The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica

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Larvae La Vida Loca
Science / The Biological World
Monday January 06, 2020
As oceans warm around the world, the creatures that live in them are feeling the effects. In regions like the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, which has been unchanged for millennia, researchers worry...

The Antarctic Treaty's Diamond Anniversary
Features / Back in the Day
Monday December 02, 2019
Sixty years ago, on December 1, 12 nations signed an unprecedented international agreement that set aside their often-contentious territorial claims on the frozen continent and established Antarctica as a place for peaceful...

SALSA Part I: Scratching the Surface
Science / Ice and Snow
Tuesday November 05, 2019
A team of researchers and drilling engineers recently spent six weeks in West Antarctica carefully drilling through nearly a mile of ice to study Mercer Subglacial Lake. This body of water is...

50 Years Of Women In Antarctica
Features / Perspectives
Wednesday October 23, 2019
Fifty years ago, four female researchers traveled to the McMurdo Dry Valleys, opening the door for women to work on the frozen continent. Last week, The Byrd Polar Research and Climate Center...

When Women Reached the Ice
Features / Back in the Day
Monday October 14, 2019
In 1969, Lois M. Jones and her science team made history as the first all-female research team to work for the US Antarctic Program. They were studying the erosion of rocks in...

Podcast: Fuels
Features / Operations
Wednesday September 18, 2019
In Antarctica, scientists conduct cutting edge research on a harsh and barren continent. It's no easy task, but to help make it happen the U.S. Antarctic Program employs small army of support...

With Mount Discovery in the background, Alex Chartier's ionosonde sits atop a scaffolding to better understand the giant clouds of charged gas in the ionosphere.

Plasma Patch Atlas
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Wednesday September 04, 2019
High above the surface of the Earth, flow giant, invisible clouds of charged gas that can degrade radio transmissions, disrupt GPS Signals and play havoc with other communications and navigation systems. But they're not always showing up when scientists predicted. This year geophysicist Alex Chartier traveled across Antarctica to figure out what's going on in Earth's upper atmosphere.

At the far end of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Jen Lamp performs some final checks before leaving her experiment out for the austral winter.

The Flight of X-Calibur
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Tuesday July 23, 2019
Antarctica can be a double-edged sword for astronomers: conditions there are some of the best in the world for observing the heavens, but the harshness of the place can be hard on equipment. In December 2018, astronomers who launched the x-ray telescope "X-Calibur" to study neutron stars and black holes got a taste of that contrast.

Listening to Rock Music
Science / Earth
Monday July 08, 2019
Rocks are cracking up all over Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. Though it may take hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years, the slow but inevitable processes of weathering eventually reduce all rocks into sand or even clay.

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