Spring at the South Pole

On September 29th we set our clocks forward 1 hour.

Fortunately Dennis is incorrect. Nobody lives here full time but a few people do have the privilege and honor to experience a season or two at the South Pole. I feel like I have fallen off the earth a few times this season but I am still standing. And he's right...it is very cold, almost too cold. 

A view of the groomed skiway looking towards the station which is blocked by the power plant exhaust. My work station radomes are on the right. This makes for a nice running surface.

The sun is completely above the horizon now until next March. It goes around and round counterclockwise and will slowly max out at 23.5 degrees. What a fascinating continent!

South Pole International Airport (NPX) on the right is still coming together.

The upcoming summer crew have a lot of snow drifts to remove.

Out for a Sunday morning run at the Dark Sector.

South Pole Telescope

The station's front door. I am fascinated by how the ice and snow adhere to all surfaces.

I added another layer of clothing and more warming packets. This day I was out running for 100 minutes before my feet started getting cold. This is enough time for 4 lengths of the skiway then a loop around the Dark Sector.

At the beginning of winter several flags were set out to measure snow drift.

The top of this flag is 8 feet. The drift here is about 7 1/2 feet.

This area was flat.

The station was designed to let the wind carry drifting snow under the station so that it wound not pile up underneath and block various vents. That works well.

At the beginning of winter you could walk out the beer can door directly to the Geographic South Pole marker. It is about a 15 foot climb now.

The GOES radome with the smaller stationary backup GOES antenna.

Station opening work

 We are preparing for summer station opening November 1st. However before that there will be two Kenn Borek Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters arriving for refueling while preparing for the season. 

My friend Art sent this recent NASA image showing weather around the planet. Lots of weather in Antarctica moving to the South Pole. 

Preparing the skiway. Both sides are marked with these flags.

There were two teams of three using the LMC tracked vehicles to carry the flags. The skiway is over 12,000 feet long so there were many flags.

We took turns driving to warm up. The LMC drives like a tank with the two black balled levers.

LMC controls.

It wasn't a real pleasant day for this job but we completed it.

A very interesting ice formation called Yukimarimo. Discovered in 1995 at a Japanese Research Station. Yukimarimo are balls of fine frost formed at low temperatures on the Antarctic plateau during weak wind conditions. During a storm on the Antarctic plateau, humidity rises above normal levels. After a storm, the temperature drops rapidly and, due to the excess humidity, hoarfrost forms on the surface of the snow. At these low temperatures, electrostatic attraction between the rapidly formed ice crystals is high, due to growth charging during formation. When a light wind blows after the formation of this hoarfrost, the hoarfrost breaks apart and the frost crystals clump together and stick due to the high electrostatic attraction and subsequent fusing of the ice crystals. They then tumble across the snow in a manner similar to tumbleweed. The sizes of the yukimarimo range from a few millimeters to several centimeters in diameter. (from Wikipedia)

Sastrugi Lizard with a long tongue! Sastrugi: Long, wavelike ridges of snow, formed by the wind and found on the polar plains. Sastrugi are usually up to several meters high and are often parallel to the prevailing wind direction.

More sastrugi.

The drift at the station. 

The ceremonial South Pole marker and original Antarctic Treaty flags at 3 am.

A nice morning for a run.

Both sides of the skiway are flagged. The initial grooming has begun so I am back running the skiway.

On the left is the SPTR radome, then the RF building, and the GOES/Skynet radome. These are 3/4 mile out from the station. Black flags mark the edge of the skiway.

Another nice morning to run.

South Pole International Airport (NPX) is taking shape.

Another station opening job is re-installing all the cameras that we removed once the temperature dropped below -70 F. My co-worker and I are on the station roof. In the background is the Dark Sector.

A view from the roof.

Walking out to RF for camera installation.

We really depended on this flags to find our way during the darkness. There are strips of reflective tape on the bamboo poles.

Sitting next to the 9 meter GOES radome is this smaller backup GOES antenna in case of failure. This non-moving wider beam antenna will work if the drive fails in the 9 meter.

South Pole Communication Satellites

At the beginning of the season I published a post on the three satellite tracking antenna systems that I work on. This post is about the satellites that we track for South Pole communications.

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station uses communication satellites that serve as relay stations, receiving radio signals from one location and transmitting them to another.

Currently the following three satellites are utilized. Combined they provide about 15 hours per day of coverage:

GOES (Geosynchronous Orbiting Environmental Satellite) is a retired weather satellite that was signed over to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for South Pole Communications. GOES  is controlled from Miami. The GOES satellite is nearing the end of life and doesn't provide a very strong signal.

9 meter GOES tracking antenna.

SPTR (South Pole Transfer Data and Relay Satellite (TDRS) is controlled by NASA at White Sands, New Mexico. This satellite utilizes S-Band communications along with the higher data rate Ku-Band for all the science data that is sent from here. The TDRS system was utilized by the Space Shuttle.

SPTR tracking antenna.

Skynet is a retired NATO4B communications satellite and is controlled at Oakhanger, England through Intelsat in Georgia

Skynet tracking antenna.

The United States Antarctic Program utilizes these three satellites on a daily basis to transfer South Pole science, operational and weather data, as well as internet, telephone, and email services.

Because of their location on the southern-most point of the earth, the three satellite dishes are out of view of communications satellites that are in a equatorial geosynchronous orbit. Communications satellites are launched into a high geosynchronous orbit which is an orbit around the earth with an orbital period of one sidereal day (about 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds).

The synchronization of rotation and orbital period means that, for an observer on the surface of the earth, an object in geosynchronous orbit returns exactly the same position in the sky after a period of one sidereal day. Over the course of a day, the object's position in the sky traces out a path, typically in the form of a stretched out figure 8.

 If the orbit is highly inclined then the satellite is visible at certain times when it drifts slightly above and below the equatorial plane as it orbits the earth. None of the three tracking antennas ever go above 5 degrees in elevation during a pass.

A geostationary satellite above a marked spot on the equator. An observer on the marked spot will see the satellite remain directly overhead unlike other celestial objects which sweep across the sky.

This illustration shows the GOES and TDRS satellites. The elongated figure 8 is the orbital path. Whenever a satellite dips below the horizon the South Pole antennas can see it. We utilize the TDRS about 4 hours a day, sometimes broken up into smaller periods. GOES is visible about 6 hours per day but the first and last hour have poor reception. 

MARISAT is no longer used and we currently use TDRS 5&6. They are both seen at a high inclination on the orbit plane.

An illustration of the relay.

This shows the relay of GOES between the South Pole and the originating ground station in Miami.

When the above satellites are out of view the South Pole has access to the Iridium Satellite System that allows 24 hour coverage for business phone calls and email. There are 66 Iridium satellites in polar orbits (travel north and south around the world) 485 miles above the earth. This constellation provides phone coverage 24 hours a day in most areas of the earth.

These satellites also provide us with a Iridium flare show in the dark sky. They are highly reflective and as they pass over the pole the sun reflects off of their large antenna and appear to be a shooting star. There are periods when these flares occur every 10 minutes. They are fun and interesting to watch.

Iridium satellite.

The Iridium satellite constellation provides us with 24 hour coverage.

Iridium flare. Photo credit: Dana Hrubes

Iridium flare. Photo credit: Robert Schwarz

The station is to the left of the middle and the RF radomes are to the far right. To the far left is the Dark Sector science labs and antennas.

3/4 mile out from the station are two radomes and an RF equipment building seen at the bottom. The large radome to the left houses the 9 meter GOES antenna along with the much smaller Skynet antenna. The smaller radome houses the 4 meter SPTR antenna. The three comprise my remote work stations.