Transitions

We are a week away from the summer solstice. The sun is high in the sky and we have had a series of warm sunny weather days. The temperature is just above freezing, just about 1 to 3 degrees C (or 33 to 38 degrees F). This is the start of the melt season. Streams are flowing around the station as the snow pack continues to melt. Streams are flowing in the dry valleys too. It’s time to transition from puffy down jackets to our windbreakers. At this time of year the sea-ice starts to melt a bit. The ice is still mostly solid, but the transition areas from land to ice are messy. It's prudent to move the fish huts back onto land while they still can, otherwise they risk getting stuck and eventually floating out to sea on an a sea-ice raft later this season. Today we learned that the sea-ice will be off limits in a couple more days, as soon as they can finish moving the remaining huts and equipment back onto land. The huts look like a row of vacation cottages lined up on the road to Hut Point.
There were a few seals hauled out onto the sea-ice near Hut Point. It is not very obvious from my picture, but the small brown blobs are Weddell seals. A few days ago, this blue ice pool was still solid, but now it is turning slushy. This makes it easier for the seals to find places to come up for air and to haul out onto the ice for sunbathing. While I was there, a seal was swimming just under the ice skin on this melt pool. He poked his head up for air a few times, just breaking through the thin ice layer. Away from land, the ice is still solid, but that will probably change over the next few weeks.

The other big transition is that research groups that were working on sea-ice to study the seals, the fish or the sea-ice itself, will now have to call and end to the field season. Groups that study hydrology and stream flow are getting busy. The nice sunny weather also makes it more fun to get out and do some sight seeing around the station.
The weather has been nice, so Nik agreed to go for a walk with me. He is wearing a fuzzy hat to keep his ears warm because the breeze is almost always blowing at Hut Point.