Party Profile: South Pole Station, Antarctica

Edit by Brice R.
4/10/2008

A Yuri's Night update from the South Pole, where the night will last for the next 6 months, by J. Dana Hrubes:

South Pole Station will be celebrating its 8th annual Yuri's Night this April 12th, starting at 8:30 PM New Zealand Standard Time. Yuri's Night South Pole was first held in April 2001 in the Skylab Lounge, when we were still living in the Geodesic Dome at Pole. See the April 2001 page for some Yuri's Night photos from Skylab's 3rd floor lounge on http://polar.home.att.net.

This year Yuri's Night will be celebrated in the B1 lounge of the new Elevated Station at the South Pole.

At South Pole Station, winterovers are isolated from February 14th until the last week of October. This winter we have 60 winterovers, including 51 station support and construction personnel and 9 scientists working on projects in astrophysics, cosmology, atmospheric sciences, upper atmospheric physics and more. This time of the year is beautiful. We are at high altitude, with physiological altitudes reaching as much as 12,300 ft and static temperatures as low as the -110's F (-80's C) by July and August. The sun set on March 21st and we will enjoy the stars, auroras, satellites and iridium flares over the high Antarctic plateau throughout the 6 months without the sun.

Related links:
South Pole Science 2008: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/science/south_pole_prj0708.jsp
South Pole Telescope: http://pole.uchicago.edu/
For South Pole history and general news: http://www.southpolestation.com

J. Dana Hrubes
Winterover, South Pole Telescope
Station Science Leader
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Antarctica