Visitors to the South Pole used to call the Dome “home.” However, that iconic facility was closed in 2007 after more than 30 years of service, and on January 12, 2008, a new elevated station, with all the comforts of home and an unprecedented level of connectedness to the outside world, opened at the South Pole.
Known officially as the National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station , the new $153 million facility sits at the Earth’s axis, on top of a constantly shifting continental ice sheet several miles thick. A technological and engineering marvel, the new station is designed to support a diversity of scientific studies, from astrophysics to seismology.
To meet the challenge of drifting snow, a perennial problem of the Dome and the Dome’s predecessor (which has long vanished under 30 feet of ice), the new station is designed with the profile of a sleek airplane wing.
It faces into nearly constant 10- to 15 mile-per-hour winds, which flow above and below the station, scouring out the snow and thus significantly reducing the need for manual excavation.
While it can’t “take off” like an airplane, the unique structure does sit on specially designed hydraulic jack columns that allow the 65,000-square-foot building to be raised in 10-inch increments, adding potentially decades to its life.
Among its many features, the new South Pole Station has a galley and kitchen, bathrooms and showers, a laundry room, TV lounges, a recreation room with a pool table and a ping-pong table, a gym, and a greenhouse, where lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes are grown. There is also a recreation room where you can play a musical instrument; in fact, there are enough musical instruments for a complete band. And of course, there are administrative offices and conference rooms for daily scientific meetings and seminars.
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Frozen Facts!
Americans have occupied the geographic South Pole continuously since November 1956. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station stands at an elevation of 2,835 meters (9,306 ft) on Antarctica's nearly featureless ice sheet, which is about 2,700 meters (9,000 ft) thick at that location. The station, which is 850 nautical miles south of McMurdo Station, is drifting with the ice sheet at about 10 meters (33 ft) each year.
Recorded temperature has varied between -13.6°C (7.5°F) and -82.8°C (-117°F) C. The annual mean is -49° C (-56°F). Monthly means vary from -28°C (-18°F) in December to -60°C (-74°F) in July. Average wind is 10.7 knots (12.3 miles per hour); the peak gust recorded was 48 knots (55 miles per hour) in August 1989.
Snow accumulation is about 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) per year.
The station's name honors Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, who attained the South Pole in 1911 and 1912.
Source: U.S. National Science Foundation
