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Amundsen Scott Station is a cold, isolated community of scientists and support personel at the bottom of the world, the South Pole.
This is a peculiar place. Anywhere you look, you really are looking north. The station has an alpha entrance on one end and a zulu entrance on the other end. Both of them are, in reality, north entrances. Each year has only one sunrise and one sunset. From the Spring Equinox to the Fall Equinox, the sun never sets. The rest of the year the sun is below the horizon. It is cold here. Actually it is the highest, driest, coldest place that I have visited. You can see some of the research buildings in this panorama. There is also evidence of people at play. You can have fun looking around this photograph without worrying about frostbite. Believe it or not, this is the view from the window of my new office. Of course, it faces north. The 21 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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http://GigapanMagazine.org vol 1 issue 2
Here is a panorama of the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station on the evening of December 31, 2008. The snowy landscape around the Pole is fairly quiet, as almost everyone is getting ready for the New Year’s Eve party in the gymnasium of the elevated station. We have not yet taken apart our Christmas tree, and the 2008 Pole marker remains in the snow where it was placed on January 1 of last year. Tomorrow during a 1pm ceremony, the Geographic Pole marker will change to its 2009 version, which was designed and made by the 2008 overwinter crew. The new marker will be set onto a post in a new hole in the ice that is located about 30 feet closer to the Dome. The American Flag and the sign with its brief written accounts of Amundsen's and Scott's arrival at the Pole will move along with it. The South Pole Station is situated on top of the largest sheet of ice on Planet Earth. The elevated station, the Dome, and everything else that you see here drift a little bit toward grid northwest each day. Once each year the location of the Geographic Pole is officially corrected to place it once again over the axis of rotation of the planet. In 2008, we use GPS to confirm the location of the Pole. All of this constant, predictable glacial motion and the annual marker movement create an interesting pastime for the crew and visitors to the station, especially for the folks who brought their own GPS’s to the Pole. In the summer of 1911-12, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott had a much more difficult time confirming that they and their parties had in fact arrived at 90 degrees south latitude. On the left of the image you see the ice-carving efforts of some of the station crew. They have been working on these giant blocks for several weeks, and their art will be judged on January 4. The ambient temperature, which has now risen to approach 0 degrees Fahrenheit, makes ice carving a comfortable exercise, as long as the wind is fairly calm. It looks like they had some great ideas and that they have been busy at their task. Which carving would earn your vote? The 30 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D 80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. Please enjoy The South Pole on New Year's Eve 2008. |
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http://GigapanMagazine.org vol 1 issue 2
Contributors: Billy Stiner, Nathan Greenland and Rose Science is the purpose of our presence at the bottom of the world, and there are certainly a lot of scientists here, but people arrive at the South Pole with a variety of job skills that are needed for building or operating Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The two gentlemen pictured here are finishing the A-1 roof of the new elevated station. Most of the 13 summer siding carps left the South Pole before the last plane flew away on February 16, but these two carpenters will remain for the winter. This afternoon, they are working in the fading daylight, alone in the cold on a very big roof. February 27 was a beautiful clear day at the South Pole. The temperature was -52 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind was fairly constant around 9 knots and blowing from grid northeast. The wind chill was in the -80's. My camera protested with only 120 shots today, despite an extra battery warming in an inside coat pocket between panoramas. There is a lot of emphasis on safety here. You will notice the harnesses that secure my friends to the cable that runs down the center of the roof where they are working. They are about 50 feet above the surrounding ice and snow. The walking surface can get very slippery, and it is difficult to maneuver in the layers of clothing and boots that we wear outside. Even with the canvas lean-to providing some shelter from the wind, they need to be careful to avoid frostbite and hypothermia as sunset approaches and falling temperatures bring greater risk of injury. Carpenters' tools, like my camera, work better in warmer temperatures. When the sun sets below the horizon next month, these two carpenters will come inside the station to work. Their job probably won't be as difficult, and the view won't be as spectacular, but these carpenters will still be very extraordinary people who are working in a very extraordinary place. The 34 images of this panorama were photographed with a reluctant Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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Here are His Serene Highness Albert II of Monaco and his fellow travelers arriving at the South Pole. They appeared out of a rather foggy landscape, and crossed onto our skiway near the Amundsen Scott Research Station on the morning of January 14, South Pole time. This was a fairly large group, and in additional to the folks near the skiway crossing to the dark sector and the telescopes, you can see more members of the expedition in the middle of the panorama, still making their way across the main skiway.
You will notice that there are two people in red coats who are not wearing skis. They are Dave Scheuerman, the station manager and Vladimir Papitashvli who is the National Science Foundation science representative at the South Pole. After the greetings on the skiway crossing are complete, the new arrivals will be escorted to the NGA camp where they will have some time to settled in and greet their fellow travelers. Prince Albert and the other members of the expedition will spend the day at the Amundsen Scott Research Station. They will have lunch with the station crew and observe some of our scientific research projects. Prince Albert has a particular interest in global warming, and he has made it a priority to investigate changes in the Earth's climate. He has now visited both the Arctic and the Antarctic regions, and under his reign, Monaco has become the 47th state signatory of the Antarctica Treaty. Welcome to the South Pole! This 20 image panorama was photographed from the 2nd floor observation at Destination Alpha. It was stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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