26 November 2009 Staying Warm in Antarctica

Everyone in Mrs. Kane's homeroom should be pround of themselves for coming up with so many good questions that they inspired an entire journal entry.

It's Peter Neff here, one of Heidi's colleagues working on the WAIS Divide ice core project. I've been working on several ice core projects in the past few years, and so can tell you a little bit about staying warm on the ice sheets. I've worked on the Greenland ice sheet, and also spend a lot of time in freezers while doing ice core science, so staying warm is definitely on my mind!

The first answer I have is that, YES, we will be able to stay warm most of the time! We have to! One of the first things you learn upon arriving in Antarcitca is to pay attention to your body temperature and that of people you work with. In such a cold climate, you can't waste any time once you start feeling cold. It takes a lot of energy to heat up again!

This is where all of our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW(abbreviation) Extreme Cold Weather clothing) gear comes in. Everyone working with the United States Antarctic Program (USAP(abbreviation) United States Antarctic Program) is issued warm clothing---check out the video here showing all of our ECW(abbreviation) Extreme Cold Weather clothing gear (sorry about the low resolution!). Many of us have our own personal gear to supplement what was issued to us. Layering properly is very important---we wear a synthetic baselayer that sits close to the skin to "wick" away sweat. Sweat evaporating from the skin is one of the human body's way of cooling down, and you don't want that down in Antarctica! On top of that layer, we wear insulating and windproof layers to keep heat close to our bodies. The outermost layer is usually either windproof or very thick and insulating, like the "Big Red" down jackets we all get from the USAP(abbreviation) United States Antarctic Program.

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Often it is your level of physical activity which determines how hot or cold you are. When we are out hiking around or digging in the snow outside, it's very easy to keep warm and even overheat. The layers of clothes come in handy here, as we remove bulky outer layers while we do strenuous work. A lot of our work at WAIS Divide will be inside a refrigerated building, kept at -30ºC to protect sensitive ice cores we are working with. A freezer in Antarctica!? Pretty weird, right? In any case, since our work is mostly to look closely at pieces of ice, logging details about each piece, we'll have to wear all of our warmest clothing to make up for our low activity levels.

Outside, the radiative heat provided by 24 hours of sun really does keep us toasty sometimes! It is quite surprising just how good it feels to sit in the sun, even if it's below freezing outside. Several of us have plans to keep a regular jogging schedule while we're at WAIS Divide, so sunny days will be savored as we run in our long underwear and shorts! Once you start running, you can't stop until you get back inside or it's too cold!

When we're out at our field site, we all sleep in our own tents. They are big yellow tents, called "Arctic Ovens," which stay very warm during hours of intense sun. Often it is above freezing temperature inside. However, during the "night," when the sun is lower in the sky and provides less warmth, the tents get almost as cold inside as it is outside. Thankfully we have sleeping bags that keep you warm in outside temperatures of -40ºC!