Wilkes Land Experiment 95 (WLEX95)

So what in the wide wide world of sports is WLEX95?? Short simple explanation; it was a 7 week trip south on the US icebreaker (managed by ASA (Antarctic Support Associates), the Nathaniel B. Palmer, with the intention of studying the shelf water off Wilkes Land, Antarctica. This involved the common oceanographic tool called a CTD (Conductivity Temperature Depth), which is a device that is lowered into the ocean and descended to the sea floor, taking measurements of Salinity, Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen and Pressure as it goes. On the return to the surface it is stopped at up to 24 intervals and storage bottles are "tripped" to capture water samples. From these samples, further analysis can take place at the surface for CFC's, Tritium, Carbon Dioxide and Nutrients, which tell us much more about the water column. Chief Scientist was Prof. Ted Foster from The Univeristy of California (Santa Cruz).

Further work involved deployment of 3 current meters on the shelf edge in order to study the flow in and out of the region, and also an ARGOS Bouy deployment for the sea ice group at the Australian CRC for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies.

Me, well I was officially there as a CTD operator; I watched the traces and tripped the bottles and tried very hard not to ram the damn (US$250,000) thing into the bottom! This mostly involved yelling and screaming down an intercom to a poor winch operater, stuck away in the Baltic room (the CTD room) where the temperatures were often lower than -20C. Poor bugger! I also did sea ice observations and photography for the Australian Ant Div , just like on my last voyage South.

Photos -- Sea Ice Images -- Greg Golet's Wildlife Listing -- Cruise Track -- Email Addresses

HAPPY SNAPS!

  1. Professor Ted Foster ...our staid, serious, voyage leader.
  2. Professor Ted Foster ...our favourite martian!
  3. Me... on the way to a Maelstrom high score! Hey, the nights are long!
  4. Me... playing with my CTD controls "Trip one here Stew???"
  5. Me... at the Sun ("Seadog") console, watching that damn CTD trace again.. "Goddamn jellyfish muckin' my trace!" Note the tiedowns for the rough weather!
  6. Me... on the bow again (I just cant wait to get on the bow again.. )
  7. Me... close up with cheesy grin and Marks thumb!!
  8. Me... with sea ice background and "Andrew of the Antarctic" pose!!
  9. Me... As above!! ..but a little less posing..
  10. Me... and get that damn flash outta my face Mark!
  11. Me... on the intercom to the "Winchy" "Take her down 4000metres at 60 metres per minute unless i say continue".. he musta got sick of that!
  12. Ann-Marie silhouettes with (yet another) berg.
  13. Ann-Marie silhouette again! Who took these photos!! MARK!!
  14. Ann-Marie in reality! With book, at console!
  15. Ice..Ice.. Ice!
  16. Another distant Iceberg before the ice edge
  17. Ester, the Water Cop!! Tell me your nutrient sample number or die! (Note sheriffs badge!)
  18. Greg and Debbie Golet... i think! The hooded ones!
  19. Greg and Debbie... well at least their hoods again!
  20. Greg and Debbie in "1st anniversary spent in the ice" pose!
  21. Greg demonstrating what can happen if exposed to too much Maelstrom!!
  22. Greg and Berg in artistic silhouette...
  23. Mike hard at it again!
  24. Mike and Martin (the serious clown!)
  25. Martin at work..
  26. Martin at work.. again!
  27. A rather surreal look at the bridge...
  28. Mark and the Golets...
  29. Mark and the Golets... again!!
  30. Mark...!!
  31. Mark... again!!
  32. Martin performing hand puppets?!?!

Sea Ice Images

Due to the lateness of the season, knowledge of ice conditions was vital throughout the voyage. Below are the ice charts used to determine where the hell we could go. The SSM/I microwave data, utilising the new 85GHz channel from the F11 platform and an algorithm developed at SCRIPPS, proved to be an invaluable tool. NASAteam images are a little more coarse but still accurate in their estimation of sea ice concentrtion. The visible images proved less useful, but were better than nothing. The NOAA-9 image is just plain spectacular!

Dates are in Julian days - i.e 95056 = 1995, Julian Day 56

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