The sea ice around Davis that’s stuck fast to the shore has been steadily growing in thickness over the last couple of cooler months. Now having reached a thickness safe for travel it has been officially opened up, allowing new travel opportunities both to complete science work and recreation.
With the ability to travel on the sea ice by quad bike there has been a small rush of science tasks that have been waiting. We visited Magnetic Island which is about 4 kms off the coast of Davis station to retrieve images from a camera monitoring Adélie penguin breeding over summer. Several instruments were installed into the sea ice itself, monitoring the temperature profile and stresses in the ice and an Automatic Weather Station was visited for some repairs and data collection.
As well as all these extra work opportunities we now have some great new areas of the Vestfold Hills we can get to for recreation, which were previously difficult to access via foot because of the time required to cover the distance. The first quad bike recreational trip went out over the weekend to Watts Hut and included a cold yet spectacular walk to a high point to view the Sørzdal Glacier. Everyone on station is now eagerly planning their future trips to new areas yet to be explored this season, making for some exciting times ahead.
By Derryn Harvie, Science Electronics Engineer.