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Welcome to the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) web portal.
Funded by the U.S. Government's National Science Foundation (NSF)  , the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) supports scientific research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The USAP carries forward the Nation's goal of supporting the Antarctic Treaty, fostering cooperative research with other nations, protecting the Antarctic environment, and conserving living resources.
The NSF manages the program under guidance of a Presidential memorandum that directs an "active and influential presence in Antarctica designed to support the range of U.S. Antarctic interests."
Since 1956 Americans have been studying Antarctica and its interactions with the rest of the planet. Research disciplines include glaciology, biology and medicine, geology and geophysics, oceanography, climate studies, astronomy, and astrophysics. Contractors and units of the military provide operational support.
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U.S. Opening Ceremony Celebrates the International Polar Year (IPY)
The U.S. IPY opening ceremony included remarks from polar scientists about the nature and scope of U.S. IPY research, as well as remarks from government officials whose agencies play an active role in IPY ... Read More
Archived Webcast 
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South Pole Station Special Report
Perhaps the world's most remote research environment, the South Pole is a unique scientific laboratory, and the South Pole Special Report captures the ongoing research efforts there ... Read More
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Announcements
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Explore Earth's Poles at a Museum near You with "Polar-Palooza"
The NSF and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-sponsored Polar-Palooza "Stories from a Changing Planet" tour will stop in cities across the country in 2007 and 2008 ... Read More
New Generation of Polar Researchers (NGPR) Symposium
Advanced students and PhD graduates conducting research in the Arctic or Antarctic during the International Polar Year are invited to apply for the NGPR Symposium, which will be held May 4-11, 2008, in Colorado Springs, Colorado:
Detailed Information and How to Apply
International Polar Year Web Portal Offers Email Alerts for Educators
Teachers can sign up for email alerts about federally funded educational materials, classroom resources, and information about opportunities to assist scientists in the field ... Read More
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New Antarctic Ice Core to Provide Clearest Climate Record Yet
After enduring months on the coldest, driest, windiest continent on earth, researchers closed out the season on an unprecedented, multi-year effort to retrieve the most detailed record of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere over the last 100,000 years ... Read More
Scientific Balloons Achieve Antarctic Flight Record
The NSF and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have jointly achieved a new milestone in the almost 20-year history of scientific ballooning in Antarctica by launching and operating three long-duration sub-orbital flights within a single Southern-Hemisphere summer ... Read More
Penguins Helped and Hurt by Changing Climate
Biologist David Ainley has been studying Adélie penguins for 40 years, and in recent years has observed the effects of climate change on the flightless birds … Read More
The Pioneer Who Died for the South Pole
British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his team tried to be the first party to reach the South Pole. While neither he nor his men survived, the scientific data he collected did, and scientists continue to rely on it today ... Read More
Antarctica's Sea "Babies" in Limbo
Marine biologist Donal Manahan and biologist Deneb Karentz are studying the effects of rising temperatures on the larvae of fish, worms and sea urchins ... Read More
A Bright Spot of Life on the Icy Continent
Scientists and support personnel talk about working at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the construction of which was recently completed, capping a 12-year, $174-million NSF project ... Read More
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Antarctic Photo Library
Photo of the Week:
Inside a dorm room in the Elevated Station at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
The Antarctic Sun Newspaper
Why do people go to Antarctica, and what do they do there? Read the USAP's newspaper to find out about U.S. Antarctic communities ...
National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs
Find out about The Office of Polar Programs' (OPP) operational support in the Antarctic, and how it manages and initiates National Science Foundation funding for basic research ...
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