The whole concept of walking on water, or as it's locally called, 'Sea ice' seems to have two effects on people, one is to scare the heebie jeebies out of them, and the other is to fill them with child like excitement to go sprinting onto the ice at warp factor 10. Some time after most Mid winters Rothera point becomes completely encased in ice, and probably the single most important decision I have to make in my job is the ‘Sea Ice Go-No-Go decision’. That is to say, whether people are allowed on the ice or not.
Sea ice is treated with a huge amount of cautious respect. It is by far the biggest 'serious incident' cause for Antartcic folk; if you happen to be on a lump of ice that breaks up and starts to float away… there really is unfortunately only one outcome!!! Massive amounts of criteria need to be met before travel or diving is allowed. So this season has been poor for the formation, we have commenced diving through the fast ice near the coast.
One of the interesting tools at my disposal to assist is Satellite imaging. There is much debate regarding just how big Antarctia is, do you include sea ice or just land? What time of year do you choose? Depending on which criteria you use results in approximately a 50% difference in area. Significant stuff. When looking at the imagery on a daily bases the build up is not so noticeable, but today I glanced back at the monthly pictures that I keep, and the effect of how much this continent grows during the winter suddenly slaps you one.
It’s simply huge!!! Huge I tell you. Cool pics though eh!??!?
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