Antarctica
From those who simply fly over, to those who winter multiple times, we all learn something from our interaction with Antarctica. It is something quite different to what we see and experience anywhere else in the world. The Southern Ocean entirely surrounds Antarctica, and due to this geographic isolation and the height of the continent, it gets colder than anywhere else on Earth. It is also the windiest and driest continent. Summer in Antarctica means long days and midnight sunshine. Temperatures still only rise above zero in isolated places near the coastline.
Flying over Antarctica you see large-scale things. If you visit Antarctica by ship you see another world in the pack-ice; icebergs, seals, penguins, whales, and birds of the sky. A ship can take you many places - penguin and other bird rookeries, historical huts, or places of scientific interest. You can see the world around bathed in summer sunlight, buffeted by storms of swell from an intense low breaking up impenetrable pack-ice.
Frozen penguins are collected for research
Antarctica is a land of snow and ice. You soon learn to distinguish the subtle differences of white and blue which indicate differences in snow and ice types. You learn to recognise patterns in the ice; on a small scale the glistening of ice crystals in sunshine or the ferny fronds of a snowflake, to the large scale, as viewed from a helicopter, of the broken sea-ice and the flow lines on glaciers and crevasses.
Summering or wintering at a research station is a different experience again. Time and access to places is limited. These are all different experiences. Every wintering group is different and although we have described elements of two winter groups, our experiences are no doubt different from those of other groups.
Paul and Pene hold up in a blizzard
In FrostBytes we've tried to show how wintering in Antarctica has affected our lives, both in day-to-day experiences while we were down there; and also how those experiences have gone on to change our lives in the longer term.
Introduction |
About FrostBytes |
Antarctica |
Alaska |
Aurora |
Friendship |
Pene today |
Gina today |
Dog sledging |
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