Explorers Club, Flag #24 Expedition Report
Norwegian−United States International Polar Year (IPY) Scientific
Traverse: Climate Variability and Glaciology in East Antarctica,
2007-2008.
By Dr. Glen E. Liston (FN1999) and Dr. Jan-Gunnar Winther (FI2000)
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 1 December 2007
As I lie in my small tent at -48 °C (-54 °F) near the center of Antarctica, I try to mentally
force my near-frozen toes back to life. The temperatures I am experiencing now are just
about equal to the mean annual Antarctic air temperature in this area; something that
typically changes only slowly over the decades and centuries. I also note that one month
ago I was flying, uncontrolled, 15 meters (50 feet) through the air in response to a 52 m/s
(132 mph) wind gust during a storm near the Antarctic coast. I am part of a scientific
research expedition traversing from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, and this is
exactly what we are here to study and understand: weather and climate variability and
change on time scales of 1000 seconds (like my wind-borne flight) to 1000 years (like my
cold, cold night).
In 2004, under the leadership of Dr. Jan-Gunnar Winther (FI2000), Director of the
Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø, Norway, the idea of a joint Norwegian – United
States, International Polar Year (IPY) scientific expedition and overland traverse to the
South Pole (90º S, 0º E) was born. In the true spirit of the IPY, this effort was to be a
scientific collaboration between nations, with approximately equal contributions from the
two participating countries. After two years of proposal writing and international
negotiations, we received funding and blessings for our expedition from the Research
Council of Norway and the United States National Science Foundation.
Diary Excerpt (Jan-Gunnar), 21 October 2007
I am sipping a glass of red wine onboard a South African Airlines flight from Frankfurt,
Germany, leaving behind months and months of preparations for an expedition to the most
remote area of the world: Antarctica. It is a great relief to finally be underway. The only sad
part is to leave my family for 3.5 months, especially my three beloved kids. My thoughts
are flying faster than I am …
There is no doubt I have succeeded in making the traverse well known, especially within
Norway. This ranges from our members of Parliament and the Government, the Norwegian
Ministries, academic institutions around the country, the Norwegian IPY organization,
numerous members of the mass media, and grade schools located throughout Norway –
they all have ownership and are partners in this expedition. If we succeed, we will be the
second governmentally-supported Norwegian expedition, after Roald Amundsen in 1911,
to reach the South Pole. In addition, we have established the largest collaborative
Norwegian-US Antarctic research project in history. Finally, a unique characteristic of our
expedition is that we are traveling into one of the least explored regions of Antarctica; yes,
even of our entire Earth. I am thrilled to think about what lies ahead of me. At the same
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time, I strongly feel the responsibility and pressure of being the expedition leader. There
are enormous expectations of us back home, and I feel I carry much of my nation’s polar
pride on my shoulders … I ask the air hostess for another glass of South African red wine.
Three times during the past 125 years, scientists from around the world have worked
together to improve our scientific understanding of the Polar Regions. The first, so called,
International Polar Year took place in 1882-1883. During this effort there were 15
expeditions to the poles (13 to the Arctic, and 2 to the Antarctic). In addition to scientific
advances and geographical exploration, the First IPY set a precedent for international
science cooperation. The Second IPY (1932-1933) established forty permanent
observation stations in the Arctic and the first inland research station in Antarctica. The
Third IPY, also known as the International Geophysical Year (IGY: 1957-1958),
celebrated the 75th and 25th anniversaries of the First and Second IPYs. The associated
geophysical traverses over the Antarctic ice cap yielded the first informed estimates of the
total size of Antarctica’s ice mass. In addition, the United States established the first
year-round research station at the geographic South Pole.
