Saturday, 26 January Hi, and good morning. Yaaawn... it’s me again, Nils. Yaaaawn... We had a long night here on board FS Polarstern, followed by a cold, wet and stormy morning. Now it is 11 a.m., I am frozen to the bones, my stomach is unhappy about the waves, and I have been on my feet for 27 hours. Well, about that long. I should tell the story from the beginning. We are on our way home, at a station at 52° southern latitude. Two months ago we have already been here once to take samples. Now, on our way back, we are taking samples again at the same spot to see if anything has change...

Date: 23 January 2008 Altitude: Close to sea level Maximum and Minimum Temperatures: - 2 degrees C (McMurdo) & - 35 degrees C (South Pole) We had a 3 hours comfortable flight from South Pole to McMurdo this morning. We were picked up by a bus at the airfield that is located on the sea ice some 10 km from the US McMurdo Station. When we arrived at McMurdo Station we received a brief from the NSF Representative and had an interesting guided tour to Scott’s hut. It feels like having been arrived in a big city when we suddenly are surrounded by more than 1000 persons. - Jan-Gunnar ...

Report from the Swedish part of the Japanese-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, JASE, Report no 20. We arrived today in late afternoon to the Svea Station (74o34’S, 11o13’W). The view from the station is magnificent over the large blue ice areas of Scharffenbergbotnen, surrounded by alpine mountain walls. The weather is excellent and we are all excited by the incredible environment, though we have seen it before. However, the experience is probably enhanced by the fact that we only have watched the snowy horizon of the Polar Plateau for more than a month. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful place. The decent from the Polar Plateau went smooth and quick. We climbed down 1200 metres in altitude on one day and today we have been driving along the Heim...

Report from the Swedish part of the Japanese-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, JASE. Report no 19. We have now reached 75oS, 10oW which is our last science stop on our traverse. Here the ice surface is undulating as a result of a very strong bedrock relief underneath us. The ice depth varies between 500 and 3000 m over short distances. The mountains can only be seen on the radar screen but they tell a story of how the ice sheet once was formed here for some 20 million years ago. We will spend a day of detailed mapping of a section of these mountains for a landscape development analysis. The travel from the Kohnen station to this site went very smoothly. The weather was fine and the snow conditions have greatly improved since we passed here in the beginning of Dece...

Report from the Swedish part of the Japanese-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, JASE. Report no 18. On Saturday afternoon we reached the Kohnen station (75oS, 0oE-W). The hospitality shown by the German crew has been overwhelming. We felt like sailors coming from the great ocean to a friendly harbor. We have had the opportunity to be shown the drill hall of the EPICA deep ice core drillings. It is an impressive construction in a 60 m long and 7 m deep snow trench. It is a historical scientific site. Today we have been able to relax, repack sleds and made repairs of the vehicles. We are now prepared for the last legs of this expedition. We will take off Monday morning for the next move towards the Heimefrontfjella mountain range where we will have a science stop wh...

Thursday 10th January 2008 I woke to the jolting and whoosh of the ship going through pack ice. We are working the CASO grid south again but the ice has forced a change, so we head westwards to skirt the pack and come in on a parallel that offers open sea. Icebergs and floes are the habitat of the beautiful, pure white Snow Petrel. It is hard to say which of the Antarctic birds is the most captivating but this small bird is a striking sight against sea or sky. The Cape Petrel (someone called it the 'magpie' of Antarctica) has careless splodges of black and white across its wings while...

Expedition Diary January 7, 2008 3500 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 24 to - 35 °C Never a uniform white blanket on the ice sheet, the character of the surface snow takes on many different forms. On the microscale, different crystal forms tell stories of their arrival to the surface as gently falling snow, wind-battered hard pack, or deposition as surface hoar through condensation events. To a traverse train of vehicles, generous amounts of gently-fallen snow represent “snow swamps” in which the treads sink and dig their way in, sometimes preventing a vehic...

Written 6 January, 2008 3608 meters a.s.l. Maximum & Minimum temperatures: -29 to -35 °C Nearly all the way from Troll Station to the Pole of Inaccessibility we have driven along the crest of the continent. On this last leg towards the South Pole we have left the ridge and will gradually be descending to lower ground. This implies different patterns of winds and snow accumulation. We are starting to see the effects of this in the shape of rougher snow drifts and more sastrugi, so the ride is getting bumpier. However, there are positive side effects to this. One is that it is much easier for the drivers to...

The Swedish part of the Japanese-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, JASE: Report no 14 The Japanese traverse group left on December 30 for their journey towards Syowa station. The Swedish group will take off at January 1. During the stay here we have had social exchange and performed maintenance of vehicles, snow studies and radar, GPS and radiometer studies at the site of a subglacial lake. During this stay we have also had an exchange of scientists. Two Swedes are now joining the Japanese expedition and we now have two Japanese members in our team. The temperature has now dropped somewhat and varies on a daily basis between -25 and -35 degrees C. The annual mean temperature at this site is -55 degrees C, so winters must be tough here. Tomorrow we h...

Written 27 Dec 2007 3672 meters above sea level Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 25 to -37 °C One of the more common questions we get is if we don't get tired of looking at the same unchanging scenery day after day, the same endless and level whiteness? No, we don't. One reason is that studying subtle differences in the snow surface is one of our reasons for being here in the first place. But there is more to the snow than just crystal size, permeability and density. The surface is carved and shaped by relentless and ever changing winds, and takes on an immense variet...