Above: Doddi aboard the Shirase amid the Antarctic icepack.
Header Video: Adelie penguins traveling across the frozen tundra.

Abhi Doddi(21届博士)在70英里每小时的暴风雪中收集科学数据. It is just another day of life in Antarctica.

Doddi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ann and H.J. 博彩平台推荐航空航天工程科学系, 正在领导一项涉及高空气球的重大研究，以改善南极大陆的天气预报.

为了到达地球上这个遥远而危险的角落，他经历了多年的计划，乘坐破冰船进行了一次远洋航行, and despite the weather, he is excited to be here.

“这种数据以前从未被收集过，”多迪说. “博彩平台推荐希望利用雷达和气球仪器的辅助观测来收集极地涡旋上的小规模湍流数据. 这一数据对改善当前数值天气预报模式中大气重力波和极地急流引起的湍流的表现具有重要意义.”

Ship Journey

Most U.S.研究南极天气的美国研究人员在麦克默多站工作, a United States-run base that is surprisingly accessible, 在南极的夏季，每天都有军用货机飞行.

Doddi’s research required a much more arduous journey. 他需要使用专门的中间层-平流层-对流层(MST)雷达, and there is just one on the continent – at Syowa Station, a Japanese base only accessible by ship. 日本海军破冰船白濑号每年都会去一次. Doddi boarded in Australia. From there, it took 20 days to reach Syowa and 38 to return.

“I don’t get seasick, but it gets uncomfortable when swells are 7-8 meters tall, and you’re being tossed in all directions, even while you sleep,” Doddi said.

Breaking the Ice

The ship could travel at 30 knots on the open ocean, but when they reached the Antarctic ice pack, 航行速度大大放慢，因为船需要反复后退和加速前进才能破冰.

白濑号搭载了大约180名船员和100名科学家和工程师. Doddi and his research partner, Tyler Mixa (MAeroEngr’14, PhD’19), 第一个博彩平台推荐Syowa站的非日本研究人员是谁.

“The language barrier was the hardest thing. 在整个船员中，只有大约10人会说英语会话，”多德说.

在医疗紧急情况下没有快速离开的选择, every person on the trip needed to be in perfect health.

“They want you to be bulletproof. If you get a cavity before the trip, until your dentist provides proof that it’s been filled, and your doctor has signed off on your health, and the Japanese medical team has reviewed the records, you’re not getting on the ship,” he said.

Research Variety

Doddi’s work focused on Antarctic atmospheric conditions, 但也有很多其他团队在进行跨科学学科的研究. There were multiple oceanographers and aquatic life experts, as well as people doing bird studies, ice core samples, and geological surveys.

“其中一个团队在旅途中发现了3-4种新的微生物，这很令人着迷. No one had ever laid eyes on those organisms before,” he said.

甚至在到达南极洲之后，也有更多的旅行——乘飞机. Due to shallow water, 白濑号必须在离岸10英里的地方抛锚，然后用直升机把船员和物资运送到基地.

Blizzard Balloon Launches

Once they landed at Syowa, 多迪的研究开始认真地进行着——准备了几十个气球有效载荷，它们可以飞到20公里的高度，同时横向漂移到100公里，并实时传回湍流测量结果.

这项工作将MST雷达的广泛测量结果与CU Boulder开发的气球机载仪器系统上的精密仪器相结合. As a major goal is improving weather forecasting, 多迪在不太理想的天气里花了很多时间在户外.

“We experienced three different blizzards, each lasting up to three days, with winds in excess of 60-70 mph,” he said. “这些条件无疑是我一生中最美好的经历之一. 这就是博彩平台推荐想要的数据，即使这意味着博彩平台推荐要熬夜48小时. My sleep cycle was totally messed up,” he said.

在南极的夏天，太阳从不落下，这一点也无济于事.

When it was not snowing, 温度通常在冰点以下徘徊——对于南极的夏天来说，这几乎是温和的——最温暖的日子最高可达5°C(41°F)。.

Syowa车站分布在60座建筑物中，在停机期间几乎没有什么舒适的地方.

“船上的铺位比基地的更大，更舒适. It was four people to a room, with no doors on any room, just curtains, and communal baths, like a gym locker room,” Doddi said.

What's a Vegetarian?

He also faced a unique obstacle with food. Doddi is a life-long vegetarian, 但基础餐是通过一个海军食堂为每个人烹饪相同的食物.

“我从出生起就是一个素食者，而素食主义的概念在日本文化中并不存在. They don’t even have a word for it. 所以我带了240份可储存的食物作为我个人用品的一部分。.

虽然南极洲终年冰冻，但当地仍有大量野生动物. Doddi saw hundreds of emperor penguins and over 1,000 adelie penguins, in addition to seals, petrel seabirds, and albatross. 他可以做一些徒步旅行，但安全预防措施是必要的.

“如果你要越过基地的边界或进入一个受限制的部分, 一名海军人员必须走在你前面，评估冰的裂缝和裂缝的情况,” he said.

Analysis Back Home

南极实地考察结束了，多迪回到了科罗拉多, 项目的第二阶段开始——复杂而漫长的分析.

“这是一个为期两个月的数据收集项目，随后是一个为期三年的建模项目，”多迪说. “We need massive super computers to do this modeling. 总体目标是为改善南极洲人民的天气预报提供指导, so this will help researchers for years to come.”

In addition to Doddi, collaborators on the project are Dale Lawrence, 他是博彩平台推荐航空航天工程科学教授，也是该研究的负责人 & Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles; Mixa from Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences (GATS) in Boulder; the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo; and Kyoto University.

Shirase从澳大利亚到Syowa站的20天旅程地图.
On the 38 day trip back, 这艘船沿着南极海岸进行进一步的研究，并在一个需要维修的电离层自动测量站停了下来.