31 October--Fog



A Delta vehicle in the fog..



The last few days have been a fog and have blended into one another like the McMurdo Sound fogs.  It's become difficult to sort out one day from the other.  Day? Night?  What separates the two?  Two days ago I remember being taken back when I dropped off a passenger at her dorm at 1700 and she said good morning.  And a few minutes ago, a colleague in Shuttles said good night at 0620 to someone else.  She had just come off the night shift.  Our shifts at McMurdo go round the clock, the Sun is always up, and it's always bright out--except when there's an exceptional fog.  Very disorienting.  The concepts of day and night at this time of year are more determined by our work schedules than by the physical reality. 

The closest I've come to this is during our house exchange in Mikkeli, Finland during June.  The latitude there was just short of 62 degrees North latitude, not quite as extreme as McMurdo at 77 degrees South. In June the "nights" were a sort of gray twilight at midnight and thereabouts.  We went up to the Arctic Circle on June 21st, my birthday, and, at that latitude, the only day when the Sun never drops below the horizon. n That was magical!  But here at McMurdo the same phenomenon  goes on for 4 months! 

The only clues come from where the Sun is in the sky, not from lightness or darkness.  If it's in the East, it's morning.  If it's in the West, it's evening.  If it's anywhere else--well, we'll have to think about that.  And if you don't know where the cardinal directions are at a particular place, you are truly lost.  The only other clue I can think of as to whether the galley is serving breakfast or dinner foods.  Socially constructed reality.

An LC-130 taking off from the Ice Runway.  The Air National Guard calls them Ski-ways.

There is apparently a distinction between drifting snow and blowing snow.  If I have this right, drifting snow, as in this image, is snow blowing along perhaps 6 or 12 inches above the ground.  Blowing snow is perhaps up as high as 6 feet above the surface.

One peak of the Royal Society Range looming up over a ground blizzard.

The galley out at the Long Duration Balloon facility.  It's situated in a Jamesway shelter and cooks 3 meals a day for up to perhaps 50 people on shift here.