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 8 December 2007
Temperature -46 °C (-51 °F), Chill Factor -69 °C (-92 °F). I don't know if I should tell you
what happened to me today. I awoke this morning at about 5:00 a.m. to a nice little blizzard
raging outside my tent; my enthusiasm for leaving my warm, cozy, sleeping bag was at an
all time low. We had planned on an early start, heading to our next measurement site. I got
everything packed up, got the tent taken down, and tossed all my sleeping stuff (two pads,
sleeping bag, tent, etc.) into the floor of the science tent-sled. Then I headed off to help get
two of the remaining vehicles started. We are having problems with cold fuel in the
mornings, and the solution seems to be to blast the fuel filters and lines with a monster
heater system. Unfortunately this is darned hard, cold work in these winds, cold, and
blowing snow. About half way through the second vehicle I started getting cold ... really
cold. Even when I stopped I could not get my hands warmed back up (and the rest of me
wasn't getting any warmer either). This went on for a while (45 minutes?) until I realized I
was in a bit of a mess. I started having hot flashes that surged through my body (a little
strange while you feel like you are freezing to death) ... I felt like I was going to get sick to
my stomach ... finally I staggered inside the dining module to warm up, sat in a chair in
kind of a stupor, and eventually got to the point (like 30 minutes later) where I could
prepare and eat something for breakfast and slowly recover and warm back up.
We are now driving to the next site; it will take 2.5 days to get there. From my little ordeal
this morning, I feel like every muscle in my body is sore; I have a horrible headache; I am
having muscle cramps in my legs and feet; and sometime during all of this my left thumb
split again and hurts like fire. Jan-Gunnar is driving, so I can doctor my thumb, eat and
drink some more, take some 'aspirin', and get some much-needed rest. I will be okay. I
remember a time during one of my Arctic traverses when I had to do something (cold, hard
work) without benefit of food (like in the morning without breakfast!), and with similar
consequences (I could not stay warm no matter what I tried). I will be careful not to let that
happen again! I do not like the end results; my body is feeling like it was half destroyed by
what I did to it this morning!
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The Fourth IPY (2007-2009) represents a unique opportunity for improving our
understanding of the Polar Regions, particularly in light of recent concerns with global
climate changes. This IPY includes a strong focus on snow and ice changes: reductions in
extent and mass of glaciers and ice sheets; reductions in area, timing, and duration of snow
cover; and reductions in extent and thickness of sea ice and permafrost. Through the
associated changes in sea level, fresh-water supplies, and air temperatures, these will all
have immediate- and long-range consequences for people living on Earth. This latest IPY
seeks to answer questions about how changes in snow and ice in the Polar Regions relate to
climate features and processes in lower latitudes.
Our IPY expedition team consists of twelve hand-picked field scientists and technicians
representing the best each country has to offer (4 Norwegian and 3 U.S. scientists, and 4
Norwegian and 1 U.S. support technicians; 3 women and 9 men). In late October 2007, we
flew our chartered C-130 Hercules aircraft from Cape Town, South Africa, straight south,
300 km (190 miles) past the Antarctic coast, and landed on the blue-ice runway located
near Troll Station (72º S, 2º E), Norway’s main Antarctic research base. Our expedition
spans two austral summers (2007-2008 and 2008-2009), and takes us from Troll to the Pole
the first season (late October through late January), and back to Troll by a different route
the second season (Figure 1). Between seasons the expedition participants will be flown
from the South Pole Research Station, back to their home countries of Norway and the
United States.
Figure 1. Antarctic traverse routes between Troll Station and the South Pole, for the two
field seasons. Also shown are Plateau Station (PS), the Pole of Inaccessibility (POI), and
the Recovery Lakes (RL) research site.
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Diary Excerpt (Glen), 20 December 2007
I think my toothbrush finally died this morning; it just looks all worn out. Somehow letting
it freeze after every use, and using it when it is frozen and stiff, seems to be taking a toll on
the bristles. I will have to dig around for one of my spares. I didn't change my underwear on
Friday. I think that was a mistake, so now I have to decide whether to wait until next Friday
or change them today or tomorrow (which would kind of screw up my every-3rd-Friday
schedule!). Also, this morning I put my hair trimmer in the vehicle to warm up. I have plans
to trim around my 'pie hole' (mouth) so I can eat like a civilized person again. I've also lost
track of when I changed my socks last; and then there is the shower situation; my last one
was on the 25th of October (isn't it kind of fun to think that Christmas will be my
two-month no-shower anniversary ... I guess not; ... by the end of this expedition I will
have gone 89 days without a shower). I suppose I could give you my theory about showers
on these trips ... it goes something like this: after a few days our bodies reach some kind of
equilibrium with regards to dirt, oils, and smells; and it is our clothes that keep getting
'worse'. This is why it is so important to change your clothes every few weeks (because
they basically start to rot on your body - while your body is still doing fine). I do have with
me a collection of 'baby wipe' things that I can use on strategic 'spots' when needed.
