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ANTARCTICA

Cosmic Ray Observatory

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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Welcome to Cosray...the McMurdo Station Cosmic Ray Observatory. This is, without question, the coolest building on station. It's not actually 'on station', though. It's about half way between McMurdo and Scott Base. But that only adds to the coolness. How do I love Cosray? Let me count the ways:
1. It's got a neat-o experiment housed inside. More on this below.
2. It's mine. There are other people on station with keys to Cosray, but essentially I'm the only person who comes out here.
3. It's a great building...it has more character and history than every lab in the Crary building combined.
4. It has a large window, with a view of White Island and Scott Base. Fabulous.
5. It's the original McMurdo love shack/hippie pad/party place. This place has a great vibe, and when you're here, you feel as though you're connected with Antarcticans of years past.
6. You can get Kiwi radio here, 97.0 FM. This signal doesn't get past the hills between Scott Base and McMurdo, but you pick it up loud and clear here.
7. Finally, and most importantly, this is as close as McMurdo gets to having a museum.
More on this last point. Scott Base converted their old "A-Hut" from the IGY into a museum (see here), but the old buildings at McMurdo are bulldozed one by one. History means absolutely nothing here. In the Scott Base bookstore, you will find books on the history of the station and the Ross Sea region, but in our store, there is nothing about the history of McMurdo, and little else of historic interest. Mostly a bunch of crappy, overpriced T-shirts and caps, most of which have South Pole Station written all over them (there must be more Pole gear here than at the Pole itself). In fact, although there is a 'McMurdo Historical Society' room in one of the recreation buildings, it is locked and nobody seems to know anything about it, let alone where a key might be. But anyway...back to Cosray. Unfortunately, this building is perpetually in the crosshairs of the NSF. The main reason Cosray has survived this long is that the neutron monitor is very sensitve to location, as well as to the building itself. These factors affect the integrity and continuity of this long-duration experiment. The researchers at Bartol Research Institute (U. of Delaware) don't want to move, and so far so good. Essentially, NSF is 'concerned' about Cosray's energy inefficiency and it's distance from McMurdo. They are on the energy conservation bandwagon this year, and they keep saying they want to 'reduce the station's footprint'. But considering the fuel costs for this one building and it's proximity to McMurdo, I believe the real reason is more motivated by upper management seeking to put feathers in their caps to show how action-oriented they are about efficiency, etc. I went out one day this week to check on things, and I found three high-level NSF guys walking around inside, throwing around ideas about how they could move the experiment, chop the building in half, make it 100% automated and maintenance free (right, if this were really feasible would I even have a job as science tech?), etc. etc. It was pretty clear to me by the questions they asked me that they didn't have ANY idea what this measurement was all about, how it worked, or the nature of running a sophisticated system like this. Depressing.

Another view of Cosray and Little House. Little House was originally built as the data recording station for the Windless Bight infrasound system in the late 70's. This project was revived two years ago, but NSF would not let the U. of Alaska group use this facility anymore (see above). This building has since sat unused, while the infrasound hub room is stuck in a dank corner of the Comms Building. Little House is a neat building in it's own right...even has a stairway to the roof.
Cosray and Scott Base. That pipe sticking out from the floor of Cosray comes from the urinal inside, and used to go to a barrel outside. This barrel is no longer there, as you can see. Ten years ago, there was a propane-powered incinerator toilet. Now, the facilities consist of a bottle to pee in and a bag to poop in. What happened here? It's too bass-ackward to even begin to describe, so I won't. It suffices to say that this is not one of my favorite things about Cosray.
The entrance to Cosray. It's official designation is 'Building 84'. But most people who drive by here on the way to Scott Base just see the 'Travelodge McMurdo' sign, so that's what it is often known as. Many people don't even know that there's anything in here!
A nasty day. I checked out a Pisten Bully to drive a science group up to Arrival Heights during their site visit, since the road to Arrival was drifted over with new snow. On the way back, I drove it over to Cosray to do the daily checks. My friend Kevin Bliss is on the right (it was 'Condition 2' weather, so two people are required to drive in a vehicle leaving the station and you have to check in via radio). So we drove out and hung out for a while. Not bad for a snow day.
