The Antarctica-Science Homepage
January/February 1998-2001 by Jacob Kooi
Some of the Physical Sciences at the South-Pole (-90.0'' latitude)
Most, if not all, of the science performed at the pole are physics
related. This includes monitoring of atmospheric trace gasses such as CO, CO2,
NO, NO2, O3 etc. The south-pole being 1500 km from the open water in all
directions supports no life. In contrast to Mc-Murdo, there is not a whole
lot of marine and biological science being performed.
Since my interest/work is astrophysics, I have focused my attention
accordingly. There are several interesting physics experiments being
conducted at the pole:
The study of carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM)
The Viper Telescope measures
anisotropy, or tiny fluctuations, in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
Detection of high energy neutrinos from
astrophysical sources.
The dark sector, clean air station (not shown) are build off the
ground so that the ice can blow underneath the building, and
consequently does not pile up over the building as is the case with
the south-pole station.
|
|
Pictures
|
|
Darksector with DASI(2001)
|
Darksector with DASI(2001) IR
|
Author with AST/RO in IR light
|
AST/RO crew as seen from MAPO
|
Jacob inside AST/RO
|
DASI (2000)
|
| |