Our IPY expedition’s primary goal is to investigate climate variability and change over the
East Antarctic Ice Sheet between now and 1000 years ago. This area of Antarctica was last
visited by a collection of American traverses in the 1960’s, and our expedition will revisit
their sites to define possible changes and establish benchmark datasets for future research
efforts. In addition, our route takes us through numerous areas that have never been visited
before, representing a unique opportunity to make new discoveries and further our
understanding of the complexities and variability of East Antarctic climate. We generally
followed the topographic divide of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (Figure 1), traveling at
3600 meters (11,800 feet), across an incredibly flat, ocean of white; the ice sheet in this
area is thick and heavy enough to depress Earth’s crust approximately 1000 meters (3300
feet).
During the 2007-2008 field season, our scientific measurements included 1) drilling a
collection of ice cores (three 90-meter (300-foot), five 30-meter (100-foot), five 10-meter
(33-foot), and twenty-eight 7-meter (23-foot) cores) to measure a broad range of chemical
and physical properties and characteristics, taking us back in time over 1000 years; 2)
collecting 10,000-km (6000 miles) of radar data to map snow and ice accumulation
between drill sites (using 4 different ice-penetrating radar systems running continually
over our route, including one specifically designed to detect crevasses [Figure 2]); 3)
making detailed near-surface (top 3 meters) physical and chemical snow and ice
measurements; 4) installing two automatic weather stations; 5) conducting unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV) flights and measurements; and 6) making deep-ice temperature
measurements. This suite of observations will be used to gain new insights into the
paleo-environments and climate change of this virtually unexplored area of Antarctica.
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Figure 2. Crevasse detection using a vehicle-mounted radar system; Stabben is the
mountain in the background, near Troll Station. (Photo: G. Liston)
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 21 December 2007
Things are going pretty well with the ice coring, although my thumbs nearly freeze every
time I handle a new 1-meter core section that comes out of the hole (Figure 3). We are deep
enough in the Ice Sheet now that the ice-core temperatures equal the mean annual air
temperature of this area, about -55 °C (-67 °F), so they are darn cold to handle with
lightly-gloved hands. The light gloves are required to do the note-taking and bagging of the
ice cores.
Do you realize that by the end of this trip we will have drilled a total of 700 meters (2300
feet) of ice core?! That is if things improve a bit ... this morning after 2 hours of driving,
Jack (the vehicle I was driving at the time) destroyed its gear box, spewed hot oil, and
promptly caught fire (or I should say the oil on the 'ground' caught fire, not the vehicle); I
put the fire out by throwing snow on it – it was just a small fire. A pretty exciting morning ...
one I could have done without ... one we all could have done without. Fortunately, we have
one spare gear box left (a rebuilt one) to replace it with; about a 10-hour job that should be
done in a few more hours. Our mechanics are amazing! We would literally be going
nowhere without them.
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Figure 3. Ice-core processing operations. (Photo: J.-G. Winther)
To optimize our body’s energy required to make our scientific measurements, we traveled
in relative comfort. We used 4 tracked vehicles that pulled 3 heated modules: a dining
module (Figure 4), a sleeping module, and a small workshop to make repairs to our
scientific and mechanical equipment. The vehicles also pulled our scientific equipment,
camp and traverse supplies, and fuel. We named the modules after famous Norwegian and
American explorers, and named the vehicles after their dogs that played key roles in early
Antarctic exploration and discovery. The four tracked vehicles were named Sembla, Lasse,
Chinook, and Jack.
Figure 4. Our expedition dining module and sled. Fuel was stored in the green barrels
underneath, and personal gear was carried in the aluminum boxes along the sides. (Photo:
J.-G. Winther)
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Sembla was a key lead dog during the Southern Cross Expedition of 1899-1900; the first
Antarctic expedition to use dogs. They reached a “farthest south” point at 78° 50’ S, and
thus opened the race for the South Pole. Lasse was Roald Amundsen’s favorite dog during
his successful expedition to the South Pole in 1911-1912. Chinook was the lead dog on
Richard Byrd’s first expedition to Antarctica in 1928-1930. Byrd credits the dog with
playing a critical role in the expedition’s efforts to set up the camps required to fly his plane
to the South Pole. Jack played a crucial role in Richard Byrd’s second expedition to
Antarctica in 1933-1935. He was known for his toughness, independence, and strength,
and was said by expedition members to be “half man.” Leading teams across the
featureless Antarctic terrain, Jack pulled a straight path with virtually no landmarks to
guide him. He also developed an instinctive “feel” for crevasses and how to lead the team
safely across them. When approaching a snow bridge, he would look up and down the
trend of the crack, and turn the team quickly to cross it at an approximately right angle and
then return to the general bearing of the route.
