To give you an idea of how station life is here at Davis, here’s some highlights from over the past seven days.
Late last week the station was enveloped in a strange icy fog, something so rare that even our Bureau of Metereology (BoM) observers weren’t quite sure what to call it. It hung over station for about 3 hours and made for a ghostly looking station to return to. It amped up the colour for a sensational sunset when it moved out to the islands, which helped create some novel photos.
Last weekend was the filming weekend for WIFFA – the Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica. Wintering teams across many stations in Antarctica compete to create the best 5 minute film conceived and made within a 48 hour period. It must include five elements that are only released in the 12 hours prior to the 48 hours commencing. As ever, someone needs to drive these projects on station and Helen and Tiarnan did a great job in getting this all happening for Davis. We now have a judging period where all the involved stations view each other’s films and vote in various categories. Judging starts later this week, and it will be interesting to see what everyone else came up with and who wins the honour of Best Film for this year.
Sunday was a sensational sunny blue-sky day, so some of those not involved in editing the film took the opportunity of a Sunday drive down to the Sørsdal Glacier, which is about an hour from station. It was absolutely beautiful and the drive will only get better when the birds and seals return and we’re no longer alone here.
It’s also been National Science Week and we’ve been having various after dinner talks with different expeditioners sharing some of their science work or hobbies. So far we have had a talk on the ozone hole and Davis’ role in monitoring this from Rob, a tour through Siding Spring Observatory from Matt and a presentation on how to train an astronaut to cope with medical issues from Dr. John. Tonight Ladge will be taking us through the Davis atmospheric observation radars. So lots of new learning for us all in there!
Let’s see what next week brings.
