Thursday, December 3, 2015

ARIANNA 2015/6

The ARIANNA 2015/6 season is well underway!

Three intrepid UC Irvine researchers are on the ice, working on upgrading the existing 7 stations, and also making more measurements of the radio-attenuation and radio-reflection properties of the ice in Moore's Bay.  They are scheduled to spend 23 days encamped, returning to McMurdo station in on Dec. 6th.

The main station upgrade consists of adding in small batteries which should make the stations work more smoothly during the 'shoulder' season (Spring and Fall), when the Sun is very low in the sky, and so the solar power can be somewhat erratic.  They are also investigating some problems to the solid state memories (SDD cards) which are likely associated with erratic power during these periods.

This being the new and modern era, they are communicating via twitter: @arianna_on_ice