About

Hello and welcome to my Website and Blog.

 

I am Jonathan Ward, 29 years old, from Cape Town. I am a member of the 51st South African National Antarctic Expedition Over-wintering Team (SANAE 51). I will be living and working from December 2011 to March 2013 in the South African base, SANAE IV, which is situated on a nunatak called Vesleskarvet in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica.

 

South Africa has maintained a presence in Antarctica for the past 50 years and is one of the original signatories of the Antarctic Treaty. The South African National Antarctic Programme is managed and administered by the Directorate: Antarctic and Islands of the Department of Environmental Affairs.

 

As the team's Radar Engineer, under the management of the South African National Space Agency's Space Science Directorate,  I am responsible for operating and maintaining the base's HF radar, which is part of a global network called SuperDARN, the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network.

 

SuperDARN radars measure the position and Doppler velocity of plasma irregularities in the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The movements of these irregularities are tied to the movements of the Earth's magnetic field which, in turn, extends into space. SuperDARN, therefore, provides scientists with an affordable ground-based technique to gather information regarding the Earth's interaction with the space environment. To learn more about SANAE IV SuperDARN click here.

 

The purpose of this site is to document the time that I spend in this incredible place and to provide insight into my day-to-day activities to all of you reading this back in civilisation.

 

Please feel free to drop comments or pop me an email. Let me know what you would like to see on these pages. I will probably not be able to answer all of your questions when things get really busy, but I promise to do my very best to get back to you in a timely manner.