Sending My Message Home

Two nights ago the Today Show did its second "Live Broadcast" from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Anchorwoman Ann Curry was reporting on the United States Antarctic Program, as well as about life in Antarctica. Though the program appeared in the U.S. on Tuesday morning, it was the wee hours of Wednesday morning here in McMurdo. At this particular filming, McMurdo residents were welcome to come with signs and send greetings and messages to the folks back home.

We were asked not to arrive before 2:00 am. Kate, Louise and I never went to bed. We worked until about midnight, and then we found cardboard and made signs to hold up. Unlike my art supplies back home, the Crary Laboratory is quite barren of creative materials. By midnight, the Craft Shop had long since closed, and I had to make do with just a few markers and scrap cardboard. But I persevered, and came up with two signs back to back: one to my family, and one to the students of Ann Arbor Public Schools who have been following along on my ANDRILL journey. I would be prepared if the camera looked my way!

I wondered about how many people would show up at 2:00 am on a cold, windy night in Antarctica. Few would be as crazy as I was...I figured maybe 20 or 30 would appear. However, by 2:02 the hordes of people approaching the "Chalet" (the administrative offices for the National Science Foundation's U.S. Antarctic Program) proved my estimate to be far off. I greatly underestimated the heartiness of the McMurdo Community. I would guess that 120 people showed up - nearly 10% of the McMurdo population - to freeze for an hour in order to wave to the folks back home!

It was a festive, chatty crowd, and we responded well to Ann Curry and crew who told us when to cheer and wave, and when to stand silently behind, with nothing but the noise of our teeth chattering. Ann Curry and her crew all got their directions from the New York office, and they would pass them on to us.

By 2:40 the first segment was over . Ann said we could go home to bed (or back to work for those people on night shift), or we could come inside the chalet and warm up – and then come out for the second segment in 20 minutes. I opted to stay. I welcomed the opportunity to warm up and hobnob with the NBC folks. In 15 minutes, having started to thaw, I went back outside. People were gathering around a small band which was going to play a number on the next segment. I grabbed my sign and joined them. This time I was up front – and held my sign proudly in front of me: I had a lot of people to say hello to! When the band played, I welcomed the chance to swing and dance and get the blood moving through my body. Every few seconds I turned my sign around hoping that both my family and Ann Arbor Public Schools would see my messages. It was a short dance, but a very spirited one!

When the music stopped, the party was over. By now the temperature was well below zero, and the time was close to 3:30 am. Sign still in hand, I bid goodnight to Ann and walked through the 3:30 am daylight to my dorm, climbed into bed, and shivered myself to sleep.

By morning I had 17 emails from friends and colleagues telling me that they had seen me on National TV. “You were the one in the red parka!”

Of course, everyone was the one in the red parka. Including Ann! But a few of you DID see my sign, one side or the other, dancing with the band. That was me sending my best wishes from Antarctica!

All for now. Over and out.

Sharing ANDRILL Findings From "The Ice"

Many efforts are in place to share the ANDRILL findings and news while we are on the ice. The main site for ANDRILL related news and information is the ANDRILL website: www.andrill.org. Here are just a few outlets for learning more about ANDRILL.

The Today Show
ANDRILL was visited today by the crew from the Today Show. Two ANDRILL Scientists, David Harwood and Richard Levy, took Ann Curry, anchorwoman, and her crew of 3 on a tour through the core and the laboratory and explained the geological and paleoenvironmental significance of the ANDRILL findings. Harwood and Levy also explained the context for ANDRILL and how we can use information from the ancient rock record to help us understand the present and speculate about future changes global climate systems.

Harwood and Levy also spoke passionately about the importance of training our current students, the next generation of scientists, to understand global change, and the consequences of human actions (and inactions). They also asserted that a big part of the ANDRILL commitment is to educate policy makers about the scientific findings which reveal information to us
about ice sheet responses (past, present and future) to global warming.

The Today Show will be reporting from Antarctica about ANDRILL and many other aspects of Antarctic Science on November 5 and 6 (in the U.S.)

Project Iceberg Videos
One of the ANDRILL team members, Megan Berg, has just made a wonderful video on "Antarctica Today" that
she has just posted to the ANDRILL website. You can view it at: http://www.andrill.org/iceberg/videos/index.html. This is the first of this year's videos, which follow a great series that she produced last year, found on the same link.

Postcards from the Field
In addition to these blogs, the ARISE team is writing "Postcards from the Field" and posting them to the following site: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/people/postcards/andrill/andrill_post.html. This is a great place to see photographs and read short descriptions about our life and work in Antarctica. There are many interesting links on the postcards that will take you to related "postcards."

Phone and Video Tele-Conferences
Students all over the world are having opportunites to communicate with on-ice ANDRILL scientists and educators. Numerous conferences have been conducted, either with video technology at both ends so that students and ANDRILL team can see and talk to one another in real time, or via phone with Powerpoint Slideshows sent beforehand so that everyone can be looking at the same images while connected via phone lines. Thousands of students have had this special opportunity to talk to scientists on the ice and to ask questions. It's been fantastic at both ends!

The Today Show in McMurdo!

There is great excitement around here, as the crew of the Today Show are arriving in McMurdo for a week long stay. They are here to report on many different aspects of Antarctica, including the science research. I understand that Ann Curry is coming here (and I just saw the C-17 aircraft arrive - as I have a view of the ice runway from my office window), Matt Lauer is going to the Arctic, and Al Roker, the weather man is going to the Equator in Equador, all for simlutaneous reporting. I also heard that the primary focus of this series is global climate change, of which ANDRILL is a key player. I find it very exciting that awareness about climate change has now reached a critical enough level that mainstream media are flying to the ends of the earth for a week to cover it and popularize the scientific research. I applaud them for their efforts to bring the science and global systems awareness alive to viewers and to make it relavent to their lives.

The Today Show team will be spending time with and interviewing members of the ANDRILL Team, as well as other science teams here on ice. I understand that they will have several taped segments, and two live, simultaneous broadcasts from around the world, scheduled for the mornings of November 5 and 6 (in the U.S., which would be the wee hours of the mornings here on November 6 and 7.) I will look forward to hearing your responses to what you see in their broadcasts!