By Peter Kimball
I was delighted to receive an aerial photograph of SIMPLE camp recently from Peter Doran. In addition to his work on the SIMPLE project, Peter does research in the dry valleys to the Northwest of McMurdo. He was able to spot SIMPLE camp and take this photo from a USAP helicopter while returning from the dry valleys.
The photo shows the big blue bot house, the yellow galley tent, the grid of sleeping tents, two black outhouses, the orange fish hut, and various equipment crates. A Pisten Bully can be seen on parked next to the main generator on the left, while two snow machines are parked at center. The ice shelf transition is barely visible, running close to horizontal through the top half of the frame. Faint vehicle tracks cross from camp up onto the ice shelf through a flagged "stargate", visible as a few dark spots.
Here are photos of the ice shelf stargate and tent rows that I took a few weeks ago.
The photo shows the big blue bot house, the yellow galley tent, the grid of sleeping tents, two black outhouses, the orange fish hut, and various equipment crates. A Pisten Bully can be seen on parked next to the main generator on the left, while two snow machines are parked at center. The ice shelf transition is barely visible, running close to horizontal through the top half of the frame. Faint vehicle tracks cross from camp up onto the ice shelf through a flagged "stargate", visible as a few dark spots.
Here are photos of the ice shelf stargate and tent rows that I took a few weeks ago.