Interview of Rudolf A. Honkala by Dian O. Belanger

• Main Author: Honkala, Rudolf A.
• Other Authors: Belanger, Dian Olson, 1941-
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program 2009
• Subjects: United States. Weather Bureau Observations; Meteorology > Antarctica > Observations; Antarctica > Discovery and exploration > Interviews; Honkala; Rudolf A. > Interviews; Antarctic; Lawrence Island; Palmer Station; Palmer-Station; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; St Lawrence Island; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1811/36721

The Antarctic Deep Freeze oral history project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and supported by the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association. The original paper copies and unaltered tapes have been deposited in the library of the National Science Foundation. Rudi Honkala, a Weather Bureau meteorological observer on New Hampshire's Mt. Washington and St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, volunteered to winter over at Wilkes in 1957 as an IGY weather observer and deputy scientific leader. Numerous delays brought worries about having time to establish the yet-unsited station. Honkala credited the satisfying year to group compatibility, Carl Eklund's congenial leadership, the camp’s entertaining dog team. He promoted the auxiliary icecap station to be able to compare weather data with that of the coast. He explained the sudden storms characteristic at Wilkes, hydrogen gas manufacture for weather balloon launching, and photomicrographing snow crystals. Honkala returned to Wilkes Station by request, to winter in 1960 with the Australians who now operated the station. He wintered at Palmer Station in the mid-1960s and summered there in 1969 for a solo glaciology project. National Science Foundation Antarctic Deep Freeze Association