Life at the South Pole
- Planes
- Ski equipped Hercules LC-130s
To get to the South Pole when you're with the IceCube project, you start out by taking a commercial flight from wherever you're located in the world to Auckland, New Zealand. From Auckland you fly to Christchurch, New Zealand where you get your South Pole clothing. From Christchurch you switch to military planes and board a C-17 or for a longer flight a ski equipped LC-130 Hercules and fly to McMurdo a U.S. station on the Antarctic coast. You stay at McMurdo for a while until you can get a flight to the South Pole on an LC-130. General travel time is 72 hours or more from the Northern Hemisphere.
The first thing you see when flying into the South Pole is a lot of white, then the cargo barns come into view. Next you see the dome, then the rest of the station. The South Pole now has a brand new station with 65,000 feet2 that can house approximately 200 people. The South Pole station itself sits at an altitude of close to 10,000 feet so some people need the time to acclimate. The further you move away from sea level up into higher altitudes, the lower the air pressure is. The body has two main problems with high altitude and the corresponding lower air pressure: Air at lower pressure has less oxygen per lungful. Your body adjusts to this by making more red blood cells to carry oxygen more efficently. Most of this cell-building happens while you sleep; however, the process can take days and in the meanwhile, you may be ill. At lower air pressure, water evaporates faster. This can lead to dehydration. At the South Pole because the precipitation is so low that it's a desert, it is critical to keep yourself hydrated.
Working at the South Pole tends to change your perspective, the area is starkly beautiful and the weather and atmospheric effects are one of the prime reasons for scientific research takes place there. Temperatures are always below freezing and the average temperature during the wintertime can near -100 degrees Farenheit. When the temperature hits -100 degrees one of the things to do is to jump into a sauna, then run out into the cold with or without your clothes to experience a sudden temperature difference 300 degrees. It's called joining the 300 club.
- Dinner
- Christmas Dinner at Pole
The science season at the South Pole is only 3 months long; the rest of the time the station is maintained by a skeleton crew that winters over. During those 3 months the station is very hectic with everyone trying to finish what they need to do before they leave. For recreation people bring out their own interests and form clubs, classes, and events that reflect those interests—from learning about the other projects going on at the station to learning Scottish dance! During the winter season it's very difficult to get anything into or out of the South Pole because the average temperature is so low that most aircrafts can't land. The hydraulics on the skis are only rated to -50°C so at temperatures below that the hydraulics might fail. There has been only one successful road/traverse from McMurdo station to the South Pole which took 3 years to accomplish. The constantly changing and shifting nature of the ice of Antarctica from season to season caused by wind temperature shirts, makes traveling by land nearly impossible.
A heated water loop driven into an ice cavern melts a bulb into the ice. The melted water is then siphoned out for drinking and other water uses. When the melted area becomes too low for the hose to reach anymore, they start on a new hole.
Everything must be flown in to the South Pole and food supplies are supplemented by a small greenhouse there. In past seasons the number of flights to the South Pole has averaged approximately 330 flights a year, 1/3 of which are used to transport fuel. People and cargo are on the remaining flights and on the return trip the flights carry out boxed up trash. This trash is flown back to McMurdo Station where it moves onto the massive cargo boats that have brought supplies to the station before these boats return to the United States. Thawing food at the South Pole can take several hours to a week. Ice cream needs to be removed from storage several hours ahead of time to thaw or you would need to serve it with a hacksaw!
- Pole Activities
- South Pole Race
Although the record high at the South Pole was 7.5°F, you really appreciate any temperature above 0° when living and working at the South Pole. The wind chill of the katabatic (density driven) winds makes the area seem much colder than the thermometer reads.
At the South Pole, we align our time with McMurdo Station which in turn aligns its time with New Zealand. Thus, the South Pole station aligns its time with New Zealand time. In a way, McMurdo Station could be considered a large city in Antarctic terms and the South Pole is more of a small town and has a station manager who is responsible for day to day operations. Everyone who goes to the South Pole undergoes a thorough physical exam. The winter overs, in addition, undergo a psychological evaluation and extensive fire, first aid, and safety training to ensure that no unresolvable incidents occur.
There are always things to do at the South Pole for recreation, in fact, often it seems like there's too much to do and too little time! At the South Pole we have a gym with a weight room, volleyball, basketball, music, and classes, in addition to work. During the summer there are science lectures every week so you can hear different researchers talk about their various projects. Subject matters tend to be focused around astronomy and atmospheric studies. Early in the season things start up slowly, but then people begin sharing their talents and it's easy to become overscheduled.
