Antarctic video gallery
Midwinter madness at Casey research station
Video transcript
Jason Beachcroft: Stupidity! Oi…it’s cold!
Rebecca Jeffcoat: I’m Rebecca Jeffcoat, the station leader of Casey research station, Antarctica. As you can see behind me we're getting ready for our midwinter swim in celebration of the winter solstice. Midwinter is really important to us here in Antarctica because it means the return of the sun. For our midwinter celebration today we'll be having our swim and then a very important exchange of midwinter gifts that we've been making over the last few months and then a great feast and some entertainment this evening.
Dominic Hall: How you feeling, Scotty?
Scot Beardsley: Cool!
Dominic Hall: Words for back home, Scotty?
Scott Thurn: Can’t talk…
[end transcript]
Deep field ice core provides snapshot of Antarctic climate history
Video transcript
Mount Brown South Field Leader, Sharon Labudda
Hi my name’s Sharon Labudda and I am the Field Leader for the Mount Brown South camp, this year in 2017–18 season.
Mount Brown South Chief Investigator, Dr Tessa Vance
And my name’s Dr. Tessa Vance and I’m the Chief Investigator for the Mount Brown South camp. We're drilling an ice core to 350 metres this year, which should give us a 1200 year climate history of the Indian Ocean.
Mount Brown South Field Leader, Sharon Labudda
My job is pretty much to look after everyone, keep everyone safe, make sure we get planes in and out, we get all the gear home, get the ice cores home safely. And yeah pretty much just look after everyone.
Mount Brown South Chief Investigator, Dr Tessa Vance
And my job to make sure that we achieve the science objectives for the
project, which is to get the ice core back home and analysed and make some cool science out of it. And also to hopefully keep some of the scientists in line, so Sharon doesn’t have too hard a job.
Mount Brown South Field Leader, Dr Sharon Labudda
That’d be great (laughs).
[end transcript]
Anzac Day Casey research station 2018
Video transcript
Casey Station Leader — Commander Rebecca Jeffcoat
On the 25th of April Australians and New Zealanders mark Anzac Day the anniversary of the 1915 landing of British-led troops at Gallipoli.
It’s very special to me to be commemorating Anzac Day in Antarctica.
There’s a great tradition of Antarctic explorers who have served in Defence Forces in times of conflict including Mawson and Wilkins and Hurley, and we'll remember those men today.
And in turn the qualities of Anzacs who served and who we remember today such as teamwork and mateship, courage, self-sacrifice and self-discipline.
They are all qualities that I see in the expeditioners who are with me in Antarctica at the moment and it’s a great honour to be spending Anzac Day with those Australians and New Zealanders so far from home.
[end transcript]
Noisy sperm whales forage to the beat
Video transcript
BRIAN MILLER (Whale Acoustician): We've just conducted the first long-term study of sperm whales in the Antarctic. We've used acoustic listening devices to monitor for their distinctive clicks.
Sperm whales are incredibly vocal animals. They make sounds 80% of the time that they're underwater and they make these echolocation clicks typically once per second.
Sperm whales really aren’t so much singers as they are the rhythm section. I’m always very excited to have a look and listen to the data that come back each year and there’s always a possibility of hearing something that’s never been heard before.
MARK MILNES (Electronics Design Engineer): So we've developed a long-term acoustic recorder that gets deployed on the sea floor and basically listens to the sounds of the ocean for 12 to 15 months at a time.
It’s two-and-a-half meters high, it’s got a hydrophone on the top that detects the ocean noise, it’s made up of three flotation spheres so we can get it back quickly, and the bottom sphere has got all the electronics in there including the SD cards where all the data gets stored.
[end transcript]