Saturday 29 December 2007 à 12:43
Homage to Mawson
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
Today we are in Commonwealth Bay, just a couple of hundred meters from Mertz glacier.
Saturday 29 December 2007 à 12:19
Data for the Aurora Australis at 12h30 (= 1h30 UT)
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
Position of the icebreaker:
- latitude: 66°41.340' S
- longitude: 143°39.680’ E
Wind:
- direction: SE
- speed: 14 knots
Water temperature: -0°C
Air temperature: -0.3°C
Atmospheric pressure: 977 hPa
Relative humidity: 72 %
UV-B: 5.4 W/m²
Water depth: 760 meters
Sunrise: above the horizon all day
Saturday 29 December 2007 à 12:17
Position of Aurora Australis
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
FROM: Martin Riddle
DATE: 29/12/07
REPORT (SITREP) NO.: 313
UNIVERSAL TIME: 0100
LOCAL (SHIP) TIME: 1200
AUSTRALIAN EASTERN STANDARD TIME: 1200
POSITION: -66 45.7, 143 17.5
HEADING: various
CURRENT SPEED (KNOTS): 0
DISTANCE TO NEXT WAYPOINT (NAUTICAL MILES): N/A
DISTANCE COVERED LAST 24
HOURS (NAUTICAL MILES): 83.4
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mostly cloudy with sunny
breaks, good visibility, wind 10 kts from 94T with gusts to 12 kts
AIR
TEMPERATURE: 0.5
SEA TEMPERATURE: -0.7 SEA CONDITIONS: Rippled seas, with
low ENE swell 0.5m
ICE CONDITIONS: Scattered bergs, some brash ice, a
continent almost entirely covered in ice in sight.
REMARKS: We have been working within site of Commonwealth Bay for the last
24 hrs and both last night and this morning had radio contact with the team
working on Mawson's Hut. They used signalling mirrors to indicate their
exact location on the coast and we were able to see their huts from our
position about 10 Nm off. We are now heading around the coast to the east
towards the Mertz Glacier. The sea-bed has been so rugged at one or two
sites that we have not been able to safely deploy the trawl and have instead
used the GA Video Camera to document the animals living there. The
epibenthic sled is being modified slightly with the hope that we can use it
to skim some animals from this boulder-strewn bottom. Everybody is now well
into the routine of sampling around the clock and are working very
efficiently. The glass sponges, so-called because they have skeletons
(spicules) made of fine strands of silicate, looking exactly like
glass-fibre, have been the outstanding feature of the last few sites. Note,
sitrep no. 309 was mistakenly used twice - to correct the sequence, no. 312
has been skipped.
Regards, Martin and Sarah.
