Bulletin

Issue: January/February 2008

News

Antarctic scientist on first flight to Davis

A La Trobe University physicist was among the first three scientists to fly to Davis Station using the new Australian air link to Antarctica.

He is Research Fellow Mr Theo Davies who was on the aircraft that followed Environment Minister Peter Garrett's recent official inaugural flight carrying scientists south.

Mr Davies said the University has built and operates two pieces of scientific equipment in Antarctica - and is planning to add a third.

La Trobe research in Antarctica, using radio, magnetic and optical remote sensing, goes back to the 1960s. About 15 students and staff have taken part in scientific expeditions to the frozen continent during that time.

Mr Garrett's flight was to Wilkins Runway, about 70 kilometres from Casey Station in Antarctica.

'I was on the next flight, with two physicists from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD),' said Mr Davies. 'We continued by connecting flights in smaller aircraft from Wilkins Runway on to Davis Station, about another 1,500km - and also set a record for the fastest time from Hobart to Davis.'

It was Mr Davies' sixth visit to Antarctica. He said last time the journey by ship took 13 days. 'This time we did it in fifteen and a half hours.'

Mr Davies said the new travel arrangements raised some amused eyebrows among seasoned Antarctic expeditioners; business class seats, a former Virgin airlines hostess, plastic cutlery and plenty of room to stretch your legs. For safety reasons, passenger numbers on flights to Casey were limited to 25.

However, after the first part of the flight, which seemed much like normal international travel, he said expeditioners put on their survival kits.

'Shedding our summer clothes we donned thermal underwear, freezer suits, feltlined boots and assembled our boot chains and balaclava helmets, to ensure everything was at hand.

'The aircraft temperature was then reduced so that we would not overheat in our Antarctic kit before we landed and walked out onto the ice - at minus 15 degrees centigrade.'

Mr Davies remained in Antarctica for six weeks, working with scientists from AAD Ice Ocean Atmosphere and Climate research on a long-running La Trobe project headed by Professor Peter Dyson. The program collects data about the thermosphere 140km above the surface of the earth, on the edge of space.

'La Trobe,' says Mr Davies, 'has two Fabry Perot Spectrometers in Antarctica - one at Mawson and one at Davis - with which we measure winds and temperatures in the thermosphere.

'The data we gather can be further analysed to give information about tidal movements in the upper atmosphere and waves which come up from the atmosphere below, as well as helping us understand how energy is stored in the thermosphere and how the thermosphere is affected by energetic particles and radiation from the sun.'

The Airbus on Wilkins Runway.

During his recent visit, Mr Davies collected data, wrote and installed software upgrades and carried out tests to improve the time resolution of the spectrometer.

After leaving Davis for his 25 day journey back to Australia by ship, Mr Davies visited Mawson Station to make preliminary arrangements for installation of a third La Trobe Antarctic spectrometer.

The second spectrometer was installed last year, also at Mawson, with the assistance of Callum Anderson, a PhD researcher who developed the software that controls it. The most recent of a longline of La Trobe postgraduate researchers to visit Antarctica, Mr Anderson remained there over winter '07, with 14 other expeditioners, to operate the spectrometer.