Expedition Dates Plans 2000-2001

Section II of the 2000-2001 season plan includes information concerning vessel and aircraft operations along with estimated dates of expeditions and other significant events.

Winfly Activities

Annual augmentation of the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) begins with austral winter flights (WINFLY), departing Christchurch, New Zealand, and arriving McMurdo Station, Antarctica, about 21 August 2000. The aircraft will carry scientists and support personnel to start early pre-summer projects, to augment maintenance personnel, and to prepare skiways and ice runways at McMurdo Station. This will involve 4 U.S. Air Force C-141B flights and will increase station population from the winter-over level of about 154 to a transition level of about 371.

Mainbody Activities

Austral summer activities will be initiated in late September 2000 with wheeled aircraft operations between Christchurch, New Zealand and the sea-ice runways at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. This will involve approximately 18 C-141B flights and 4 C-17 flights of transport aircraft of the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC), and 12 flights by C-130 transport aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The sea-ice runway and wheeled aircraft operations will cease about early December 2000, and then resume about mid-January to the end of the season with 10 C-141B and 3 C-130 flights. Between these two periods of wheeled aircraft operations, flights will be conducted by LC-130 ski-equipped aircraft flown by the New York Air National Guard 109th Air Wing. The aircraft will operate from Williams’ Field , a prepared skiway.

The 109th Air Wing of the Air National Guard in Schenectady, New York will provide four LC-130 aircraft and four crews for intra-continental flights from late October 2000 through early December, and add a fifth aircraft and sixth crew from early December 2000 through February 2001 when McMurdo Station closes.

Significant Dates

Other significant dates for the summer season include:

1.       03 October 2000        - McMurdo Station-Summer Operations Commence

2.       19 September 2000     - Palmer Station – Summer Operations Commence

3.       09 October 2000        - Marble Point opens

4.       23 October 2000        - South Pole Station – Summer Operations Commence

5.       01 November 2000     - Siple Dome Camp opens

6.       06 November 2000     - Ice Stream “C” Camp opens

7.       10 November 2000     - Byrd Surface Camp opens

8.       07 October 2000        - Pieter J. Lenie Field Station ("Copacabana")opens

9.       16 November 2000     - Cape Shirreff Field Station opens

Ship Movements

M/V GREEN WAVE
The cargo ship, M/V GREEN WAVE, is scheduled to complete one trip to McMurdo this season. The ship will depart Port Hueneme, California, in early January 2001 after onloading cargo and transit directly to Port Lyttelton, New Zealand. The Green Wave will again onload additional cargo and depart New Zealand for McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Cargo will be off-loaded between 03-10 February, after which the ship will depart McMurdo and proceed to Lyttelton, New Zealand to offload cargo destined for the States. It will depart on approximately 18 February for Washington State to off-load waste and recyclable materials from McMurdo Station. From there it will transit to Port Hueneme, California, arriving there on 12 March 2001.

R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER

The R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER will conduct 8 scientific research cruises, totaling an estimated 252 days at sea, during the 2000-2001 season. The vessel will provide support throughout the season for biological, chemical, physical oceanographic, and marine geophysics investigations in the Weddell, Bellingshausen, and the Ross Seas. Ports of call include: Punta Arenas, Chile; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Ushuaia, Argentina; Hobart, Tasmania; Panama City, Panama; Palmer Station, Antarctica; Fourchon, Louisiana; New Orleans, Louisiana; and, Capetown, South Africa.

R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD

The R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD will conduct 7 scientific research cruises, totaling an estimated 143 days at sea, during the 2000-2001 season. The research supported will include at sea research, station work at Elephant, King George, Livingston, Deception, Low, Smith, and Greenwich Islands, and station support at Palmer Station. Ports of call include Talchauano and Punta Arenas, Chile.