The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica

Latest Articles

GRACE-Fo to McMurdo Ground Station
Features / Artists and Writers Program
Tuesday August 07, 2018
Atop the hill overlooking McMurdo Station sits what, at first glance, looks like a giant golf ball. The huge structure, or radome, shelters a 10-meter satellite dish that collects data from polar-orbiting...

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...

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...

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...

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...

We Are All Scientists
Features / Operations
Thursday June 07, 2018
In the midst of the austral winter, as total darkness and below-zero temperatures encompass McMurdo Station, the pace of science slows somewhat. A science fair organized by station residents in their free...

Student participants carry sampling equipment and cold weather gear to a sampling site near McMurdo Station

A World-Class Classroom At The Bottom Of The World
Science / The Biological World
Thursday May 31, 2018
For early-career scientists, learning the ropes in Antarctica can mean donning actual safety lines and harnesses. This past austral summer, 20 students traveled to the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station to conduct a range of experiments and learn first-hand what it's like to do research at the bottom of the world.

Marine technician Amy Belcher guides a load of supplies onto a small Zodiac raft to deliver to penguin researchers at Cape Shirreff.

Podcast: Marine Operations
Features / Operations
Wednesday May 23, 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: Marine Operations. On board the U.S. Antarctic Program's two research vessels, the marine projects coordinator and the marine technicians make sure that everything goes smoothly.

Benjamin Van Mooy (right) and Jamie Collins take water samples from under the ice in Arthur harbor

Ultraviolet Radiation Gives Microbes Mixed Messages
Science / The Biological World
Tuesday May 15, 2018
Ultraviolet rays from the sun may be disrupting the natural ecology of the waters of Antarctica's Southern Ocean. A research team, led by a scientist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, is taking a close look at the effects that excess UV radiation at the cellular level to see what it means for marine ecosystems and the regional food web.

Quick Find

Archives

2018	2017	2016	2015
2014	2013	2012	2011
2010	2009	2008	2007
Print Issues: 1996-2006

Around the Continent

News and updates from USAP stations and vessels.

Research Station Updates
Calling on the Vessels
Cold Hard Facts
Comics by Matt Davidson

For USAP Participants

For The Public

For Researchers and Educators

Contact Us

More Articles

Quick Find

Around the Continent

Contact USAP

Quick Links

Help

Office of Polar Programs Social Media