Plans for Cosray, dated 1961. I don't think there are any buildings left at McMurdo from the IGY (1957-1958). This is quite possibly the oldest building on station (actually, I have since found out that there are several buildings older than this one: the coffee house, the gymnasium, the recreation building, and Hut 10 are all older than Cosray, although none of them date to the actual IGY. The old MEC was also older, but it has since been demolished). And the Cosmic Ray Observatory is certainly the oldest continuously running experiment at McMurdo. Note the 'Neutron Pile' on the drawing. This is the neutron detector that was used during the IGY, and is still sitting in Cosray (photo below). The 'Meson Telescopes' refer to an old experiment which detected mesons, which are subatomic particles produced during cosmic ray air showers. These detectors are also still sitting in Cosray. The 'Bunk Room' is now an empty room, with a few telcom units inside. The building is an old style of construction: a T-5 Hut. It was evidently built by the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Department of The Navy....whatever that was/is.
The living quarters at Cosray. In the old days, before the system was (relatively) automated, a person would live out here to record the data and maintain the system. Here's where he would live (there were no she's.....). In the old days, they had a kitchen with running water and a snow melter for water, a.k.a. a hot tub! Things have changed a bit, but it's still pretty comfortable.
If you are a fan of science fiction or old high energy physics journals, the Cosray 'library' is for you.
So many science techs and Cosray observers (as the permanent residents here were known) have come and gone from here, and it seems each has left his/her mark. For example, last year's science tech, Laura, left these Scooby Doo blankets/pillows. I don't know what I'll leave here, but I have 9 months to decide....
Laura also left these beads in the window. The icebreaker used to make its way to Scott Base, and you could sit and watch the whales pop up in the ice channel from the front window. That would have been nice! Things have changed, but this is still a great place. The view of White Island is killer.
A wall separates the living quarters from the observatory. The observatory room houses the neutron detectors and data acquisition systems. This place is NOT like the sterile scientific facilities that seem so desirable in the modern, efficient, research institutions. It is colorful and vibrant, and has a wonderful sense of history. It's only 40 years old, but in Antarctica, that's ancient. The observers of years past have painted the walls of this building with beautiful murals, and old-tyme instruments of science and technology are scattered about the building. The four boxes on the left wall are the old meson telescopes, the single box in the middle of the floor is the IGY neutron detector, and the three white boxes at the far end are the current neutron detectors.
Another view of the observatory room.
Here are the neutron detectors themselves. These tubes are filled with Boron Trifluoride gas, and detect low-energy neutrons via a complex process involving nuclear fission. Note "Atomic Energy of Canada Limited". These things were originally developed to monitor radiation from nuclear power plants, but have been adapted to serve as cosmic ray monitors. Neutrons are one of many subatomic particles produced by cosmic rays impacting the earth's atmosphere. A cosmic ray is a charged particle (atomic nucleus) which is accelerated somewhere out in the galaxy to near the speed of light. The particles that hit earth (primary cosmic rays) are destroyed when they impact an atmospheric gas molecule, but a shower of other subatomic particles (secondary cosmic rays) are produced, which then hit other gas molecules and create a further cascade of particles. Mesons, neutrons, electrons, positrons, protons, and gamma rays are produced, but these instruments are sensitive to neutrons only. By counting the number of neutrons that arrive at these detectors, the researchers at the Bartol Research Institute (U. of Delaware) can calculate how many cosmic rays arrived at a corresponding location in the earth's upper atmosphere. This information is used for a variety of applications, primarily for monitoring solar activity and cycles (during periods of higher solar activity, fewer galactic cosmic rays will hit the earth. They tend to get deflected away more often due to the enhanced magnetic fields).
Here's the equipment used to process and record the neutron count data. These two vintage Mac SE's were installed in 1990. One of them is still running, but the other was replaced by two Imacs this year. People always comment on the Mac's whenever I give a tour of Cosray....
A dial indicator barometer, a barometric strip recorder, a thermometer/humidity sensor, and a temperature/humidity strip recorder. These instruments, combined with two other barometers which record directly on the computers, provide a record of the ambient conditions. Of particular importance is the atmospheric pressure. The number of neutrons counted is affected by the amount of air between the cosmic ray impact point and the detector site. So, unless you can measure and correct for the atmospheric pressure, your neutron detectors will essentially be very expensive nuclear barometers!
