Nov 20, 2018

NSF Supports NASA's IceBridge

In late 2017, a specially modified Basler aircraft used a laser to map the Antarctic ice sheet ice as part of NASA's Operation IceBridge, which "bridged" a data-collection gap left by a now-defunct NASA satellite called ICESat that will be replaced by another orbiting observatory, ICESat2.

Nov 15, 2018

Nearly 50 Years Ago, Women Broke an Antarctic Barrier

Today, a woman, Dr. Kelly K. Falkner, heads NSF's office of Polar Programs and the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program. And women may be found in a variety of occupations, both across the program and in the Arctic, from conducting field research to flying aircraft to managing research stations.

Nov 15, 2018

Armistice Day Ceremony Commemorates Military Contributions to Peaceful Exploration of Antarctica

On the centennial of Armistice Day--which marked the end of World War I--an annual commemoration was held this weekend at McMurdo Station, NSF's logistics hub on the southernmost continent. The communities at McMurdo and at Scott Base, which is operated by Antarctica New Zealand, alternately host the ceremony each year.

Nov 15, 2018

An Unprecedented Window Opens into a Lake Buried Beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Initial data acquired by GPS observations made by OPP-funded researchers indicate that they may have beaten the odds while observing a lake buried more than 1000 meters under West Antarctic Ice Sheet and captured data as the lake drained as part of a multi-year "fill-drain" cycle.

Nov 15, 2018

VIDEO: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Antarctic Style

This roughly one-minute video of the McMurdo Oceanographic Observatory (MOO), and life at the bottom of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound, was created to celebrate MOO's first "birthday" this month.

Nov 15, 2018

Art Imitating Life, Captured in Art

Antarctica stands in for some of the most remote places in the solar system when it comes to some of ­the research supported by the U.S. Antarctic Program. Mars rover designs have been tested in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.