24 October, 1997

24 October 97

1330L SEVERE WEATHER CONDITION

CONDITION I for the Ice runway, ice road, Willy field, snow road, and road to Scott Base.

CONDITION II for T-Site, Scott Base Road and Arrival Heights.

CONDITION II for McMurdo and Scott Base.

REGIONAL WEATHER SUMMARY...A broad trough of low pressure will slowly move across the Ross Ice Shelf, continuing to produce strong wind and snow with blowing snow in the McMurdo area. Conditions will gradually improve in the afternoon but the blowing snow will persist into Saturday as yet another system moves onto the eastern Ice Shelf.

TODAY ...Snow and blowing snow.

Visibility: Near zero in snow/blowing snow gradually rising to 1/2 to 2 miles.

Wind (knots): Southerly 35 gusting to 50 easing this afternoon to southeast 20 gusting to 35.

High -08C/+18F Lowest Wind-chill today -34C/-30F

TONIGHT...Snow and blowing snow continuing.

Visibility: 1/2 to 2 miles occasionally 3 to 6 miles overnight. Wind (knots): Southeast 15 to 20 knots gusting to 30.

Low -10C/+14F Lowest Wind-chill tonight -31C/-24F.

SATURDAY...Overcast with periods of snow and blowing snow. Visibility: occasionally 1/2 to 3 miles in snow/blowing snow.

Wind (knots): Southeasterly 20 gusting to 30.

High -08C/+18F Lowest Wind-chill -31C/-24F.

SCOTT BASE 24HR TEMPERATURE FORECAST

Temperature steady near -12C.

ASTRONOMICAL DATA

Next sunrise in February, 1998

YESTERDAY'S EXTREMES - 23 October, 1997

Maximum Temperature: -09C/+16F

Minimum Temperature: -16C/-03F

Peak Wind: 68 Knots

Lowest wind chill: -42C/-44F

Well, I found a way to get the weather information in spite of the fact that it's not back on the intranet yet so I should be able to provide this information daily

Today was a productive day. I feel that I've worked out most of the bugs in the assay procedure and can have confidence in my data. So today I ran the first "real" experiment. I collected 10 tube feet and placed each one in a special sealed vial. These sat in a cold ice bath for 4 hours after which I measured the amount of oxygen contained in the sea water of each vial. If the tube feet tissue is consuming oxygen then the amount in these vials will be less than the oxygen concentration in the controls (only sea water). The difference between the two groups represents the amount of oxygen used by the tube feet only. In this way I'll be able to learn the amount of oxygen each individual tube foot uses in a parcticular amount of time.

I need to obtain two additional kinds of information on these tube feet. These are measurements of the amount of protein and of an enzyme called citrate synthase. It was too late to do these experiments today so I froze the tubefeet and will be able to use them tomorrow.

I'm calling it a day now. The people in my lab are showing the movie, "Amazon Women On The Moon" and I'm late already! Tomorrow is another day.