First Stop, Santiago, Chile

Departing San Diego is always difficult because it means leaving America´s Finest City and the best climate just about anywhere...especially when expecting a temperature shift from the comfortable 80 degrees F at Mission Bay to the late winter sub-sub-sub-freezing temperatures of the Antarctic. I arrived in Santiago, Chile early morning on 31st August to typical sister city weather and was met by the terrific NSF representatives at AGUNSA who shuffled me through passport control and onto their office for coffee and snacks. Departure to Punta Arenas in a couple of hours and then will join the rest of the crew and research team, led by the principal investigator Steve Ackley, on the NSF Icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer this afternoon. Some last minute efforts to get some supplies and equipment to the ship with me were partly successful. A few valves and filters for scientific equipment reached San Diego by Federal Express about a half hour before I struck off for the airport in San Diego. Some other supplies and chemical stains got delayed when the Federal Express plane that they were scheduled on broke down. We are hoping that they may be quickly redirected to Punta Arenas in time to reach the ship before departure. More from Punta Arenas. Hasta pronto. -bs

SIMBA (Sea Ice Mass Balance in the Antarctic) Expedition 2007

Dr. Brent Stewart holds a Weddell seal pup on the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Weddell seals are one of four species of ice seals Dr. Stewart will be studying during the SIMBA (Sea Ice Mass Balance in the Antarctic) expedition aboard the icebreaker RVIB Nathanial B. Palmer (see photo below) cruise, one of several international research efforts being conducted under the auspices of the International Polar Year. Scientists participating in the SIMBA cruise are also likely to observe leopard, crabeater and Ross seals and a variety of species of whales and seabirds.

For more information on the SIMBA expedition, go to http://www.utsa.edu/lrsg/Antarctica/SIMBA/objectives.htm. A brief project description from that website follows: The quantification of Antarctic sea ice thickness on a circumpolar quantitative basis will provide, for the first time, a fully quantitative baseline data set for monitoring of future change in the Antarctic sea ice cover. Using the coupling between thickness, physical property and remote sensing measurements, a full validation of altimetry (for ice thickness), and passive and active radar (for thin and thick ice characterization) will enable future monitoring to rely more on remote sensing than costly and regionally limited field surveys. Ice thickness is the principal quantitative measure of ocean-atmosphere exchanges and the data sets will therefore be the gold standard for validation of air-ice-ocean coupled models, and thereby increase confidence in their capability for future prediction. Sea ice mass balance determines salt and freshwater fluxes to the ocean, and therefore contributes directly to the formation of water masses and oceanic circulation characteristics in polar regions. Understanding the coupling between ice physics, biology and biogeochemistry will determine the direction and magnitude of gas fluxes and sediment contributions from sea ice derived fluxes. The role of ice-covered oceans in present day and past exchanges (as determined from continental ice core measurements) and relation to climate change will be better correlated and quantified.

Dr. Stewart and the research team will set sail for Antarctica on Thursday, August 30. The icebreaker will be departing from, and returning to, Punta Arenas, Chile. Please be sure to check in regularly to keep up to date on Dr. Stewart's research activities.

International Polar Year

The International Polar Year (IPY), which begins in March 2007 and continues until 2009, is a program of international research and education focused on the Arctic and Antarctic regions. For more information on IPY, go to http://www.us-ipy.gov/.