Research vessels are very expensive to operate, and to get the most value for the money work goes on 24 hours per day. Outside the ship the sky is brightening from its darkest at midnight. The sun hasn't really set yet here, it just goes around the horizon and gets a little bit lower about midnight. Since we are within a half mile or so of the high edge of the Ross Ice shelf, the sun does disappear for an hour or so, behind the ice edge. But tonight it is very foggy, with the outline of the shelf barely visible.
Waves lap against the hull.
Ice and snow cover the decks, except in work areas where they are heated from below by the ship's boilers, to keep them safe for walking. When I go out on deck, I'm hit by an icy wind and horizontally driven snow flurries . Inside, bright florescents light a room called the dry lab. The lab has numerous computers and TV monitor screens, all with multicolored displays of information. There are plotters and racks of other electronic gear all along the walls.