Aurora backlighting the new elevated station
Aurora
backlighting the new elevated station
July at the Pole - Cold and Dark
July feels like the
ultimate depth of winter because it is one of the coldest months of the
year and because we are still quite far from the first hint of twilight
on the horizon. August is actually colder on the average than July, but
by late august the faint light of twilight begins to appear. We
have reached and exceeded -100 F many time this year so far, but I am
hoping to break my own record of -108 F from last
year. -100F
When it hits -100F, it give us the opportunity to run the 300
club. This is from the +200 F sauna outside to the geographic
pole and back wearing nothing but a pair of
boots. 300 club patch
The geodesic dome
backlit with an aurora and an Iridium satellite flare overhead (photo
by K. Siman)
Photographing aurora during the year has been much more of a challenge that in previous years, because we are nearly at the solar minimum of the 11 year sunspot cycle so we are at the minimum of solar and hence geomagnetic activity. Although there are some good auroras out there, they have been lees predictable, lower in number and of much shorter duration than what I am used to. To increase my chances of seeing auroras, I have installed a webcam on some of my instrument displays in one of my labs so I can monitor it from my room or anywhere on station. web cam image One of the best indications of an aurora in progress is rapid fluctuations in the earth's magnetic filed, called micropulsations. magnetic field disturbance with aurora
Even with the
challenges of photographing auroras there were some beautiful displays
this
month:
SETI telescope and aurora: (1) (2)
Skylab and
aurora: (1)
(2) (3) (4)
self portrait
and aurora self portrait with
iridium flare and telescope tower
Iridium flare with
aurora (1) (2) (3)
Other
auroras (1)
(2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
The moon up for two
weeks this month.
dome backlit by the moon
long exposure of
skylab at full moon
We are observing
stars in our galaxy 24 hours a day now, searching for extrasolar
planets. The SETI Institute's new web site is:
http://www.polartransits.org
Iridium flare over
telescope tower
Glen Kinoshita (glen's website)
has been taking some fantastic time lapse sequences again this
winter. In these videos you can seen auroras over the Atmospheric
Research Observatory and also you can see Iridium satellite flares
every nine minute near the constellation Grus, near the top of the
image. aurora
and iridium flare movie #1 aurora
and iridium flare movie #2
aurora
and iridium flare movie #3 glen with his heated camera box
I got a photograph
from my friend Kris who was at Palmer Station on the coast of
Antarctica working on the meteorology tower a few months ago. He has a
fantastic view from the
tower. view from met tower
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)
