Images of

ANTARCTICA

McMurdo Ground Station

Photos © 2002 Seth White

Home

This antenna is located inside a spherical white radome at Arrival Heights. It is the farthest south satellite tracking station in the world. Several different satellites are tracked from this facility, however it's mainly concerned with Radarsat, a Canadian/American satellite. This vehicle is in a polar orbit, and images the earth with synthetic aperture radar. A few years ago, it produced the first complete 'snapshot' of Antarctica, which is particularly useful to scientists studying large scale change in the continent. This photo is a pretty shoddy composite, but you get the idea: This antenna is big.

Electronics packed into the base of the dish.
Ditto, looking up inside.
A GPS antenna sits on a hill outside the McMurdo Ground Station, and lines up for a nice shot with the radome itself.
Ditto.
Me on the antenna.
The control room for the McMurdo Ground Station is packed with racks and racks of electronics. With the lights out, it's a little surreal.
Another pic of the dark control room.
And another.
Control room.
Control room again.
Various receiving systems are installed in the foyer of the McMurdo Ground Station building. From left to right: an Iridium (satellite phone) test system on the desk, the MCM4 and MCMZ GPS stations in the black rack, equipment for the Mount Erebus positional GPS system on the table, the differential GPS receiver beneath the Erebus GPS system monitor, and a receiving system for a new network of seismic stations on Mount Erebus on the right side table.
Tony Mafnas and Dave Hess (left, center), who are operating the ground station this season, and Howie Tobin, Crary Lab instrument tech.
A transmitter outside of the Ground Station building, the radome, and the building itself.