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Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station


Geographic South Pole signAmericans have occupied the geographic South Pole continuously since November 1956.The central area of the station was rebuilt in 1975 as a geodesic dome 50 meters wide and 16 meters high that, with 14- by 24-meter steel archways, covers modular buildings, fuel bladders, and equipment. Detached buildings house instruments for monitoring the upper and lower atmosphere and for numerous and complex projects in astronomy and astrophysics. There is an emergency camp. A number of science and berthing structures were added in the 1990s, particularly for astronomy and astrophysics. A redevelopment plan to upgrade the Station is in progress. Some 28 scientists and support personnel winter at the station, and 130 or more people work there during the summer. The station's winter personnel are isolated between mid-February and late October.

Recorded temperature has varied between -13.6° Centigrade and -82.8° Centigrade. Annual mean is -49° Centigrade; monthly means vary from minus 28° Centigrade in December to -60° Centigrade in July. Average wind is 5.5 meters per second; peak gust recorded was 24 meters per second.

aerial photo of South Pole Station, Feburary 2004Snow accumulation is about 6-8 centimeters (water equivalent) per year. The station stands at an elevation of 2,835 meters on interior Antarctica's nearly featureless ice sheet, about 2,850 meters thick at that location.

Research at the station includes glaciology, geophysics, meteorology, upper atmosphere physics, astronomy, astrophysics, and biomedical studies.

The station's name honors Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, who attained the South Pole in 1911 and 1912.



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Last modifed, June 2004; Office of Polar Programs