Antarctic video gallery
Ice on the Line
Video transcript
ICE ON THE LINE
Our extensive archive of ice cores is giving up new clues about past climate
Dr TAS VAN OMMEN, Australian Antarctic Division:
Line scanning is a really good example where new technologies come along and offer us the ability to derive new science from cores we might have drilled a decade or more ago.
DR TESSA VANCE, Antarctic Gateway Partnership at University of Tasmania:
An ice core line scanner is a giant piece of very expensive equipment that is basically a very big photocopier.
The scanner reveals thin bands in the ice that could indicate changes in snowfall
DR TESSA VANCE, Antarctic Gateway Partnership UTAS:
Most of the time people have assumed that accumulation in ice cores is relatively uniform throughout the year, but that’s as nonsensical as assuming that rain falls gently all of the time. It doesn’t, it doesn’t anywhere on the earth, so investigating how episodic that snowfall is really interesting because it gives you an understanding of how variable it can be as well.
Dr TAS VAN OMMEN, Australian Antarctic Division:
Drifting snow across the surface leaves a polished surface on the ice, and that can tell us something about periods where there hasn’t been snowfall or there have been excessive winds, and we can relate that then to the chemical signatures in the ice.
The key is finding similar bands that are common in ice cores across a large area
DR TESSA VANCE, Antarctic Gateway Partnership UTAS:
We have a scale along the side so we can date the ice cores, and then we know exactly what depth these lines are at in each ice core, so we can find the year that they’re in.
Written in the ice cores are clues to the future of the Antarctic ice sheet
DR TESSA VANCE, Antarctic Gateway Partnership UTAS:
In Antarctica, we get these episodes called ‘atmospheric rivers’ which are essentially rivers in the sky of huge amounts of precipitation coming from the sub-tropics down to Antarctica. Understanding how they vary through time is really important to understand how the surface mass balance of Antarctica can change over time.
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Cool Leaders video
Video transcript
Ali Dean, Casey Station Leader
I've been working in the Antarctic for the last 20 years, first as a research scientist and more recently as a Station Leader. I first became fascinated with station leadership, as I transited through the stations, going out to work in the field. So, I saw them as these dynamic places that virtually make work in the Antarctic happen, so without them we wouldn’t be doing anything down there.
I see my most important role as an enabler. So not just for the science and the work programs, but for that real important community that you've got to develop when you're at a remote place. I consider that I’m really fortunate to be working in a job that I love, in a place that I love as well. Antarctica is unique, and I think everyone should experience it.
David Knoff, Davis Station Leader
Prior to joining the Antarctic Program I spent a few years in the Army as an officer there, as an infantry officer. And then followed that up with 10 years with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, working at embassies around the world.
Some of the skills I’ll bring to this role are a sense of adventure. I’ve been a traveller and come from a travelling family. I’ve also worked in a number of remote environments in Pakistan and Iraq and Turkey, and hopefully those experiences in those locations, away from home and away from family and friends, will help me while I’m in Antarctica as well.
Why I wanted to work with the Australian Antarctic Program was the uniqueness of the environment that we get to work in every day. The science, the remoteness of the location as well, is certainly something I’m interested in, and the people.
Certainly one of the biggest challenges over winter is being separated from your friends and family. One of the other challenges we face down in Antarctica is the fact that you live and work with the same people. Making sure that there’s a harmonious balance between work and recreation down there as well, will be one of the bigger challenges we’ve got.
Matt Williams, Mawson Station Leader
My backgrounds pretty varied. I come from senior leadership roles in Afghanistan, where I worked with NATO, the US, Australia, and multinational forces. I worked in Africa as the head of Australia’s aid program to Africa for many years as well, working on humanitarian and aid issues. And I've worked as a senior public servant on health and international health issues, keeping Australians safe from health emergencies.
As a leader I think you need to understand people, you need to understand the issues, and you need to be able to motivate people on a daily basis to tackle some of the most incredible challenges there are in a really difficult but incredibly beautiful environment.
Finn Taylor, Macquarie Island Station Leader
I’ve been doing operational leadership roles for a long time, where I’ve been leading teams through a lot of different scenarios; from emergency response to managing remote and alpine parks, working with regional communities.
Now is a really exciting time to be part of the Australian Antarctic division; there’s a real commitment to modernise and improve our operations so that we can deliver much more benefits for peace and science.
I think my leadership style is that I’m very collaborative and inclusive in the way that I work with people. I enjoy being creative and I think a bit of fun is really, really important. And that’s something that I’ll bring to the role.
The environment on Macquarie Island is extreme. We’re going to have a lot of extreme weather events with rain, hail, snow. It’ll be cold. But we’ll also have this opportunity to see amazing wildlife right on our doorstep. It’s more like we’re the zoo and the island is the natural environment. It’s very exciting.
