Okay, all you penguin fanatics. Our friends at the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research station in Antarctica have found a way for us to spy on their neighbors—Adélie penguins! They've set up a webcam that brings LIVE looks at the rookery on Torgersen Island. You may recall from Jo's penguin post that the island is home to a colony of Adélie penguins numbering approximately 2,500.

Screen captures of the actual webcam!

You can visit and monitor Adélie rookery with a first hand view here (look for the Torgersen Island tab below the picture of Palmer Station). You may see an Adélie parent caring for chicks while its partner takes to the Ross Sea to feed on krill. You may see a penguin preening. And look out for those fluffy chicks! While Torgersen Island is primarily home to Adélies, other penguins may sometimes be seen on screen, including gentoo and chinstrap penguins (check out Jo's pictures of the different species here). We recently hosted a Google+ Hangout with the researchers on Palmer, too. Shawn had some really interesting things to share about the penguins. Check it out!

This camera is seasonal and operates primarily from October to February, which is the Adélie breeding season. Since the camera is solar-powered it sometimes experiences brief outages due to inclement weather.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to help study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.



All of Jo's entries are cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to help study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.

The Palmer LTER has very specific areas that they study. This is to make sure that the data that is collected aligns with a grid system year after year. This helps making the data analysis more consistent and meaningful over time. This grid system starts at Palmer Station and works south along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). Palmer LTER scientists take all kinds of samples along a predetermined set of the yellow stations as shown in the grid. We started at Palmer (green dot at the top of the grid), but we have since traveled to about the 200 line which is about half way down near the second green dot.  Can you find it?

LTER Grid system. Palmer Station is close to the top, near the 600.040 green dot (Photo credit: Palmer LTER)

The LMG is outfitted with instruments that collect information on air and water temperatures, salinity, and depth while we sail. Those are combined with the latitude and longitude of the ship. Together those generate a profile or picture of the water that we are traveling over at that particular time.

The XBT probe inside its protective covering. (Photo credit: Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

We have also been deploying XBT (eXpendable BathyThermograph) probes as seen in the photograph above. These instruments are released overboard and measure the ocean temperature as a probe drifts through the water. They consist of a dispensable probe, a data processing/recording system and a launcher. It's really cool looking

Copper wire used to transmit data back to the ship. (Photo credit Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

A thin copper wire connects the probe to a recording system that transmits the data in real time back to the ship the moment the probe hits the water. When the probe reaches its rated depth (which is a function of how fast the ship is traveling and the amount of wire contained within the spool) the profile is complete and the system is ready for another launch.

Launching these XBTs helps scientists generate better profiles of the ocean currents and how they combine over a particular area. They also track how temperatures change over parts of the ocean.  On this particular shift I was assigned to launch these while we were crossing the Drake.

Launching XBT probe overboard. (Photo credit Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

Over the course of crossing the Passage, we deployed 70 XBT probes around the clock for two days. Everyone on the ship took a shift. We worked in four-hour shifts to make sure the probes were dropped in the water every 30-35 minutes. That meant some people were up in the middle of the night! Luckily, my shift was from 8am to noon.  So, I got to sleep at a normal hour.  Thank goodness because we've put in some pretty crazy hours these last few days.

Still smiling! (Photo credit: Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

Data from the XBT. Temperature is on the x-axis and depth of water is on the y-axis.  (Photo credit: Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

Here is a water profile on the computer screen on-board the ship after the XBT probe is finished with its descent.  Can you see what depth it stopped taking measurements?



All of Jo's entries are cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.

After visiting the penguins on Torgersen Island, I had the opportunity to visit one more place at Palmer Station. The glider robotics lab! Dr. Oscar Schofield and his team work with many different types of technology to study the ecosystem in Antarctica. One of the coolest ones, I think, is an autonomous underwater vehicle (or AUV) glider.

A glider in action (Photo: Palmer LTER)

Dr. Schofield’s team is from Rutgers University in New Jersey. They use these battery operated AUVs to complement shipboard measurements because it’s very challenging to sample and survey this entire region by ship. That’s where the gliders come in!

Two gliders in the lab (Photo: Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

These robots are programmed by the scientists to fly through the underwater canyons like a torpedo.  Scientists give them specific coordinates similar to a GPS which tell them where to go and what to sample. They are also equipped with sensors in the payload which record things like water temperature, salinity, sea ice conditions and even phytoplankton – tiny little algae, freely floating in the water. All the data is recorded on memory cards inside the glider which can be downloaded when it surfaces or checked live, via satellite if the scientists want to reprogram its direction and give it a new mission.

