OIB ATM sitrep 10/31/18

OIB successfully completed the “Smith-Pope-Kohler IS2” mission today, in mostly sunny conditions, however wind driven uplift clouds developed over the far southwest edge of today’s survey area causing just a few minutes of camera and laser optical data loss over the ~3.5 hours of data collection. The winds also caused a bit of turbulence from time to time over the entire survey area. All OIB remote sensing instruments again operated nominally with everyone reporting good data collection.

Tomorrow we’ll pack the DC8 up in the morning, and depart on a very short transit flight (no science) to Ushuaia Argentina in the afternoon. OIB will set up our ground stations on Friday and prepare to use Ushuaia as our base for the remainder of the deployment with a first OIB flight attempt from Ushuaia on Saturday.
 
Wikipedia Notes:

Smith Glacier is a low-gradient Antarctic glacier, over 160 km (100 mi) long, draining from Toney Mountain in an ENE direction to Amundsen Sea. A northern distributary, Kohler Glacier, drains to Dotson Ice Shelf but the main flow passes to the sea between Bear Peninsula and Mount Murphy, terminating at Crosson Ice Shelf. Mapped by USGS from ground surveys and USN air photos, 1959–65. Named by US-ACAN after Philip M. Smith (Smith Bluffs), Deputy Director, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, who in the period 1956–71 participated in a large number of expeditions to Antarctica in field and supervisory capacities.

 
Pope Glacier in November 2016
Pope Glacier (75°19′S 111°22′W Coordinates: 75°19′S 111°22′W) is a glacier about 20 nautical miles (37 km) long, flowing north along the west side of Mount Murphy to Crosson Ice Shelf on Walgreen Coast, in Marie Byrd Land. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1959-66. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) after Maj. Donald R. Pope, (CE) USA, civil engineer on the staff of the Commander, Naval Support Force, Antarctica, 1965-67.
 
Kohler Glacier is a distributary of the Smith Glacier in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, flowing northward through the middle of the Kohler Range into Dotson Ice Shelf. It was mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1959–65, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in association with the Kohler Range.[1]
 
Mount Murphy is a massive, snow-covered and highly eroded shield volcano with steep, rocky slopes. It is directly south of Bear Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. The mountain is bounded by the Smith, Popeand Haynes Glaciers. Delineated from aerial photographs taken by US Navy Operation Highjumpin January 1947. Named by US-ACAN for Robert Cushman Murphy of the American Museum of Natural History, noted authority on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic bird life. While serving on the whaler, he charted the Bay of Isles region of South Georgia.
 
Overview of today’s DC8 flight path
 
 
Detail of today’s DC8 flight path over the three glaciers
 
 
 
 
Some of the icebergs from the glaciers frozen into the sea ice 
 
 
Approaching Mount Murphy 
 
 
 
Crevasses in the ice surface
 
 
 
 

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