The three living and working modules were given the first names of key Antarctic
explorers. The dining module was named after Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach
the South Pole on 14 December 1911, together with his teammates Olav Bjaaland, Helmer
Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting. Amundsen was one of the great Norwegian
polar explorers active around the turn of the previous century. The sleeping module was
named after Richard Byrd, the great American Antarctic explorer. He led four expeditions
to the continent: 1928-1930, 1933-1935, 1939-1940, and 1946-1947, and participated in
Operation Deep Freeze I in 1955-56. During his first expedition Byrd established a winter
base camp named Little America, and the following summer, on 28-29 November 1929, he
made his famous South Pole flight with the Ford trimotor named Floyd Bennett, with Bernt
Balchen at the controls. The workshop module was named after Finn Ronne (Rønne in
Norwegian), an American explorer of Norwegian descent. He played lead roles in Byrd’s
first, second, and third Antarctic expeditions. Ronne returned to Antarctica with his own
expedition in 1947-1948 where he explored and mapped large parts of Palmer Land and the
Weddell Sea coastline, and identified the Ronne Ice Shelf.
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 22 December 2007
While the rest of the group is sleeping in the heated sleeping module, complete with bunk
beds, sheets, comforters, and pillows, I have chosen to spend this entire expedition sleeping
in my small tent. Prior to this expedition I spent over 500 nights sleeping on the snow as
part of other Arctic and Antarctic field expeditions, so I don’t anticipate any problems with
this trip. One really nice thing about not sleeping in the sleeping module is that no one in
my tent snores, so I get a very nice, peaceful rest every night (unless the wind is really
howling!). My first night out was a bit of a nightmare, with a raging katabatic [cold-air
drainage] wind roaring down the glacier during our climb from the Coastal Plain onto the
high Polar Plateau) (Figure 5).
Typically we have been seeing night-time temperatures of -40 to -48 °C (-40 to -54 °F).
The tent is working pretty well for me. So far I have only had three cold nights, and this
mostly because I went to bed after cold, 14-hour work days with too little food. I am
sleeping with two thick Thermarest pads under me (the reason I have opted for two pads is
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because during my last field expedition I was melting the snow under me when using only
one pad; a significant loss of body heat!). In addition, I am sleeping in my custom-made
Feathered Friends sleeping bag [rated to -60 °C (-75 °F); which works just about right for
me because I tend to need a bag rated about 15 °C (25 °F) lower than the air temperature I
am sleeping in].
Figure 5. Ground blizzard on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. (Photo: J.-G. Winther)
During our traverse we passed through and made measurements at several interesting and
historical Antarctic places, the three most notable being Plateau Station, the Pole of
Inaccessibility, and the South Pole (Figure 1).
1) Plateau Station was established by the United States in 1965 and stayed open until
1969. Research at the station focused on atmospheric observations; it’s location at 3620
meters (11,900 feet) on the broad crest of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet provides a
climate unique for its thin air, light winds, extremely low temperatures, and short
summers. These climate conditions produce exceptionally large ice crystals within the
snow and on the snow surface, and the cold air layers and strong temperature inversions
create unique patterns of halos around the sun and moon.
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 23 December 2007
Yesterday was amazing for us. We spent hours down (I went down 4 times) in the old
Plateau Station building. It was nice to be out of the wind, but was a little cold (-51.3 °C,
-61.3 °F)! We entered through a hole in one of the station observation towers, starting
about 5 meters (16 feet) above the station floor (Figure 6).
I had the 'honor' of being the first one down into the station. I say 'honor' because there was
some question about how safe it would be down there, with possibilities of no oxygen,
poisonous gasses from old station supplies, etc. For some reason Jan-Gunnar figured I was
the one expedition member they could most easily do without! Einar (our Norwegian Polar
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Institute 'Man of the Year') also went with me. Anyway, everything was fine, and it was
nice to think that I was the first American in the station in about 40 years (it closed in 1969).
