Catch up with the latest events at the U.S. Antarctic Program's research stations.

McMurdo Station
Palmer Station
South Pole Station

Take a look at Antarctica yourself by visiting the McMurdo Station Web camera and the South Pole Web camera .

The rumor raced through McMurdo Station like lightening: the BBC’s Sir David Attenborough would use his familiar and expert voice to call bingo at the research town’s bi-monthly game.

This, alas, was a hopeful wish born of Attenborough’s mid-month visit, though it wasn’t long before the legendary man held court on birds-of-paradise and other adventures during a presentation to a packed crowd of star-struck wildlife lovers. Attenborough was in Antarctica for a new BBC/Discovery documentary series called Frozen Planet, which focuses on the polar regions. [See previous article: Frozen Planet.]

Photo Credit: Chris Demarest/Antarctic Photo Library

The Swedish icebreak Oden clears a channel for the MV Paul Buck fuel tanker ship.

Wildlife lovers had a great month all around, as open water in front of McMurdo brought penguins a plenty to town. Whale spouts were visible from bayside windows, and four Adélie penguins even crossed the finish line along with 67 participants in the annual marathon race on the ice shelf.

Swedish icebreaker Oden appeared on the horizon in early January and cut wide swaths in the sea ice, creating a channel for the MV Paul Buck tanker ship that arrived for a fuel delivery. The tanker brought 4.6 million gallons of AN-8, 350,000 gallons of JP-5, and 115,000 gallons of MOGAS, according to the Fuels Department. The offload took about 38 hours.

The cargo vessel, which carries most of the food and materials for McMurdo and South Pole stations for the next year, is due to arrive in the beginning of February.

The station population continued to fluctuate as field camps began breaking down and closing for the season, and winter-overs started trickling in to prepare for the long, dark night.

Photo Credit: Chris Demarest/Antarctic Photo Library

Emperor penguins near McMurdo Station.

Warm weather blessed annual Icestock music festival, as 16 bands rocked the stage — outdoors in front of happy hula-hoopers, robots, ninjas and regular folk — and indoors to packed, energetic dancers.

Another lovely warm day set the annual McMurdo/Scott Base rugby match, which ended in the traditional New Zealand victory. Mount Terror Rugby Team didn’t score, per say, but everyone agreed that it was a close match up and a well-played game.

Weather didn’t matter for Freezing Man — McMurdo’s answer to the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The party included dancing, various performances and costumes.

Nor did weather matter for the McMurdo Film Festival, which held the crowd rapt with films like “The Beauty of a Harsh Continent” and “Pizza.”  

McMurdo Station Archives

The animal density around Palmer Station seems remarkably high in these mid-summer months. Penguins are constantly visiting the shoreline near station, whales are visible from the breakfast table, and seals stretch out on any piece of floating ice that is big enough to support their weight.

But for the last month there has been a group researching the opposite of this megafauna so often associated with Antarctica. Despite what one would expect, the largest land creature on the continent is a tiny, wingless midge named the Belgica antarctica that ekes out its existence on islands around the Antarctic Peninsula.

Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek

Scientists Yuta Kawarasaki and David Denlinger search for Belgica antarctica on Humble Island.

The bug has amazing capabilities, such as the ability to lose up to 70 percent of its usual mass to survive the winter season by avoiding the damage caused by freezing. They exist as larvae for two years before briefly maturing into adults during a 10- to 14-day window to reproduce.

Rick Lee from Miami University in Ohio and David Denlinger from The Ohio State University are back at Palmer Station after a two-year hiatus to further study this amazing animal. The group spent several weeks on station collecting specimens on the islands surrounding Palmer as part of the first year of their four-year grant. [See related story: Not much bugs Belgica.]

Substantially larger than Belgica, but still quite small, krill are one of the key species in the Antarctic food web. Jonathan Cohen from Eckerd College is at Palmer for a month studying the visual acuity of these critters.

Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek

Scientist Jon Cohen releases a net in a hunt for krill to study.

He conducts experiments to determine what colors of the spectrum they see best to understand how they find food while avoiding predators, among other behaviors. Cohen is often out in an inflatable Zodiac boat, dragging a net in search of the elusive bigeye krill (Thysanoessa macrura), one of the three types of krill in Antarctic waters, and the least studied.

During the month of January, scientists on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research program conducted oceanic research aboard the ARSV Laurence M. Gould . They visited several islands and a number of sites along the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. They returned to Palmer in early February after traveling about 700 kilometers south to Charcot Island near the bottom of the Antarctic Peninsula. They also stopped en route to Avian Island, home to more than 50,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins.

