KenMankoff

More Photos from Antarctica (LMG09-09)

I’ve finally gotten around to uploading some photos from the latest trip to Antarctica. We sailed on the Laurence M. Gould through the Drake Passage and the Bellingshausen Sea, then along the Antarctic Peninsula to Palmer Station. We saw a lot of ice and some wildlife.

If you want to read about the trip you can do so here or by clicking on the LMG09-09 tag to the right.

If you were on the ship here is a GPX file so you can geotag your own photos.

Road Trip Photos

We have uploaded photos from our cross-country road trip.

Photos from Antarctica

If you’ve been following this blog you’ve seen a dozen or so low-quality photos posted during my trip. Now you can see full resolution pictures. In total, I took 2718 photos during the 54 days between when the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP) left Punta Arenas, Chile and returned. I’ve selected 350 of the best ones and uploaded them. There are 31 from the sea ice science projects, 54 of the NBP itself, 66 of animals (added to the animal photos from last year), 101 of the Pine Island Glacier, and 98 miscellaneous photos of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas, sea ice, sunsets, and sunrises.

You can view all of the photos listed above in the various Antarctica photo albums, or you can view them all geospatially (KMZ) in Google Earth. The ship recorded GPS a few times a second, and I have a one-minute (temporal) resolution data file that I used to geotag the photos.

Notes: If you are viewing the photos on the website, you ought to have the Cooliris plugin installed. Load times might be a bit slow, this computer is hosted at home. If you don’t see any photos in Google Earth you’ll need to drag the time slider to the right. They’ll pop up as you pass the time they were taken.

NBP Photos Geotagged in Google Earth

Low Bandwidth Graphics

As I’ve said before I will have limited bandwidth from the boat. I’d like to send not only text but images of the boat, icebergs, Antarctic wildlife, and anything else worth photographing, so I’ve been experimenting with ways of getting images off the ship. Based on the results below, I think I’ll stick to text descriptions rather than text graphics, and perhaps a very low quality (but decently sized) image every once in a while.

Here is a an image of the boat. This image is 77K, which would use 3 days of bandwidth quota to transmit:

The Nathaniel B. Palmer. Image courtesy of NSF. Image size is 77kb

If I shrink the image to 25k, or one day of bandwidth, it is this size

Nathaniel B. Palmer. Same image as above but resized so that it is 25 kilobytes in size, or 1 days bandwidth quota from the ship.

Or I can reduce quality rather that size, in which case it looks like this. The only real difference appears in the now-blurry name of the boat:

Nathaniel B. Palmer. Same image as above but quality reduced so that it is 25 kilobytes, or 1 days of bandwidth quota.

However, if I convert it to ASCII art, it looks like this, and takes up a mere 1.6k. I could transmit 15 of these a day before I reach my quota.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~--------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~-~---------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~-----------------------~&---------------------------~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~--------------------------++---..-----.-----------------~~~~~~~
~~--~-----------------+&-&~--~*PRR~........-..----------------~~~~~~
~~-~--------------------+.---*&&P##.............----------------~~~~
------------------------+-...-~*++-...+..-.....-...----------------~
------------------~+----+~~+*+$+P$+++*+-~--.....-......------------~
----------------.$&#+##R&&&*~*+++++++++&&$&--...-.....--------------
-----------------~&&PPP&$+~~~R+~*$**$&&&PR&+**..P.....--------------
----------------.......+~~++++++~+~~~~~~~~~~~$.&.....---------------
-----------------....-.~~~-~~+~~~~#+&~+~~~~~~PRPPPPPP*--------------
-------------------~#-~+~~+****$*&PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP----------~~
--------------+~-*P#+PP~~~PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP+--------~~~
--------------+$PRRP#$&&P&PPPPRPRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP~-------~~~~~
-------------$###R#P&$&&PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP-------~~~~~~~
-------------*~PPR#R&&&RPPPPPPRPPPPPPRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP~------~~~~~~~~
---.....-......~&&$&&&PPPPPPPPRPPPPPPPRR#PPPPPPPPPPP---------....-..
---.--.................. ~+. ...      .+#R.     &PP- --.-...........
--------....--............... . . . . .. .      .  ...............-.
-------..--...................... .    ..   .. ................-----
----------............................... .....................-----

Here is an image I took last time I was in Antarctica, and the ASCII art version too. Image size is about 20k (a day of bandwidth). Text size is less than 2k (I can send around 15 per day):

Penguin in Granite Harbor, Antarctica

----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
-------------$PRRRR#RR#RP---------------------
------------------########--------------------
-------------------R#R#P*+R&------------------
-------------------+++++~~~P------------------
-----------------~~~++##P&PPRR----------------
-----------------~~+~#RPRPRRRRR---------------
----------------~~~~~&#RRRPRRRR~--------------
---------------~~~~~~~#PPRPRPRRR--------------
---------------~~~~~~~~RPPRRRRRR--------------
---------------~~~~~~~~RRRRRRRRRP-------------
---------------~~~~~~~~+RRPRRRRRR-------------
---------------~~~~~~~~PRRRPRRRRR-------------
----------------~~~~~~+RRRRRRRRRR-------------
----------------~~~~~~*RRRRRRRRRR-------------
----------------~~~~~~PRRRRRRRRR&-------------
-----------------~~~~~&RPRRPPRRR--------------
-----------------~~~~~+PPRRRPRRR--------------
-----------------~~~~~~RPRRRRRRR--------------
------------------~~~~~~RR~+RRR---------------
------------------+~~~~~~~~+PRR---------------
----------~~~----RP&~~~~~~*RRRR*~~~~~~~~~~~~-~
--------~~~~~~~~~~+RP+~+~+PRRRRPRRRRRR+~~~~~~~
-------------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--------------------~~~~--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------------~----~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Microscope

I was inspired by a New York Times article and the Nikon Small World Competition to break out my digital microscope and take some pictures.

Help Us Win a Photo Contest

National Geographic Magazine is holding a photo contest. We are going to submit some of our photos. Help us pick the best ones. You can anonymously vote on them. Browse around and click the stars of each image that you like. If you click on an image, you’ll get a larger view, a brief description, the ability to vote there, and links to the previous and next images.

If you have suggestions or questions about any pictures, you can leave comments here, or below each photo. Comments won’t show up right away because I filter them to make sure they are not spam.