Talk about stepping back in time; it was like they just walked away, leaving most
everything as it was while they were living there! We saw shaving kits and toothbrushes,
cupboards full of food, numerous flashlights in case of a winter power outage, chairs neatly
turned over and sitting on the dining-room table, and a fully-stocked medical cabinet
(Figure 7). Our visit was made particularly eerie because, at these temperatures, the
moisture from your breath freezes instantly, creating an ice fog that got thicker and thicker
the longer we were below the surface and in the station. But my strongest reaction was that
it looked like a pretty small place for 8 people to be spending the winter!
When I wintered over at the South Pole many years ago (1982-83), I also climbed down
into the original South Pole station (built in 1957). At that time it was 12 meters (40 feet)
below the surface and the ice pressure from above was crushing what was left of the station.
Plateau Station was in much better shape and much safer!
2) A “Pole of Inaccessibility” is the location on a continent that is farthest from any
ocean, and thus (generally) the point most difficult to reach. In Antarctica, the Pole of
Inaccessibility is located at 82° 06’S, 54° 58’E (885 km, or 532 miles, from the South
Pole) and is 3730 meters (12,200 feet) above sea level. Prior to our arrival, the Pole of
Inaccessibility had been visited 6 times: three times by Soviet expeditions (in 1958,
1964, and 1966), twice U.S. expeditions (in January and November 1965), and once by
a multinational, private expedition of four people (in 2006).
3) The South Pole is Earth’s southern most point; it sits at an elevation of 2840 meters
(9300 feet); it has a mean annual temperature of -50 °C (-58 °F) and a winter-low
temperature record of -82.8 °C (-117.0 °F); at this point on Earth the sun is continually
above the horizon for 6 months, then sets and is below the horizon for 6 months; and
the United States has maintained a year-round research station there since 1957.
Figure 6. Glen preparing to descend into the old Plateau Station. (Photo: J.-G. Winther)
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Figure 7. Oxygen bottle and mask in the Plateau Station lobby; presumably to help station
personnel deal with the low oxygen levels at this elevation (approximately 55% of that
available at sea level). (Photo: G. Liston)
Diary Excerpt (Jan-Gunnar), 31 December 2007
Today, our sixth differential broke down! We have worked so hard to get to the Pole of
Inaccessibility on New Years Eve. Yesterday, we got up at 4 a.m. and were rolling across
the Ice Sheet two hours later. Two hours after that, Jack’s transmission transfer-case
collapsed. The last time this happened the thing did more than just grind to pieces, it caught
fire. Glen had to pour piles of snow on the burning oil to extinguish the fire. I was amazed.
Once again this extremely strong group scrambled together with new energy and showed
its high spirit and “never-give-up” attitude. I think these are exactly the most important
characteristics for successful polar explorers: patience, endurance, and an exceptionally
positive attitude. This time the clear message from our chief mechanic, Kjetil, was that we
will repair this and go on tomorrow morning to the Pole of Inaccessibility. The repair team
finished at 3:00 a.m. and went to bed. An hour later, at 4:00 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, the
driving team was on their feet. We started out. This time it took half an hour before we
were stuck … Chinook’s differential was a mass of broken metal.
We can handle basically all other problems arising on this expedition; but if we get to the
point where we have no spares left, the continuous vehicle breakdowns could actually
grind the entire expedition to a halt. We have already had two flights with a ski-equipped
Basler to supply us with differentials and transmission transfer-cases. Now, the company
manufacturing and delivering these parts in Sweden is out of parts. Thus, more breakdowns
will be fatal to our efforts to move forward. I can see the beginnings of my worst nightmare
– we might have to abort this expedition! I mentally turn around. No, that is not going to
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happen. Whatever it takes, we are going to make it to the South Pole.
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 14 January 2008
Things don’t look good. A few days ago Sembla's gear box cracked, and so we had to put it
on one of our sleds and have been pulling it behind Chinook (these gear boxes were
specially made for this trip, and there are no more in the world available for us to replace
our broken ones; we already used the two available spares earlier in the expedition). The
sleds Sembla was pulling were being pulled by Lasse, Chinook, and Jack. Then yesterday
Chinook's gear box broke, so Chinook is also dead. And Jack's gear box is slowly leaking
oil, leaving only Lasse with no real problems. You can see the positive feedback loop here:
when another vehicle breaks it just means the rest of the vehicles have that much more to
pull, which increases the stresses on their drive trains, which causes them to break down
sooner ... the Pole is only 350 km (220 miles) away; we are so close!
