McMurdo

[Anonymous]

What type of work do you do there? The ob tube was really great. Do you see the aurora borellis? What time of year is best for that?

[mike]

Hi jewel
I work in logistics and supply. Primarily in the Heavy Equipment Repair Shop. Known here as the VMF or the Heavy Shop. We are sort of like an auto parts store except that we deal with everything from pickup trucks to the giant bulldozers that make the ice runways here. The mechanics need a part and they come to us. Hopefully it is in a warm warehouse but as often as not it is something large that is stored outside.That means grabbing a snow shovel and  firing up a four wheel drive forklift for a trip out to the outside storage yards. If we are lucky the crates aren’t buried in the snow.
We also take care of ordering parts for the power plant, water plant, fuels, fleet ops, air ground equip center and a few smaller areas.
You asked about the Aurora Boreallis. Those are the Northern Lights and can only be seen in the northern hemisphere.Here we have the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights and yes we can see them from McMurdo. Not well though. They form a doughnut centered around the magnetic south pole and most of the time we are too close to the center of the hole. When we do see them it is on a moonless night when the earth is passing through a solar stream. On rare occaisions they are bright enough to see in McMurdo with a full moon and all the street lights. They commonly will look like a fuzzy cloud in the sky that moves from the horizon to overhead in seconds. Usually they are white to green color and may have red if they are strong. I found a satellite photo of  antarctica that shows the aurora doughnut. I’ll attach it. As to the best time to see them? Well since we have six months with night time that would be the only time to see them. From May to September. The rest of the time the sun is up and the sky is lit for 24 hours.
 

[Author]

Posts