It's hard to go away every year for a couple of months, but it's fun," said Chiuchiolo. "You can't beat doing field work."

Posted by Josh Hill.

Link:

http://www.physorg.com/news124369339.html