The workbench area. Cosray is a well-stocked laboratory with a good selection of tools. A nice place to work on various side projects. Somebody put a very nice chalk drawing of a woman above the bench.
Here is me, doing my thing at Cosray. Joan Myers came out one day to photograph the place. Her intent in photographing Antarctica was mainly to focus on the human interaction with this continent - how we live, work, survive, socialize, etc. She was also interested in old science stuff. So Cosray was a gold mine! Lots of history, lots of equipment, and lots of personality to the place. She snapped this pic, and was kind enough to email it to me.
This very detector was used for cosmic ray detection during the IGY. It's very similar to the ones we used today.
Somebody drew this clever piece some years ago. I don't know who did it, but it is very well done. There is a giant copy of it hanging in one of the bars here. And really, what will happen when the Antarctic Treaty expires? What if it is not renewed? I have no confidence that nations would refrain from commercially exploiting this place if left to their own devices. The only thing that will prevent this, in absence of the treaty, would be its sheer inaccessibility and severity. But eventually, technology will remove these obstacles.
Here is an official, authentic pet rock....complete with kennel and instructions.
Here is one of those little things that someone left here.
More relics of science technicians past. The stamp was made by someone who took a block of rubber and carved out the Cosray logo on it. It's still sitting around in Cosray, and I have used it now and then to mark various things.
This mural, to me, is the highlight of Cosray art.
The east wall mural again.
A closeup of the corner of the east wall mural. The date near the signature is 1981.
Another great drawing that found its way to Cosray. I've seen it posted elsewhere on station, and it's hilarious.
Labels on boxes of electronic parts. Very geeky humor.
A wind chime, hooked up below a furnace duct. Nice touch.
Here is Joan Myers doing her thing at Cosray. The subject of her pic is an old scintillator disk, used in a meson telescope. The meson telescopes were also a cosmic ray experiment, only slightly different in that they counted mesons. These disks were made of an acrylic(?) material, doped with a scintillator which would give off light when a meson passed through. One disk was placed inside each of four boxes, which were stacked two high to make two telescopes. Each box had photomultiplier tubes which would register the streak of light as the meson passed through. Each telescope had a layer of lead in between the two boxes. The lead was used to eliminate spurious counts due to electrons. The scintillator disks were not only sensitive to mesons, but also to electrons (which are other products of the cosmic ray air shower). But, the electrons could not pass through the lead layer, whereas mesons could. So, if you saw a streak of light in the top disk, followed a certain time later by a streak in the bottom disk, that was a meson and not an electron.
Here is Mike Holstine at Cosray, with his fashionable South Pole Station parka (much nicer than the red ones we get here). Mike is one of the two South Pole science techs. There, they have a Cusp tech (Mike) and an Aurora tech (Johan Booth). Some of the same experiments run at Pole as at McMurdo, so Mike and I went to training together at a few spots in the US before coming down here. So we hung out at Cosray for a while on his way down.
Paintings on the north wall. The Cosray sign used to hang outside, but for some reason it was brought inside. The painting on the right represents the air shower, where a cosmic ray hits the upper atmosphere and creates a shower of various particles that cascade down to ground level.
A beautiful penguin silkscreen that I found sitting in a drawer. I thought it looked better in the window.
A teletype. In the old days, the observer would collate the data and enter it on paper tape with this device. He would then take the roll of tape over to Telco and they would send it back to the US. Note the vintage chair...
The teletype again.
The bit bucket! Until 1990, they still used paper tape for data storage, although with a more modern machine than the teletype. This bit bucket was the repository for all the bits punched out from the paper tape for 10 years. It's the storage unit for the Cosray data....or more precisely the anti-data!
I love this. Every now and then I will get a big handful of this stuff and squish it between my fingers. Somehow this is theraputic.
The west wall mural. The same rainbow is painted on the ceiling beams.
Silkscreen for a winter art show. Again, it looked better in the window than in a drawer.
Another piece of vintage equipment.
It seemed like a shame to let a summer season pass without having a get together at Cosray, so I had a few people over one night in January.