BELISSIMA team

BELISSIMA testing equipment

25 November 2010. We are still at the station. There is ample time for testing out the equipment, packing, getting the sleds ready, picking out food etc. About the food: there is plenty of Japanese food around (but only labeled in a Japanese way), and Kenny is the only one who knows what it is and how to prepare it. Needless to say that the radar team will have a lot (and I mean a lot) of Japanese food during the traverse!

The radar testing has been successful. We tried with both 2 and 5 MHz and they were working fine (2 MHz just being longer antennas and distances to cover between transmitter and receiver). Actually, 2 MHz shows much better results (lower signal-to-noise ratio).

There is also a GSSI snow radar that has been tested in the field and is now being mounted in front of a Prinoth. This device will be used for crevasse detection, but we'll use it for shallow layer analysis as well (snow accumulation patterns) along the way across the ice shelf.

We are scheduled to leave tomorrow morning at 7AM. No more news from us for the three coming weeks.

-Frank

BELISSIMA arrival

20 November 2010. The expedition is on and going. With a day delay due to the bad weather conditions between Brussels and London, 6 people of the BELISSIMA and BELARE team could join those that were already present in Cape Town. We were all scheduled to leave on Friday night to Novo (Antarctica). Weather conditions were good and after a short meal and a full day work for the senior scientists busy with paper submissions, reviews, etc. and a day excursion to the Cape for the others, we were all set to fly south. The flight happened without problems, apart from the fact that getting dressed in polar gear with 80 (!) people in a cargo plane is not a sinecure.

Our stay at Novo was limited to a couple of hours – just the time of getting the gear out and sorted on the runway. Due to bad weather at most stations around except for the Belgian station, we could leave almost immediately with the first feeder flight. By 10h30 local time we were at the Belgian Station.

Shear luxury, certainly compared to two years ago. Almost everything is up and running. The frist day being reconnaissance of the area at the base and around, the second day was completely dedicated to testing the equipment. The drilling team started to assemble the ice core drill to test it (and it went to more than a meter of firn already). The radar team first did a GPS survey of the existing stakes around the station (data still need to be worked out) and afterwards started with the testing of the new ice radar. Results were not yet conclusive, but we have good hopes of getting it all up and running in no time. We are scheduled to leave on next Thursday. In the meantime it will be preparation. The whole expedition will be a challenge (again!), but I am sure will get to the right results. This is really great, since we just submitted a paper with the main results of last expedition, just a couple of days ago. Fingers crossed.

Now at the station, we not have all the facilities of our arrival, we also have broadband internet, toilets at work, etc. Too bad that internet brings us back to everyday normal life. It definitely is about time to go into the field and experience the remoteness again.

-Frank

BELISSIMA

Follow the sequel of the first scientific Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition to the Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica. This is the BELISSIMA project (BELgium Ice-Sheet /Shelf-Ice Measurements in Antarctica).

From 16 November to 22 December 2010 we'll head south to the vicinity of the new Belgian Antarctic research station to pursue glaciological investigations of the transition between the ice sheet and the ice shelf, the so-called grounding line. This will help us to better understand the current mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet.

The great depature

We are finally leaving! We are not sure about the ice bears but the penguins are certainly waiting for us :)