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Icy Missions
Video transcript
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Arts Fellow retrospective
Video transcript
From the earliest expeditions, Antarctica has inspired artists.
Over four decades, our Antarctic Arts Fellowship has enabled many creative people to travel south.
Sculptors forming enduring monuments; authors creating much-loved stories;
Author, Alison Lester “I’m nine years old and I am going to Antarctica with my Dad. He’s the captain of the Aurora Australis. It’s an icebreaker, a ship that can go through ice.”
musicians composing unique melodies; and audio artists recording soundscapes from the frozen continent.
This summer, digital artists will travel to Antarctica.
They will digitally map the Aurora Australis and re-create the ship virtually to provide a life beyond its last voyage.
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Surgical tradies scrub up well
Video transcript
[music]
This patient is suffering from a painful swollen belly and needs urgent medical attention.
It’s a scenario that could happen in Antarctica.
Dr Natasha will be the station doctor at Casey over winter.
>> Dr Natasha Behrendorff, Casey medical officer 2019–2020: Obviously in Antarctica, I’ve got to be the person who either delegates it to someone else or does it.
At each Australian Antarctic research station, there’s one doctor and no nurses.
So each year before they head south, Royal Hobart Hospital trains expeditioners as Lay Surgical Assistants to help the doctor in medical emergencies.
>> Daniel Dardha, Casey plumber 2019–2020: It’s been a massive learning curve, it’s something totally different from being a plumber on the job site to coming into the Hobart hospital, and everyone’s been great here too.
Plumber Daniel finds a bit in common with his day job.
>> Daniel Dardha: Because I was on the anaesthetic side of things, working with the ventilator, so it’s all just air and oxygen and in and out, don’t get them crossed up and make sure there’s no leaks and you’re pretty right to go aren’t you. Q: Just like air-conditioning? A: That’s plumbing, just in a fancy looking box.
Carpenter Glen is on the tools.
>> Glen Pretious, Casey carpenter 2019–2020: Scrub nurse, assisting the surgeon, keeping a sterile field, handling all the instruments for the surgeon. Hand hygiene, as a chippie you don’t normally have clean hands, but you certainly do here.
There are new things for the doctor to learn too.
>> Dr Natasha Behrendorff: It’s interesting, I have to use different language, and guess always be aware they may not recognise when things are deteriorating in the same way that someone else with medical training might.
With a nasty infected appendix removed, this patient will live to train another day.
>> Glen Pretious (Q: after this kind of training, what are you willing to take on?)
I’ll take on anything, after this training! (laughs)
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Designer drill video
Video transcript
Extreme Antarctic conditions require extreme engineering.
Australian Antarctic Division Project Manager, Matt Filipowski: “The materials being used in the drill need to be able to withstand minus fifty degree ice temperatures and also just to operate continuously in that environment.”
The Australian Antarctic Program is designing and building a unique ice core drill.
This new drill refines a design develop with international partners.
It’s nine metres long and made of specialised stainless steel, aluminium bronze and titanium.
The drill will delve 3000 metres into the Antarctic ice cap to extract some of the oldest ice on Earth.
Matt Filipowski: “There’s a sharp cutting tip at the end that works a bit like a hole saw and that cuts a plug out of the ice. Then the drill chamber actually holds that section of ice, and then we winch the drill all the way to the top, to the surface, and we take that long cylindrical core out and then start the process all over again.”
Three metres of ice core will be extracted at a time.
The cores hold chemicals and tiny bubbles of atmosphere from more than a million years ago.
This snapshot will help scientists better predict how the climate might change into the future.
Once built, drilling is expected to commence in Antarctica in 2021.
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Are we there yet?
Video transcript
TEXT BOX: Getting around Antarctica has always been a challenge.
TEXT BOX: From Mawson’s era … to the modern day.
OPERATIONS MANAGER, ROB CLIFTON: I reckon early explorers would be really jealous of the way we get around. I mean now with GPS and vehicles that have got heated cabins, it’s pretty easy I think compared to what they were probably doing.
So it’s a huge area that the Australian Antarctic Territory covers. The distance between stations is equivalent to Melbourne to Brisbane, so it’s a long way.
TEXT BOX: Travel between stations is by small planes.
ROBB CLIFTON: We are operating, obviously, in quite low temperatures, well below zero. And windy conditions as well and often with blown snow, which impedes visibility, which is pretty challenging for aircraft.
TEXT BOX: In winter the sea-ice acts as a highway for expeditioners.
TEXT BOX: They use quad bikes, skidoos and Hägglunds to get out in the field.
TEXT BOX: On the plateau people travel on GPS marked routes.
TEXT BOX: In summer small boats are the transport of choice.
ROBB CLIFTON: You know, in the middle of summer you can be out travelling around by Zodiac boat and then in winter, you can be driving a Hägglunds at exactly the same spot over the frozen ocean. So it takes a bit to get your head around that as a medium.
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