Palmer Station |
Palmer Station is located at 64°46¢ S,
64°03¢ W, on a protected
harbor on the southwestern coast of Anvers Island off the
Antarctica Peninsula. Palmer is the only U.S. Antarctic
station north of the Antarctic Circle. The temperature is
mild, with monthly averages ranging from minus 10°C
in July and August to 2°C in January
and February. The annual mean is minus 3°C.
The extreme range is minus 31°C to 9° C.
It has rained every month at Palmerl.
Palmer Station is superbly located for biological studies of birds, seals, and other components of the marine ecosystem. It has a large and extensively equipped laboratory and sea water aquaria. In 1990 it was designated by the National Science Foundation as a long term ecological research (LTER) site. Meteorology, upper atmosphere physics, glaciology also have been pursued at and around Palmer. The station operates in conjunction , with a research ship, the R/V Laurence M.Gould. Palmer Station is named for Nathaniel B. Palmer, a Connecticut sealer who, on 17 November 1820, during an exploratory voyage ranging southward from the South Shetland Islands, may have been the first person to see Antarctica. (British and Russian ships were in the area at about the same time.) |
1997 Office of Polar Programs |