Exploring Antarctica

dargaud writes "There will soon be some firsts on the high Antarctic plateau: after getting 150km from it last year a Chinese expedition plans on reaching Dome A, the highest part of the Antarctic ice sheet (4200m), farthest to reach and coldest place on Earth, untrodden yet. Then in a few months the French-Italian station of Concordia at Dome C (3200m) will open year-round for its first winter-over, of which I will be part. The location of these ice domes make them great for atmospheric physics, glaciology, astronomy and more. Big projects are getting interested in Antarctica again, just in time for the International Polar Year of 2007, 50 years after the first one."

Comments

Antarctica - the coldest place on Earth

[helfen]

Antarctica holds the world's record for coldest temperature: -129F ( recorded in 1983 at the Russian Base Vostok).

Current temp of Vostok is -64 F / -53 C.

heres a map

[reeb]

territorial map

Earth to Eggheads.

[mcmonkey]

I'd really like to know what a "Polar Year" is. I click on the International Polar Year link. On that page I click on the What is IPY link.

What is IPY

The Polar Regions are remote areas of the Earth that have profound significance for the Earth's climate and ultimately environments, ecosystems and human society. However we still remain remarkably ignorant of many aspects of how polar climate operates and its interaction with polar environments, ecosystems and societies. To have any hope of understanding the current global climate and what might happen in future the science community needs a better picture of conditions at the poles and how they interact with and influence the oceans, atmosphere and land masses. Existing climate models do not work well in the polar regions and have for example failed to predict the dramatic break-up of Antarctic ice shelves observed in recent years. The three fastest warming regions on the planet in the last two decades have been Alaska, Siberia and parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, Thus the Polar Regions are highly sensitive to climate change and this raises real concern for the future of polar ecosystems and Arctic society.

There have been a number of major international science initiatives in Polar Regions since the first International Polar Year in 1882-83 and all have had a major influence in overhauling our understanding of global processes in these important areas. These initiatives have involved an intense period of interdisciplinary research, collecting a broad range of measurements that provide a snapshot in time of the state of the polar regions. The last such initiative was the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58, involving 80,000 scientists from 67 countries.

It produced unprecedented exploration and discoveries in many fields of research and fundamentally changed how science was conducted in the polar regions. Fifty years on, technological developments such as earth observation satellites, autonomous vehicles and molecular biology techniques offer enormous opportunities for a further quantum step upwards in our understanding of polar systems. An IPY in 2007-2008 also affords an opportunity to engage the upcoming generation of young Earth System scientists and to get the public to realize just how much the cold ends of the sphere we all live on really do influence us.

So WTF is a "Polar Year"?? I know a little bit about polar climate. I know the three fastest warming regions in the last two decades. I know when the first and last "Polar Years" were. I still don't know what a "Polar Year" is or how we know when the next one is.

Is this a political thing like Black History Month? Is it one of those made up holidays to sell more greeting cards like Secretaries Day? Is there some super-seasonal cycle of weather that affects the polls?

I love the environment and all. I'd really like to give two shits. But first I'd have to have some clue as to wtf you are talking about.

Re:Earth to Eggheads.

[phiala]

So WTF is a "Polar Year"?? I know a little bit about polar climate. I know the three fastest warming regions in the last two decades. I know when the first and last "Polar Years" were. I still don't know what a "Polar Year" is or how we know when the next one is.

It's a research push. They've been doing International Something Years for a long time. (International Geophysical Year, etc.) A bunch of scientists get together and push really really hard for research funding for something big. The kind of stuff done is beyond the capabilities of any one research group or any one research grant, so these let BIG research happen.

Big Dead Place

[Aggrajag]

One of the funniest and most interesting sites I know. Site has stories about the people working over there (Antarctica) and other stuff as well.

http://www.bigdeadplace.com/

Reads different to me

[AviLazar]

Australia, Chile, and Argentina claim Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) rights or similar over 200 nm extensions seaward from their continental claims, but like the claims themselves, these zones are not accepted by other countries; 20 of 27 Antarctic consultative nations have made no claims to Antarctic territory (although Russia and the US have reserved the right to do so) and do not recognize the claims of the other nations; also see the Disputes - international entry

Apparantly 20 of the 27 nations have not made any claims. And apparantly those 27 do not recognize claims by other nations. I think your paraphrasing is incorrect.

IceCube starting up

[EigenHombre]

There is always a tremendous amount of science going on in Antarctica, but this year will mark the first deployment of sensors in the IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole, one of the largest Antarctic science projects to date.

If all goes well this Austral Summer, IceCube will deploy four "strings," each with 60 light sensors attached, at a depth of about 2 km. Subsequent years will deploy more sensors until a total of 4800 is reached, making the cubic-kilometer sized detector one of the largest on Earth.

IceCube's quarry is primarily neutrinos of extraterrestrial origin. For the uninitiated, neutrinos are extremely elusive subatomic particles produced by high energy interactions. Candidate sources include the supermassive black holes at the heart of so-called "Active Galactic Nuclei", dark matter, and the mysterious Gamma Ray Bursts.

A recent article has more information.
See also a previous Slashdot post about IceCube's predecessor, AMANDA.
Wikipedia has this introduction to neutrinos.

Re:My favorite thing about Antarctica

[ripsnorta]

Yes it is.

See http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ay.html

It's the Artic (North Polar Icecap) that is not over a landmass. Except for where it intersects the top edges of North America, Siberia, and Asia.

Re:Coldest Place?

[hesiod]

> Wasn't the coldest inhabited place Vostok(?) in Russia?

Isn't Vostok just the name of the Russian base in Antarctica? Look Here.

Re:Already started in 15th century!

[tootlemonde]

Any one care to explain how a 15th century map details the coastline of Antartica...

The modern interest in the Piri Reis map comes from its description in Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age by, Charles H. Hapgood, which was published in 1979. Hapgood was a professor with good academic credentials and his book describes a number of 16th century maps, all assembled from earlier maps, that showed a knowledge of the globe beyond what one would have expected at the time.

As this analysis points out, Hapgood was very selective in which details of the maps he said corresponded to Antarctica, ignored the details that didn't fit and never considered other plausible explanations for the maps. In particular, cartographic theory at the time posited the existence of a large southern continent for no other reason than that it would balanced the land mass in the known world above the equator.

Even if Hapgood goes well beyond the evidence, the ancient maps still seem anomalous and suggest that there are vast gaps in our knowledge of the ancient world.

Re:Already started in 15th century!

[derdesh]

Here's a pretty good explanation.

The author credits Piri Re for making a very good map of South America using the cartographic techniques of the time, but concludes that it is not Antarctica. Instead what is often interpreted as Antarctica is the coast of South America, perhaps bent around to fit the map onto the irregular parchment (or whatever) it is drawn on.

Perhaps most damning to the Antarctica interpretation are the marginal notes which (according to the site author) say the coastline in question was reported by sailors blown off course, who described the region as "very hot".

Re:200 Degree Club

[henrym]

Sorry, that's incorrect. I'm at the South Pole right now, and I promise you that we do indeed have two saunas. The club is actually the 300 degree club. The rules state that you crank the sauna up to 200 degrees F (you have to trick the sauna's thermostat by putting it into a glass of ice water), and then you run outside around the geographic pole when the temperature is at least -100 degrees.

http://www.theglobalguy.com/antarctica-2004/the-30 0-club/ theglobalguy.com