THE UNITED STATES ANTARCTIC PROGRAM

This is the text of a small National Science Foundation color brochure about the United States Antarctic Program.

The National program in Antarctica

Without interruption since 1956, Americans have been studying the Antarctic and its interactions with the rest of the planet. These investigators and supporting personnel make up the U.S. Antarctic Program, which carries forward the Nation's goals of supporting the Antarctic Treaty, fostering cooperative research with other nations, protecting the antarctic environment, and developing measures to ensure only equitable and wise use of resources. The program comprises research by scientists selected from universities and other research institutions and operations and support by a contractor and the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, and the Coast Guard. The National Science Foundation (the U.S. Government agency that promotes the progress of science) funds and manages the program. Some 2,500 Americans are involved each year.

The program has three year-round research stations. In summer--the period of extensive sunlight and comparative warmth that lasts roughly October through February--additional camps are established for glaciologists, earth scientists, biologists, and others. Large, ski-equipped LC-130 airplanes, which only the United States has, provide air logistics. Navy and Air Force crews operate these planes. Helicopters provide close support for many research teams. Tracked or wheeled vehicles provide transport over land and snow; small boats and hovercraft are used in coastal areas.

McMurdo, on a barren area of Ross Island, is the largest station in Antarctica. It has more than 80 buildings, including laboratories for biology, earth science, meteorology, and upper atmosphere science. McMurdo is the logistics hub for much of the program. Each spring a landing strip for wheeled airplanes is laid out on the smooth sea ice of adjacent McMurdo Sound, and Air Force C-141 and C-5 jets bring people and priority cargo the 2,100 nautical miles from Christchurch, New Zealand. In December, when summer heat has softened the sea ice, air operations shift to a skiway on the Ross Ice Shelf, which only ski-equipped airplanes can use. Wheeled airplanes can use yet another runway on glacier ice during all but the warmest months.

McMurdo is the world's farthest south land that can be reached by ship. In January a Coast Guard icebreaker breaks out the sea ice that weeks earlier was a runway, and a tanker and a cargo ship deliver a year's supply of fuel, materials, and food.

The summer population of scientists and support personnel at McMurdo sometimes exceeds 1,100. In February, the last plane of the season leaves a wintering population of about 250. Except for an airdrop at Midwinter (late June) and a few flights in August, the winterers are isolated until October.

Amundsen-Scott Station, at the geographic south pole, is built on the antarctic ice sheet. The station is supplied entirely by airplane from McMurdo, 729 nautical miles to the north. It accommodates more than 125 in summer. About 27 people winter during the 8« months of isolation from mid-February to late October. The station supports astronomy, astrophysics, upper atmosphere science, meteorology, and glaciology. Just upwind of the main station is a clean-air facility. In some of the cleanest air on earth, the facility monitors world background levels of such atmospheric constituents as carbon dioxide. Flags of Antarctic Treaty nations fly in a semicircle near the South Pole itself.

Palmer Station, on Anvers Island just west of the Antarctic Peninsula, supports mainly marine biology, but also atmospheric sciences. Palmer enjoys year-round access by ship from South America, 1,200 kilometers north. The station has two major buildings, two fuel tanks, several smaller structures, and a dock. Population ranges from 10 to 40.

For research at sea, the 67-meter ice-strengthened ship Polar Duke has laboratories, winches, and instrumentation. The 94-meter Nathaniel B. Palmer, a research icebreaker built especially for the Antarctic, began operation in 1992. Ships of the U.S. academic fleet and the Ocean Drilling Program also sometimes support research in antarctic waters.

The cold continent

Antarctica is cold and forbidding. The mean annual temperature of the interior is -57øC. The world's lowest temperature, -89.2øC, was recorded there. The coast is not as cold. Antarctic Peninsula temperatures may reach 15øC, though the summer temperature usually is around 2øC. Winds to 90 meters per second have been recorded on the coast.

The continent encompasses 14 million square kilometers, an area larger than the United States and Mexico combined. All but 2.4 percent is covered by an ice sheet that averages 2,160 meters thick and reaches 4,776 meters. This ice has accumulated over millions of years. Precipitation in the interior averages only a few centimeters per year, making Antarctica one of the world's great deserts. Yet Antarctica holds 90 percent of the world's ice--this is 70 percent of the world's fresh water. The ice moves as glaciers to the sea, calving the world's largest icebergs. If all the antarctic ice were to melt, it would raise the sea level an estimated 65 meters.

About 200 million years ago Antarctica was joined to South America, Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand in a single large continent called Gondwanaland. There was no ice sheet, the climate was warm, and trees and large animals flourished. Today only geological formations, coal beds, and fossils remain as clues to Antarctica's temperate past.

As Gondwanaland broke up through the process of plate tectonics and Antarctica moved to its polar position, oceanic and atmospheric conditions changed. Persistent westerly winds began to circle Antarctica, creating the immense circumpolar current that flows through the southern parts of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. This encircling system blocked heat transport, causing the Antarctic to cool. Near the coast, prevailing easterly winds drive a coastal current, and there is a nutrient-rich upwelling that helps to make antarctic waters biologically productive despite their low temperatures. In winter, sea ice up to 3 meters thick forms outward from the coast in a belt up to 1,500 kilometers wide; it covers 20 million square kilometers, more area than the continent itself. At its summer minimum the sea ice occupies 3 million square kilometers; the eightfold annual variation in area has enormous effect on marine life and climate.

A continent for research

The research has three goals: to understand the region and its ecosystems; to understand its effects on (and responses to) global processes such as climate; and to use the region as a platform to study the upper atmosphere and space. Antarctica's remoteness and extreme climate make field science more expensive than in most places. Research is done in the Antarctic only when it cannot be performed at more convenient locations.

