Antarctic Working Conditions
If you want to be in hundred-degree weather in the middle of summer, you go two places - Dallas, Texas, or the South Pole.Granted, at the South Pole the 100 degrees is below zero.This means you could freeze your skin off in mere seconds.
Even with these conditions, twenty-eight people commit six months to living at the South Pole. They have to deal with no sunlight, very little contact with the world, and no way to escape.These people are responsible for maintaining the U.S. polar base and to operate telescopes and other types of scientific equipment at the research station.As communications and technology see advancements, their job is changing.
In the past, astronomers located in North America used satellites to operate the telescope at the South Pole observatory.This was the first time a South Pole telescope was controlled from a warmer continent.Astronomers are wishing that someday they will have the ability of observing the universe from the South Pole while being physically located in a warm office somewhere else.Antarctic Cruising Tours
But the crew at the South Pole will experience the coldest, driest and windiest weather to be found on the planet.Its elevation is the highest of the continents, making breathing sometimes difficult.Therefore, only plants and animals that have adapted to the cold can survive there, such as various algaes, tundra vegetation, seals, and penguins.
Those who accept the risk of working during the Antarctic winter are called “winter-overs.”For entertainment, they have to rely on a large variety of videos, a small exercise room, a pool table, great food, and traditions.Normally, winter-overs do not speak much about what occurs during their winter months of isolation at the South Pole, from February to October.antarctic tours
Due to the huge growth of the research program at the South Pole, there are still continuous problems with insufficient electrical power.The station has three oil-burning generators but they have not been able to generate enough power to stay abreast of the increasing demands of computers, telescopes, lasers and other power intensive devices.Winter-overs have to deal with the power outages that occur as a result of this, which doesn’t help the cold.
Several traditions have been developed to help the crew better endure their assignment.One is the “300 Club”, which requires a day when the outside temperature will be at least 100 degrees below zero.This is when winter-overs get the sauna temperatures up to 200 degrees.Then the run from the 200 degree sauna, out into the dangerous 100 degree air, and then back into the steaming water.
Winter-overs also look forward to airdrops.In June, a National Guard plane from the U.S. military flies over the South Pole, bringing welcome supplies, food, and mail.The winter-overs quickly go outside, utilize heavy equipment, and bring the supplies inside.This is the closest winter-overs are able to come to physical contact with the outside world during the six month winter.
During their stay in Antarctica, they will not travel over a mile from the pole or even see a tree.Each crew member gets a one week vacation to the United States’ main Antarctic base, McMurdo Station.There, the weather’s only 25 degrees, and they’re able to wear less restrictive and heavy clothing, giving them a peaceful respite from their troubles.
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