Tuesday, December 12, 2000

Awoke at 5:30 AM to catch a shuttle to the airport. Christchurch has a very efficient way of transporting people. Each shuttle has a small trailer behind it to carry luggage. In that way the shuttle can devote its space to carrying people. Consequently, the fare to the airport is about US $2.

At 6:15 AM we picked up our winter clothes and put them on. We sorted our clothes in three piles; I placed stuff not going to the pole in a storage box. The second group was those items that I will only see when I get to the pole. These items were weighed to make sure that I did not exceed the 75-pound limit. I had another bag to carry all of my clothes for the next few days and another one to carry my laptop. If the plane has to go back to New Zealand or I am stranded at the Antarctic base that will be all of the supplies that I have. We were advised to take a change of underclothes and our toothbrush. We watched a safety video, showed our passport to a departing official and had our bags sniffed for drugs. At 7:15 AM, we had some time off to have breakfast and then to do e-mail.

A half and hour later, we assembled for bus transportation to the airplane above. This propeller plane, which is flown by the New Zealand Airforce, has been fitted with all the comforts for the arctic explorer. Because it is early in the season, our plane will take seven hours to get the coast. The plane travels at the blazing speed of 250 MPH for a journey a little more than 2000 miles. If we would travel later in the season, we need to take a plane that lands on skis. Because of the extra drag, the trip takes a full 3 hours longer.

In full winter gear, we boarded the plane. The picture above shows our first class seating accommodations. Before boarding the plane, an attendant handed us our gourmet sack lunch and a set of earplugs. There is a plastic bag for our discarded item. The noise is so loud in the plane that we need to use them. Because of the drowning background of the propellers, conversations are too hard. To communicate, I just had to type a note on this computer.

People are very relaxed on this plane. Some are sleeping on the luggage; others have their feet on the seats. In fact, I have more legroom than I did on my flight from Los Angeles. The plane is heated and is very warm. All we can do is read, sleep and wait until we land in Antarctica. We have everything we expect from a plane flight except for the frequent flyer miles.

Yesterday, I stated that the Amanda experiment measures a particle called a muon, which comes from neutrino interactions. Now, how do we detect a muon? High-energy muons can travel very vast distances. A muon, with energy of 10 billion electron volts (10 GeV), can penetrate 2 meters of steel. These high-energy muons travel faster the speed of light in water. Just as a supersonic plane, produce a shock wave when it travels faster then the speed of sound, a muon also produces a "shock" wave that we call Cherenkov light. This light, which is mostly in the blue part of the spectrum, travels along with the muon. This Cherenkov light is what we detect in the Amanda detector. Because, we are detecting light, we need a transparent medium. That is the reason why we use ice and because there is a lot of ice in the South Pole that is why I am going there.

Howard Matis
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

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Index for Howard's trip