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Point Hope area as seen from out on the sea ice beyond the point. |
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http://GigapanMagazine.org vol 1 issue 2
Contributors: Camille Parisel and Erik Verhagen It is the day before sunset at the South Pole. IceCube Drill Camp is deserted and cold. During the summers of 2004 to 2008, hundreds of scientists and ice drillers were at the South Pole for this massive project. Their multiyear goal is to complete a huge neutrino detector under the Antarctic ice. When they are done, they will have drilled 80 holes and placed in each of them a string of 60 light-detecting modules (DOM’s). The 4800 DOM's will be a single 1 cubic kilometer telescope in the clear ice deep beneath the South Pole. We are approaching winter 2009. The drills have stopped. Nobody is deploying DOM’s and most of the IceCube crew has left. Today only 2 IceCubers remain at the South Pole. They will stay here through the winter, working on the computers as they gather data from flashes of light passing through the ice. If you were here at the South Pole this summer, you might be wondering about the location and the size of the drill camp. It has been moved a little towards the northwest, and some of the buildings, most noticeably the TOS, and the reels of hose and wire have been moved to winter storage on the berms. Once the sun returns, the buildings and materials will be dragged back to the drill camp and everything will be in place to start a new drilling season by December. When you look at this icy landscape, notice the position of the sun in the sky. Tomorrow the sun will sink below the horizon and the South Pole will fall into the deepening twilight, waiting for the darkness of winter to begin. The 62 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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The North Pole. I suppose that the best way to think of the North Pole is to consider a single point on the sea bed under the Arctic Ocean where all the Earth's lines of longitude converge. It is the one point in the Northern Hemisphere around which our planet turns, and its position now is marked by a titanium flag that was recently placed on the ocean floor by the Russian Federation.
Above the North Pole and that Russian flag we have 4261 meters of salt water and a layer of sea ice that varies in thickness from 1 to 3 meters depending on the time of year and the temperatures of the air above it and the water beneath it. The Arctic ice cap moves relative to the sea floor. The moving ice provides no permanent foundation for a research station of even a camera or a flag. The ice that was on the ocean’s surface above the North Pole when I was there on July 25, 2008 has since moved on to somewhere south. Indeed, this ice had shifted several miles before we left the vicinity of the North Pole later in the day on the 25 of July. Early polar explorers had a difficult time reaching the North Pole in part because of the moving target. The ice could move faster than they could move. Expeditions lasted years as they wandered on the shifting pack ice. The location of the Pole had to be calculated using the height of the sun, and it had to confirmed mathematically many times as the explorers approached 90 degrees North. When explorers stopped for their calculations, the ice still moved them along so that their calculated position would no longer be correct. Our journey took only a few days, and confirmation of our arrival at the North Pole required no sextant or calculator. We arrived at the Pole on an ice breaker, and our position at 90 degrees North Latitude was confirmed by GPS. There is a prediction that global warming will melt the north polar ice during this century. There was even a suggestion that the Pole might thaw this summer, which was not true at the end of July. You can see other panoramas from our Polar expedition on the gigapan.org web site. |
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Can you see the name of the building peeking above this plate glass castle? On the left is a skating rink. More panoramas should be taken of this area. It was very cold this day, which seemed to make the digital camera stop working on some frames.
This was when I was a beginner and didn't understand how to set it up right! |
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Here you see the Amundsen Scott Research Station at 8:30 am on Christmas morning. We don't have to worry about getting up in the dark for an early race. The sun rose in September and hasn't set since.
Inside the station, people are getting ready for the Race Around the World which will start at 9am. With our position at 90 degees south latitude, we can make quick work of covering all 360 degrees of longitude. This year the race was 3 laps around the world and it took less than 1/2 hour for the winners to cross the finish line. Outside, the red Twin Otter is preparing to take off for the Antarctic coast. One of the passengers, a solo endurance skier, took 39 days to get here from his startting point at Hercules Bay, which is 700 miles from the South Pole. Here at the Pole it is Christmas Day, but in a few hours the pilots, crew and passengers on this plane will arrive at Patriot Hills in time for Christmas Eve dinner. The 41 images of this panorama were captured with a Nikon D 80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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Early on a July morning these amazing animals lumbered out of the fog on the starboard side of the I/B 50 Years of Victory. The bears didn't pay much attention to us or to our ship. Momma Bear did look briefly in our direction when her arrival was announced on our intercom. Apparently satisfied that her family was safe, they resumed their slow walk across our bow, and they finally disappeared into the fog on our port side.
Polar Bears are an endangered species. Their fur is valued for its warmth and translucent white appearance. Russian laws forbid the hunting of Polar Bears. Alas, the United States does allow Polar Bear hunting. The mother and her cubs would be in particular danger in some parts of Alaska. The environment is also stressing Polar Bear populations. Polar bears live on the thick Arctic ice. In the far north, seals are preferred Polar Bear food as they pop up out of breathing holes in the ice. It is an energy-efficient way for Polar Bears hunt. With warming of the seas, receding sea ice will change this way of hunting, driving changes in bear behavior or possibly contributing to the loss of the world's Polar Bears. See how many Polar Bears you can find here. This panorama, taken in late July, has a variety of ice shapes to admire, as well as melt pools and the fracture lines in the ice that were made by the ice breaker. Please take some extra time to admire the cold emptiness of the High Arctic. And maybe wonder at the lives of these beautiful creatures and maybe even consider what the world would be like without sea ice and Polar Bears. |
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An ice laden limb has fallen on the bed of this pickup truck on 12th Street, just west of Fort St. in Hays, Kansas, December 11, 2007. Town cleanup crew removed it about 15 minutes later - nasty dent in the truck remains. |
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The Dome Shelter was recently damaged by a sudden eruption from the lake. |
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This pano was taken below Mt Washington on the trail to Boott Spur. The tall rock cairns mark the trail. For a complete trip report, go here: http://mitoc.mit.edu/gallery/washington_gigapan |
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A 57 image collection (3x19) handheld panorama of Lake Waiau looking north towards the summit of Mauna Kea. Two observatories are barely visible above the ridge of the crater forking the ice age lake. A very poor sky blend/fix/replacement affects one of the observatories. |