Planning first field season

Map of the Baudoin ice shelf with the locations of the base camp, the iWS weather station and the firn cores in between both.

During the first field season, Jan will be travelling to Antarctica on this own. Don't be afraid, he will be accompanied by several IPF field guides and fellow scientists from the KMI (see belatmos.blogspot.be) and the ULB (icecon2012.blogspot.be). He will leave Belgium on November 15, and fly to Cape Town. From there he will fly (providing good weather) to Antarctica on November 18. After one week of preparations (making instruments ready, security briefing, etc), he will travel to the Baudoin ice shelf, some 200 km to the North of Princess Elisabeth Station. The base camp will be located on the northern edge of the ice shelf, and he will install the weather station (1 day of work) on the southern end of the shelf, where we expect the largest surface melting to occur. In between the ice shelf and the weather station, he will then need several days to measure snow conditions with firn cores and ground-penetrating radar.