Antarctic Paradise

T-shirts and shorts at 9 below zero

by Jill Fontaine

It was the night before Noah Potash left for a three-week trip to the South Pole last December, his suitcase laid open on his bed as he crammed last-minute things into any extra pocket he could find. The hard part was figuring out what to wear during his sub-freezing stay in the South Pole. He decided to pack only T-shirts and shorts.

When he arrived in Antarctica, it was 9 degrees below zero.

Noah, a senior studying software engineering at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, was there with his father, Mike Potash, an engineering technician at the university. Their mission was to recalibrate instruments used for the university’s Space Physics Research Lab under the direction of Irfan Azeem, a space physicist at Embry-Riddle. Their trip was paid by a National Science Foundation grant to the lab.

The father-son duo set up camp in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) building, where they were given “extreme weather gear” and a place to work. Their work station was temperature-controlled, so they were able to work in T-shirts and shorts.

Noah and his dad had little time to recalibrate the instruments, a task that needs to be done during South Pole’s summer so they could be used again come winter.

“The instruments can only be used to gather data during winter because it is dark 24/7, and things in space can be seen easier,” Noah said. The instruments collect data that describe solar cycle events and other information relating to space weather.

Noah also had a secondary mission. Some of the system’s computers were not transmitting data back to Earth. Luckily for Azeem, the Embry-Riddle student knew exactly how to fix the problem.

“I was creating websites at the age of 8,” Noah explained.

One of the toughest challenges the two faced was communication with Azeem. The South Pole’s satellite only transmits eight hours of telephone and internet use a day – on a good day – and Internet connection was “slower than dial-up” and unreliable, Noah said, so they didn’t use email. The 17-hour time difference further complicated things.

“When we needed to contact Azeem, he was sleeping,” Noah said. “We had to hope he would receive our call and leave us a voicemail that answered all of our questions.”

While waiting to hear back from Azeem, they explored the surrounding area. There was a gym, a music room with expensive instruments, and even a dancing room. As a bonus, they were only a short walk from the actual South Pole.

Noah and his dad were lucky to get a room in the NOAA building, because the station was 128 people over capacity. Their room had two beds and a small desk crammed into a space resembling a towel closet. One bathroom was shared by 20 rooms.

“It was the college dorm experience all over again,” laughed Noah.

He had no complaints though. He got to do what he loves while visiting a place many people can only imagine. Looking back, he realizes most kids would not have lasted three days working their parent, let alone three weeks.

“My dad and I have a great relationship,” Noah said. “This was a once in a lifetime experience that really bonded us.”

Jill Fontaine is majoring in Communications in Daytona Beach.