Life on station has also been eventful in January. Palmer’s population peaked at its maxim of 45 people, meaning that the whole group hardly fits together in one room. It’s necessary to show up early and fight for a seat at the weekly science lectures. Recent lecture topics have included mapping Antarctic penguin nesting locations from space, and research involving monk seals and nesting seabirds in the distant atolls of Hawaii. On New Year's Eve, our full population crowded into the lounge for a dance party with live music provided by the station's volunteer band.

Photo Credit: Adam Jenkins/Antarctic Photo Library

Crew aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer handles a sediment-coring instrument.

Well-known underwater photographer Norbert Wu   has been here working in the second year of his International Polar Year (IPY) grant, documenting the marine ecosystem around Palmer. His four-member team darts between dive sites, photographing and videoing the creatures in the area. In addition, three other divers currently on station have a less scenic job. For up to four hours at a time, they are underwater welding steel patches to the Palmer pier in an effort to extend its useable life. [See related story: Pier pressure.]

A wide variety of ships visited throughout the month. Several small sailing yachts spent the night tied up in the harbor and enjoyed an opportunity to tour the station. The RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer has visited several times as part of a two-month research cruise of the Larsen B embayment. [See related stories: Change of plans and LARISSA.]

Larger cruise ships stop by about once a week with loads of curious passengers. The National Geographic Explorer even visited with Buzz Aldrin, who eagerly compared life at a small Antarctic research station with going to the moon and his dreams of future human trips to Mars.

One of the rare perks of working at Palmer is that a guest astronaut occasionally trumps the usual visits by penguins and whales.

Palmer Station Archives

South Pole Station residents celebrated the New Year and the opening of a new decade by kicking up their heels in the South Pole gymnasium.

Polies transformed the gym — normally used for volleyball, basketball, swing dance class and morning stretching — into a New Year’s Eve party hall, with decorations, lighting, and a large stage. The evening’s entertainment showcased the talent and many hours of practice put in by the station’s resident bands and musicians. Blue grass, folk, country, rock-and-roll, and even a punk-rock cover band, performed.

During intermission, a Wearable Art fashion show featured some of the spare treasures lying around the South Pole. Polies scavenged for spare pieces of rope, coaxial cables and cardboard boxes to make wearable creations to show off down the model runway. The crowd favorite was a giant cardboard box made into a wearable forklift, with operating lifting tongs, worn by a seasoned machine operator.

The beginning of 2010 wasn’t the only thing to celebrate at the South Pole this month. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory finished drilling all 20 holes into the ice sheet this season on Jan. 20 — a full 10 days earlier than originally projected. The experiment requires a team to drill 2.5 kilometers into the ice to deploy a string of digital optical modules to learn more about neutrinos, subatomic particles from space. [See recent story: Big science.]

The drill crew stuck around to empty their water lines, winterize the construction camp and prepare for next summer, which will be their final drilling season. The dome deconstruction also finished this month. The construction crew dismantled all of the panels, and the station carpenters have been busy crating the pieces for the cargo department to ship them off the continent.

Photo Credit: Forest Banks/Antarctic Photo Library

South Pole crew disassembles dome panels.

The annual South Pole Film Festival (SPIFF) debuted on Jan. 23 to a packed room. The film festival premieres short films written, filmed and produced at the South Pole. A rap music video parody of “I’m on a Boat” titled “I’m at the Pole” garnered many cheers and a repeat showing.

Several season-long competitions ended last month, including Scrabble and cribbage tournaments. Winners received prizes for local restaurants in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Some of the coldest competition occurred during the annual South Pole Snow Sculpture contest. Large blocks of snow were placed near the ceremonial pole for use. Teams and individuals willing to bear the cold sculpted the ice into frozen art. Winners included a pair of polar bears (ironic, since they only live in the Arctic) and a sculpture in tribute to the station’s beloved, if belligerent, Frosty Boy ice cream machine.

Yes, that’s right: The South Pole said goodbye to a very dear and beloved friend this month. Frosty Boy, a soft-serve ice-cream machine, finally swirled cold, sugary goodness into its last cone. Though Frosty Boy has been replaced in the dinning room by a scoopable ice-cream freezer unit, it will never be replaced in our hearts. May you rest in peace, Frosty Boy.

South Pole Station Archives