Summer at Halley




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Summertime: 1 month 22 days

I spent three summers at Halley and they were all really hectic. They all started in December with the arrival of the ship. As soon as the ship gets in "relief" starts - which is when all the cargo comes up to base. During relief we work 12 hour shifts, 12 hours on and 12 hours off. One team does 8am to 8pm then the second team does 8pm to 8am. Fortunately its mid-summer and there is 24 hours of daylight, so which ever shift you are on it feels normal. It's very odd though to wake up and have breakfast when other people are eating christmas dinner and drinking beer.

Summer at Halley lasted from the end of December to mid-February when the ship came and took everyone away. We worked long hours but we also had time to celebrate Christmas and New Year. It's also the time for all the maintainence staff to fix the infrastructure and jack the platforms up. Scientists come to set up their equipment and collect their results. Finally it's a time for the old winter team to "hand-over" to the new team.

I took over from Vicky who, with Kate, was one of the first women to winter at Halley. I quickly learnt the met routine but it took me months to learn how to do all the jobs correctly. When I first arrived at the station I was paranoid about getting frost bite and I spent the first week wearing my balaclava whenever I went outside.

The view looking North towards the garage

Twin Otter plane with skiis fitted so it can land on snow

Katabatic winds
During the summer we used one of the Twin Otter planes to fly out to the CLAMP sites. At these sites were masts with instruments to record temperature, pressure, wind speed and wind direction. The scientists Ian and Phil were interested in the wind speed because they wanted to know more about katabatic winds.

Katabatic winds form because as the air over Antarctica cools it becomes heavier. Antarctica slopes down from the South Pole towards the coast and eventually the cold air gets so heavy that it falls down the slope. These winds can be incredibly fast and are called Katabatic winds.

Last updated 12th July 2006