Nov
07
2013
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Test Flight
Every austral summer a mix of different aircraft land at McMurdo Station. A possible addition to that Antarctic ad hoc fleet may some day include a commercial airliner. An Air New Zealand Boeing 767-300 is scheduled to land in Antarctica later this month to test the use of commercial planes on the southern continent.
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Oct
31
2013
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Time Flies
Planes and ships, tractors and skis, ponies and sled dogs, and even a hot air balloon: All manner of transportation has been tried and used in the Antarctic. Once upon a time (not so long ago), even hovercraft glided across the ice of Antarctica.
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Oct
28
2013
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No Horizon Anymore
Hired to cook at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station for a year, Keith Reimink packed along a $300 movie camera. His intent was simply to capture on film an answer to the question: What's it like to work in Antarctica? Now audiences at film festivals around the country are learning the answer.
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Oct
24
2013
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Shrinking Back
The ozone hole that forms each year above the Antarctic was a little smaller in 2013 than in years past, according to a recent news report from the NOAA. In addition, measurements from the South Pole Station showed ozone levels in a critical region of the atmosphere did not drop as low as in years past.
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Oct
24
2013
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Sizzling September
The 2013 winter - the months of June, July and August - will already go down as the warmest such season at the South Pole since records began in 1957. That trend continued into September - now the warmest on record - with four new daily maximum record temperatures falling in the middle of the month.
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Oct
24
2013
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Increasing Coverage
Antarctic sea ice extent reached a new record high maximum last month, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. In contrast to the sharp downward trend in Arctic sea ice, Antarctic sea ice has been increasing at 1.1 percent per decade relative to the 30-year average.
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Oct
18
2013
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Moving Along
Elbow room. It's not something one would think to be lacking at South Pole. But the growth of the world's southernmost research station over the past half-decade finally came to a halt last season. Now, the South Pole Station is settling into operational mode as originally planned.
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Sep
27
2013
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Ongoing Experiment
The McMurdo Dry Valleys, a polar desert slightly larger than Rhode Island, has been the subject of a 20-year-long study. Scientists on the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research program are using this novel ecosystem for wide-ranging research on climate change.
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Sep
27
2013
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Opposite Ends
When solar wind lashes the Earth's upper atmosphere, the polar regions react with a brilliant light show known as auroras. But do the ends of the Earth react similarly? Scientists are installing an array of instruments in remote East Antarctica to find out.
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Sep
20
2013
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New Mode of Discovery
Scientists using the South Pole Telescope became the first team to detect a long-predicted polarization pattern in the afterglow of the Big Bang. The detection of this signal is a milestone along the way toward understanding cosmic inflation, the period of extremely rapid expansion of the universe.
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Sep
20
2013
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Going the Distance
Dana Hrubes estimates he has walked more than 5,000 miles across Antarctica. He is not a polar explorer, though he has certainly had his share of adventures in the polar regions. Instead, Hrubes has literally walked the distance mile by mile, day after day, during seven winters at the South Pole.
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Sep
13
2013
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Below the Surface
Scientists have revealed for the first time the dynamics that are causing an ice shelf in West Antarctica to melt from underneath. The results were published this month in the journal Science less than a year after a team of researchers successfully deployed instruments through the ice and into the ocean cavity below.
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Sep
13
2013
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On the Seashore
Hundreds of sea stars were discovered washed up on the snow-covered beach at Cape Evans on Ross Island earlier this month. The phenomenon has scientists and others scratching their heads.
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Flight Availability
A Bigger Mousetrap