Glaciology. The ice sheet, deposited in layers over thousands or millions of years, holds a history of global climates and atmospheres. Researchers are studying this record and how changes in the size of the ice sheet relate to glacial and climatic history.

Earth sciences. Investigators are determining the region's geology and geophysics. Major clues have been obtained regarding the process of continental drift. Thousands of meteorites have been collected in ice ablation areas, providing clues to the history of the solar system.

Astronomy and astrophysics. The South Pole is ideally situated for continuous observations over multiple 24-hour periods. Its high elevation, dry atmosphere, low sky temperature, and long periods of clear weather provide superior observing conditions that have enabled discoveries not possible elsewhere.

Upper atmosphere physics. Unique studies of the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere are possible in Antarctica because of its high geomagnetic latitude. Scientists have learned much about these regions from Antarctica.

Atmospheric sciences. Research has shown that Antarctica's large and intense area of cold influences regional and perhaps global climate. Far removed from pollution sources, it is a monitoring area for world background levels of atmospheric constituents. Antarctica has proved a harbinger of natural and man- induced global atmospheric change.

Oceanography. The southern ocean's deep water masses and circumpolar current affect circulation worldwide. Researchers are studying the formation and distribution of water masses, currents, and sea ice; the physical basis for biological productivity; and the relationship of the southern ocean and climate.

Marine geology and geophysics. Study of sea floor sediments around Antarctica has provided a detailed record of changes in the antarctic ice sheet and the history of deep ocean currents.

Terrestrial biology. The meager land biota have adapted in unusual ways to the extreme environment, and the simplicity of these ecosystems has enabled analysis that is difficult or impossible in the complex systems of lower latitudes.

Marine biology. The oceans around Antarctica are one of the world's most productive major regions. Investigators are studying these ecosystems, the major features and adaptations of marine life to a unique and extreme environment, and the distribution, abundance, and dynamics of organisms.

Medical research. Biomedical studies are directed toward the physiology and psychology of small, isolated groups of people.

U.S. antarctic milestones

• 1821--Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer, sees land.
  
• 1830--First American scientist (James Eights) in Antarctica.
  
• 1841--U.S. Exploring Expedition maps 1,500 miles of coast, proving Antarctica is a continent.
  
• 1929--First airplane flight to the South Pole.
  
• 1947--Navy's Operation Highjump, largest expedition ever made to Antarctica: 13 ships, 4,700 men.
  
• 1957--International Geophysical Year; 12 nations establish 60 research stations in Antarctica.
  
• 1959--U.S. Antarctic Program established; continues to this day.
  
• 1961--Antarctic Treaty enters into force.
  
• 1963--The plasmapause, a distinctive region of the magnetosphere, is discovered at Eights Station.
  
• 1968--An ice core is drilled 2,164 meters to bedrock at Byrd Station, yielding 48,000-year climate record.
  
• 1969--A fossil Lystrosaurus is discovered in the Transantarctic Mountains, showing that Antarctica and South Africa were connected 230 million years ago.
  
• 1971--Glycoproteins are identified as the antifreeze in some antarctic fishes.
  
• 1972--The research ship Eltanin completes a 10-year, 410,000-mile circumantarctic survey.
  
• 1973--Deep sea cores drilled by Glomar Challenger show antarctic glaciation began at least 20 million years ago, earlier than previous estimates.
  
• 1978--The Ross Ice Shelf is penetrated by a hot water drill; bottom life is discovered beneath.
  
• 1982--A fossil mammal is discovered on Seymour Island, establishing that Antarctica and South America were connected as recently as 40 million years ago.
  
• 1984--At the South Pole, a sensitive ground-based detector records the largest solar cosmic ray event since 1956.
  
• 1986--Research at McMurdo establishes chlorofluorocarbons as the probable cause of the antarctic ozone hole.
  
• 1988--Sea-floor drilling shows that a much larger antarctic ice sheet existed 35 million years ago.
  
• 1991--Fossil of 8-meter-long dinosaur discovered 640 kilometers from South Pole proves dinosaurs were on every continent.
  
• 1992--An estimated 6 to 12 percent reduction in antarctic marine primary production is reported as a result of increased UV from the ozone hole.
  
• 1994--South Pole Station provides the longest continuous images of the crash of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter.
  

The Antarctic Treaty

The Antarctic Treaty provides the legal framework for the region beyond 60' South latitude. It reserves the region for peaceful purposes, prohibits nuclear explosions and radioactive waste, permits inspection of installations, defers territorial claims, and encourages international cooperation in scientific research. Signed in Washington, D.C., in 1959 by 12 nations, by 1994 the treaty had 42 parties, representing two-thirds of the world's population. Subsequent agreements negotiated within the treaty system include environmental protection measures for expeditions, stations, and visitors; establishment of specially protected areas; conventions for the protection of seals and marine living resources; and a comprehensive protocol (signed in 1991) that prohibits minerals development and strengthens environmental protection.

For further information, please contact:

Polar Information Program, room 755
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22230
(dfriscic@nsf.gov; 703-306-1031)

The National Science Foundation promotes and advances U.S. scientific progress by sponsoring scientific and engineering research and education. Among its missions, the Foundation funds and manages the U.S. Antarctic Program.

The Foundation welcomes proposals from all qualified scientists and engineers and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in any of its programs. No person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any activity receiving financial assistance from the Foundation.

Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities fund special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities to work on NSF projects.

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The Foundation's TDD number is 703-306-0090.
The Foundation's TDD number is 703-306-0090.