The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica

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Researchers Release the Highest Resolution Antarctic Map Ever Produced
Science / Earth
Wednesday October 17, 2018
Researchers at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Polar Geospatial Center in September released the biggest and most detailed map of Antarctica ever produced....

A South Pole Record
Features / Operations
Thursday October 11, 2018
The prospect of spending a winter at the desolate South Pole doesn't appeal to many. It's no small feat for the few dozen hearty souls each year who brave the constant below-freezing...

An Ecosystem Grows in Antarctica
Science / The Biological World
Wednesday August 29, 2018
Antarctica's native microorganisms are a hearty bunch, able to eke out a living on the planet's coldest, highest, driest, windiest and emptiest continent. But the region wasn't always quite as hospitable as...

Podcast: MacOps
Features / Operations
Tuesday August 21, 2018
The Antarctic Sun is taking a behind-the-scenes look at the workers and what they do to make science at the bottom of the world possible. This Episode: MacOps. Short for "McMurdo Operations,"...

Buried Treasure
Science / Ice and Snow
Thursday July 26, 2018
A team of researchers has brought home samples of some of the oldest ice ever discovered, more than twice as old as most previous samples. In the remote Ong Valley, the team...

Fathoming Life Under the Ice
Features / Operations
Tuesday July 17, 2018
This past austral summer season, two artists who specialize in science communication visited McMurdo Station to begin a multi-media, multi-faceted project with the aim of improving public knowledge of Antarctic marine life....

This artist's rendering of the IceCube Lab at the South Pole depicts the light detectors, called DOMs, buried under the ice (not to scale).

Neutrinos Point The Way To Cosmic Rays
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Thursday July 12, 2018
Using data gathered by the National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, scientists have for the first time identified a super massive black hole as the source of some of the highest energy cosmic rays.

An Operation IceBridge flight to map the glaciers in the Transantarctic Mountains takes off from McMurdo Stationâs Williams Airfield.

IceBridge Flies High
Science / Ice and Snow
Wednesday June 27, 2018
In late 2017, a specially modified airplane contracted by NASA crisscrossed Antarctica, mapping the ice below and filling in a data gap left by a now-defunct NASA satellite called ICESat, which measured the elevation of the ice surface using a laser. Operation IceBridge flights are bridging the gap between ICESat and its successor, ICESat-2.

Lindsay Davidge, Jonathan Toner and Ron Sletten trek across the Wright Valley

A Chemical Detective Story: Why is Don Juan Pond So Salty?
Science / Earth
Wednesday June 13, 2018
During winter, nearly everything in Antarctica freezes solid. Except Don Juan Pond. Though only about twice the area of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and barely a foot deep, Don Juan Pond is famous for being the saltiest body of water on the entire planet. It is saltier even than the Dead Sea.

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