Atmospheric analysis

Climate scientists and glaciologists are taking to the skies this week to find out how New Zealand’s glaciers are faring following this summer’s record-breaking warmth.

6 March 2018Today the screaming sixties are living up to their name. We are at 67°S, just east of Scott Island, and deck work has been suspended temporarily while we weather a storm.

5 March 2018Sean Hartery, a PhD student from Canterbury University based at NIWA, is collecting samples and data for two main areas of atmospheric research while he is out here in the Ross Sea: ice nuclei and aerosols.

4 March 2018On Friday the sun shone for the first time in a while, and we sailed close to our second proper iceberg of the voyage.

1 March 2018The University of Auckland Cetacean Ecology Team (aka the Whale Team) has been waiting patiently for the last few weeks for an opportunity to get close to some whales.

28 February 2018We are slowly zigzagging our way north up Iselin Bank as the mesopelagic team have been running their giant fish finder, the EK60.

When NIWA fisheries scientist Richard O’Driscoll went to sea earlier this year, he and his team measured so many fish that laid end to end, they would have stretched for 31km.

2018 - Antarctic Voyage Update #3

26 February 2018In the last few days our microbial team has been doing intensive sampling of the water column using the CTD, which is deployed every day around noon.

25 February 2018We have been told by people who have previously visited the Ross Sea that you could count on seeing three things: icebergs, penguins on icebergs and seals hauled out icebergs.

24 February 2018Scientists and crew have been busy assembling an active acoustic mooring for deployment, working on the Iselin Bank and have been visited by an Adelie penguin.

Ancient swamp kauri is being used by NIWA scientists to reveal the secrets of past climates.