I should explain why we have had all of these drive train (gear box and differential)
problems. Two years ago, as part of our preparations for the traverse, the vehicle
manufacturer redesigned the gear boxes to reduce the gear ratios by half. This means the
top speed is reduced by half, and the vehicles crawl slower and pull stronger. But,
unfortunately all of the rest of the drive train, and the gear boxes themselves, have not been
strong enough to handle the high torque generated by pulling our heavy loads. We did a
small, 1600 km (1000 mile) test traverse last year, to put in a fuel depot, and none of these
problems showed up. We have been a little surprised by all of these difficulties!
So, we have decided to finish this year's traverse where we now stand, 350 km (220 miles)
from the South Pole. The vehicle manufacturer will redesign and rebuild the drive train
parts over the next year, and we will install the new parts before the start of next year's
traverse. Then we will continue on to the Pole and extend our science measurements over
our new route back to Troll (Figure 1). To finish things up this year, we will spend the next
several days winterizing the camp. Then we have chartered a flight (actually something
like 5 flights) that will take us, all of the science equipment we need to take home, and all
of our ice cores, from here to the South Pole.
Diary Excerpt (Jan-Gunnar), 21 January 2008
Arriving at the South Pole yesterday was different than anything I expected. Suddenly, the
expedition was over. The goals we had been working so hard to achieve were behind us.
Mission accomplished! In fact, it was a moment of total anticlimax. Now, “civilization”
was overwhelming me again, just like when this incredible journey started: there are
reporters, journalists, politicians, people with all kinds of interests, and they all want to
know our story; they are everywhere, and I couldn’t get away from them even if I wanted to.
Fortunately, I don’t want to. This is my job. I have hardly slept during the last 48 hours; I
am in constant communication with the journalists back in Norway.
For me, the highlight of our arrival was a video-teleconference with the Prime Minister of
Norway, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, who was at Troll Station for our South Pole arrival. The
Prime Minister enthusiastically expressed his excitement for the important contributions
we have made to climate research and said that he was proud of our accomplishments.
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Yesterday, six of us flew to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The remaining six
arrived this afternoon, flying in after having closed down “Camp Winter” located 350 km
(220 miles) away from the Pole, and after making sure that all the outgoing cargo safely
made it to South Pole. It was an emotional moment for me when we gathered for pictures,
as a team, at the Pole. We are all here now; here at the end of a long, successful, and
demanding journey. This year’s expedition is finally over. From here the U.S. Antarctic
Program will fly us to Christchurch, New Zealand, and we will all find our way back home
by various routes. Two months from now we will have a meeting to begin plans for next
year and our traverse back to Troll Station!
During the traverse from Troll Station to the South Pole (Year-1 of our expedition), we
traveled a total distance of 2800 km (1700 miles); we used 50,000 liters (13,000 gallons) of
diesel fuel and ate 1200 kg (2600 lbs) of food. We broke seven vehicle differentials and
two transmission transfer-cases, and destroyed countless other small things that were
unable to handle the stress and cold of our expedition. During Year-1 of the traverse we
proudly carried Explorers Club Flag #24 (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Expedition members Liston (left) and Winther (right) with Flag #24 at the
1967-1969 Plateau Station site, with 32 meter (100 foot) station meteorological tower in
the background. (Photo: A. Muto)
As part of this expedition, we realized our dream of a true international Antarctic science
effort befitting the legacy of past IPY research projects, and setting the standard for future
polar research. In addition to real-time meteorological observations, we collected 700
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meters (2300 feet or nearly half a mile) of ice cores that will be used to analyze climate
variability and change over East Antarctica between now and 1000 years ago. During
Year-2 of the traverse we will travel from the South Pole back to Troll Station, continuing
our field observations, including a three-week measurement campaign at the
newly-discovered Recovery Lakes: a collection of lakes located at the bottom of the East
Antarctic Ice Sheet (Figure 1).
Additional information can be found on the expedition web site: http://traverse.npolar.no/
and the Norwegian television site: http://www.nrk.no/sydpolen/.
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