Like two ships passing in the…nearly perpetual polar day

January 18 2019 (Note: this is #17 in a series of posts describing my NSF-sponsored fieldwork in Antarctica aboard the Laurence M. Gould).

Today we met up with the other US Antarctic icebreaker, the Nathaniel B. Palmer (“NBP”), visible off in the foggy distance. The scientists on board have been working to characterize aspects of Antarctic physical oceanography (basically the way water moves around, mixes, and changes over time). Unfortunately, two of their autonomous vehicles (gliders) didn’t make it to Chile in time to be loaded onto the ship. Because our cruise started later, we were able to pick up the gliders and deliver them. A small party from the NBP drove over on zodiacs and came aboard. Among them was Caltech’s Andy Thompson, who I believe is leading this glider research. After a brief visit, the crew of the Laurence M. Gould (the “LMG,” of course) helped load up the gliders, and the NBP party headed back to their ship. The NBP is on its way back to Punta Arenas for the end of the cruise, but luckily the scientists still had time to deploy the gliders. These autonomous vehicles will continue collecting and transmitting data for an extended period of time (“couple of months” based on my rough understanding). It’s great that we were able to coordinate our activities and help out another group. It’s also fun to think of robots swimming through the icy oceans, collecting data, while we are warm and snug in our homes, eating cookies and binge-watching our favorite tv shows (or maybe that’s just me).