up through Monday night 12/12

Well, the weather held up enough and a helicopter was able to fly out and land under overcast skies on Monday 12/12. We said farewell with much gratitude to Bija the camp master, and Julia the general assistant. We also wished Jordan luck on reaching his destination on time despite the 4-day weather delay. Suddenly the large tent was much larger, and I realized it never really felt crowded before with 6 persons, a kitchen and a lab bench crammed full of equipment. Nate took over as camp master while Joulien and I focused on the work that brought us out. Here's a nice pic of the helo coming in for a landing behind Joulien.

We made great progress before Jordan left which I haven't mentioned yet. That includes building a new solar power tower and a new wind power tower. Jordan rebuilt the old wind generator, and Jordan and Joulien diagnosed and reconfigured the old station. We also had assembled the new station and begun some tests of peripherals like the GPS time system, automatic Iridium satellite phone dial-out, and AFAR internet link. Jordan also did some ice tests with radio pulses with our help. The idea with those tests is to send a radio pulse through the ice and bounce it off the ocean half a km below, receiving the reflected pulse at a distance. Here are pics of Jordan and Julia working on the old wind tower next to the equipment cargo line and on the right you see Bija and Nate approaching the new 20-foot-tall wind tower at 1km distance from the camp.
Here is a pic of the new solar tower with extendable legs, white cooler full of car batteries, and various antennas and wind sensor on top. We set it up next to the camp tent so we could use it during testing, and will move it 1km by sled later. Also here is a pic of a typical antenna in a snow trench pointing down which we use to either transmit a test pulse or receive a signal bouncing up from the ocean 572meters below.
Here's Jordan working on the new station in the main tent with Bija and Nate in the background, and another shot at the end of a long day with Bija and Joulien warming up, Nate and Julia creatively sewing fish designs on snow flags, and Jordan enjoying a warm drink. Towels, gloves, and hats hang to dry alongside mugs and glasses -- conveniently off the floor.
We also were interviewed on 12/8 via Skype by the Orange County Register. You can read the article from that interview at: http://sciencedude.ocregister.com/2011/12/09/on-ice-shelf-a-hunt-for-ghostly-particles/165334/. I'm not yet sure when it will be in the printed newspaper.