View of Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station during nautical twilight on August 28. Skies will brighten more each day
until the sun rises on September 23rd
View of Amundsen-Scott South
Pole Station during nautical twilight on August 28. Skies will brighten
more each day
until the sun rises on September 23rd
August at the Pole - the
beginning of twilight
August
marks the beginning of the return of the sun. By mid August we are in
astronomical twilight (sun between 18 and 12 degrees below the horizon)
and at the end we are in nautical twilight (sun between 12 and 6
degrees below the horizon). Everyone is now anxiously waiting for
sunrise on September 23rd.
astronomical
twilight nautical twilight
DSL-MAPO nautical
twilight
In
addition, the moon rose for two weeks about August 19th and will give
us our last visible full moon on August 31. It is a pleasure to begin
to
see where you are walking outside after so many many months of tripping
and falling over the ever increasing winter drifting and formation of
sastrugi.
moon rise
between the dome and skylab moon rise and the dome,
the new station, and sky lab moonrise and the SETI
telescope
The
dome entrance has drifted in nicely this winter making for some
challenging entries. dome entrance
Aurora Australis over the new station and the trace of a polar orbiting
satellite. Auroras
will now become less and less visible as the twilight becomes brighter
This
month I gave a Sunday lecture on Space Weather after the meteorology
department guys gave a lecture on the weather at the South Pole. Space
weather is basically concerned with the upper atmospheric
activity (thermosphere, i.e. ionosphere and magnetosphere), solar
terrestrial interaction and its technological and biological
effects. space weather
We, the
South Pole winter band, played our 5th gig of the season on August 21st
and it was a big hit. We played for over two hours with over 30 songs.
the
band band (band
photos by Glen Kinoshita)
I have been taking people from station on my 2-1/2 mile rounds
to my sites lately to show people some of the science I am involved in (photos
by Glen Kinoshita) in the Cusp lab
relaxing
on my back porch at the Cusp lab
AASTO/SETI building
on AASTO tower with SETI
telescope Dark
Sector Lab (DSL) entering VLF beacon
shack through new hatch The original
VLF beacon shack door has long drifted over, but the new hatch,
installed in June saves me quite a bit of shoveling now old door and new hatch
someone's joke in the new
station "beer can"
NEXT MONTH:
SUNRISE!!!! .....
A Real-Time Photo of South Pole Station as Seen from the ARO Building (live when satellite is up)
A Comprehensive
South Pole Web Site by Bill Spindler
Winterover Web Pages
(Bill Spindler's List)
MY
SOUTH
POLE 2003-2004 HOME PAGE