Inside the glider's brain (photo: Tina Haskins/Rutgers University)

The anatomy of a glider (Photo: Palmer LTER)

There were two gliders in the lab when I went to visit, and two additional gliders already out on a mission collecting data in the ocean. You wouldn’t believe this, but one of the gliders in the lab needed some repairs because it had been bitten by a leopard seal! Once it gets a new tail, it will be deployed from Palmer Station to study the area before the LMG will pick them up in a couple of weeks. I’ll be sure to capture all of that for you. It was really neat to see the gliders firsthand, and I’m excited to learn more about them on the trip.

That is one strong bite! (Photo: Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

Leopard seal (Photo: Beth Simons/Palmer LTER)

After this quick visit, it was time for me to leave Palmer Station and begin the hard work of collecting data out at sea. We’ll be back to Palmer Station in about a month but for the next couple weeks I’m out to sea sampling from the LMG!

See you later, Palmer Station! (Photo: Jo Blasi/Palmer LTER)

This is not the first time Aquarium scientists have used gliders to study marine animals and ecosystems. Click here to see how the right whale researchers eavesdropped on their subjects in the Northern Atlantic ocean.

All of Jo's entries are cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.
No more than a half mile from Palmer Station is Torgersen Island, a small rocky outcrop near the entrance to Arthur Harbor. The island was named back around 1954–1955 by first mate Torstein Torgersen (b. 1918) during a charting expedition aboard the Norwegian sailing vessel Norsel.

Ride alongside Jo as she jumps on a zodiac and heads over to the island for the very first time!



Back in the mid-1970′s Torgersen Island was home to roughly 9,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae). The island was an absolute mass of life!  Since then, climate change has decreased the breeding pairs by 81 percent to 2,500.

Adélie penguin

Jo got to witness these animals first hand.



See more pictures of Adélie penguins by Aquarium Explorer-in-Residence Brian Skerry here. And brush up on your penguin species with our handy penguin species guide.

All of Jo's entries will be cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.

Departing on December 27 included an entire day of flying then four days on the LMG crossing the Drake Passage, a sail through the Bransfield Strait just inside the South Shetland Islands. But I have landed!

A tall mountain peak seen on our way to Palmer Station, photo Jo Blasi

It seems like it has taken a while to get here, but it is a great feeling and worth the wait.  As we were sailing towards the station, we saw some spectacular sights. Our path took us past some of the South Shetland Islands located at the northwestern tip of the Peninsula, some rising straight out of the ocean to form tall peaks.

Bransfield Strait, credit: O. Lopez et. al., (1999)

Lots of icebergs along the way, credit: Jo Blasi

Glaciers were everywhere with lots of icebergs floating past us. We saw whales, seals and more seabirds, including some chinstrap penguins that were hanging out on an iceberg!

Chinstrap penguins on an iceberg, credit: Jo Blasi

In order to arrive at Palmer on time, we sailed through the night and finally arrived at the Station around 7:30 in the morning. Not wanting to miss seeing Palmer for the first time, I got up at 4:30am to watch it come closer and closer. I could see the glacier behind the station before I spotted a building or two. And then….there it was! Palmer! It was time to pull up to the dock. It was official. We were here!

Palmer Station with glacier behind it, credit: Jo Blasi

The area around Palmer was surrounded by brash ice, smaller pieces of ice that float around. They can be dangerous to smaller boats if they collect in one area. For the LMG, which has a strengthened hull, it wasn’t a problem. We cruised right through it. (If you would like to learn more about the types of ice around Antarctica, check out the "Know your Ice" fact sheet on Palmer's Educational Resources page.)

Lots of brash ice around the station, credit: Jo Blasi

The LMG turned around and slowly backed up to the dock at Palmer Station. It took a lot of people to help tie up a 70m (230 foot) ship! The LMG and station crew worked together to secure the LMG to its home for two days. (See a short video of our arrival.) The gangplank went down and then things got busy!

Getting ready to dock the LMG, credit: Jo Blasi

The LMG not only does scientific research at sea but it is also responsible for bringing personnel and cargo to and from Palmer Station. Once we arrived, it took the entire morning and even part of the afternoon to shuttle gear from the LMG to the station and then gear from the station back onto the boat. I felt a little like an ant in a colony; lots of us moving back and forth.

But, once that was done, it was time to explore Palmer Station and go on a field trip. I won’t tell you about it now but here’s a hint-it has something to do with one of my favorite animals…

Finally here! The LMG docked at Palmer Station, credit: Jo Blasi

All of Jo's entries will be cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.