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ANTARCTICA

Midwinter Greetings

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Around June 21, the winter solstice, various stations around the continent will send out mid-winter greetings to their Antarctic neighbors. Our recreation department posted the ones we received on a board in building 155 and also put the electronic versions on a common computer. So I took them, made JPEG images, and put them here. If you're curious where some of these other stations are located, here's a map I found on the internet. It's not completely current or correct (for example, Terra Nova Bay is only a summer station), but most stations are shown here. Interestingly, we didn't receive anything from the French or the Russians, both of whom have year-round stations here. But then again, I wonder if we sent them anything either?

Here's another map showing year-round stations, but in .pdf format this time. Again, I don't think this is 100% current either. For example, I have heard and read that Vostok is not being operated this winter because they had difficulties getting sufficient fuel to the base. So all the Russians from that base are stationed at Mirny.

So first off, here's the one from the big city. The idea was to get all of us standing around in roughly the shape of Antarctica. The Ross Sea region is the little gap near the bottom center of the group, and the guy with his arms extended in the top of the picture is the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The picture was taken by a guy in the cherry picker. When he was ready to take the picture, we all had to hold our breath so there wouldn't be clouds of fog! I'm at the top center of the picture, to the right of the person in the white jacket (her left).

This is the one from Palmer Station, our base on the Antarctic Peninsula. I don't know any of these people except the guy labeled CMDR. This is Mark, aka Commander, whose acquaintance I made during the summer here. This is the guy who made my spiffy green-and-white zipper pull.

Here is the one from South Pole, with a little message from the station manager too. He invites you to drop by if you get the chance - no reservations required! Ha! Going to Pole at mid-winter has been done exactly once in the history of mankind (and it was NOT the Jerri Neilsen thing!!!). Anyway, the picture of the people was taken inside the dome. There are three guys I know who are currently at Pole - Johan Booth and Mike Holstine, the science techs, and Phil Broughton, the cryo tech. From Brendan our weather forecaster, I understand that it was -161 F wind chill there last week. Gads. And yes, people sometimes do have to go outside in that!

Here is the South Pole schedule of events for the solstice weekend (it was a Saturday this year). The radio darts is not a joke - various stations will actually play darts via radio across the continent!

This is the card from the Australian Mawson station.

This came in from Casey, another Australian station on the coast.

Here's one from India's Maitri station, on the coast on the opposite side of the continent from us.

South Africa has a presence in Antarctica. Two greetings were received from them - here's the first.

And here's the second.

Argentina has a large number of people living on the Peninsula. It's part of an ongoing feud with Chile, where each country has taken aggressive steps to "validate" its claim (claims which are rendered invalid under the Antarctic Treaty). So they send down families to live here, and various dignitaries also come and go. I believe the first person born on Antarctica was an Argentine in 1978...and I think it was at Esperanza station? In any event, here is a card from Esperanza.

Here's a little note from the director of the Department of Antarctic Biology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

This is a nice message from the President of South Korea.

The same thing, only this is the Korean version.

The Ukraine has a station called Vernadsky on the Peninsula. Until 1996, this was the British Faraday station, but it was transferred to the Ukraine. So here's their winter crew. Notice the daylight and short sleeve jackets...the Peninsula area is the banana belt of the Antarctic!

This came in from the British Halley station on the Weddell Sea.

Another British base is Rothera, on the Peninsula.

Here's a note from the director of the Chilean Antarctic program.

More greetings from South America - this time from the Brazilians.

The Germans run Neumayer Station. I like this one - like South Pole, they invite you to come on down if you can make it, but if not, have a good time wherever you are!

Cool card, from Dome Fuji....way up on the Polar Plateau.

The Japanese have another base called Syowa, on the coast.

Over at Scott Base, they put together this card. Craig, one of their winter-over scientists, looks remarkably like Jesus. So they did this funny last supper photo along with a human pyramid.

Saving the best for (nearly) last, here is a heartwarming message from the man himself, George W. Bush. I'm so touched, it nearly brings a tear to my eye. Nearly. It's interesting that there are exactly zero "researchers" at McMurdo right now. Myself, Olivia, Rich and Ed (two guys running the McMurdo Ground Station) are as close as it gets, but we're still just the techs taking care of the scientists' equipment!

Speaking of techs, here's my own little midwinter card. Just me, sitting in my office on the solstice, screwing around with this website...