The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica

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Southernmost Telescope Gets an Array of Upgrades
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Monday October 12, 2020
One of the telescopes at the bottom of the world is getting a major upgrade. The South Pole's venerable Keck Array is being reconstituted into the more powerful BICEP Array, making it...

Heavy Cosmic Rays - Part II: The Death and Life of SuperTIGER-II
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Monday September 28, 2020
The season before SuperTIGER-II's successful 2019 flight, the payload had an unexpectedly short flight over Antarctica. Brought down after less than a day because of a problem with the balloon carrying it,...

Heavy Cosmic Rays - Part I: The Flight of SuperTIGER-II
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Monday September 14, 2020
In December 2019, SuperTIGER clawed its way back into the upper atmosphere. The second flight of the SuperTIGER cosmic ray experiment, officially dubbed SuperTIGER-II, flew high above the icy continent for more...

Detecting Anomalous Life Swarms
Science / The Biological World
Tuesday September 01, 2020
The seas around Antarctica are alive, but that life is not evenly distributed everywhere. Vast regions of barren ocean are punctuated by oases of concentrated nutrients that create hotspots of biological activity....

Podcast: Field Support and Training
Features / Operations
Monday August 10, 2020
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...

Chasing Aerosol Ghosts
Science / Oceans and Atmosphere
Tuesday July 28, 2020
For a big mass of air, the Earth's upper atmosphere is a complicated place. The changing seasons cause temperatures and pressures to rise and fall, altering the characteristics of the planet's atmospheric...

The Hercules Dome field team poses next to a Hercules LC-130 aircraft. From left: Ben Hills, Nick Holschuh, Knut Christianson, John Christian, Andrew Hoffman, Gemma O'Connor, Annika Horlings

Where the Ice Layers Grow
Science / Ice and Snow
Monday July 13, 2020
Hunting for the perfect patch of ice can be a herculean task. Knut Christianson, of the University of Washington, spent three weeks with his research team in a barren and remote part of Antarctica, scouring the landscape for the perfect spot.

(Left to right) Jacob Idec, Scott Hotaling and J.D. Gantz search for midge larvae in moss atop a rocky hill on an island near Palmer Station.

Insects in the Extreme
Science / The Biological World
Monday June 29, 2020
Scientists are taking a close look at Antarctica's largest land animal. It's a small insect called the Antarctic midge, and they don't grow much bigger than a fingernail.

On a hike up to Castle Rock, Sarah Airriess stops to snap a photo of the outcrop.

The Worst Journey - and the Best Journey to Create a Polar Expedition Graphic Novel
Features / Artists and Writers Program
Monday June 15, 2020
Artist Sarah Airriess is sharing one of the most celebrated accounts of the golden age of Antarctic exploration with a new generation. The Worst Journey in the World is the acclaimed memoir by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a member of Robert Falcon Scott's final, ill-fated Antarctic expedition.

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