1.
McMurdo Station
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The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, the station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as one of three United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo, british explorer Robert Falcon Scott first established a base close to this spot in 1902 and built Discovery Hut, still standing adjacent to the harbour at Hut Point. The volcanic rock of the site is the southernmost bare ground accessible by ship in the Antarctic, the United States officially opened its first station at McMurdo on February 16,1956. Founders initially called the station Naval Air Facility McMurdo, on November 28,1957, Admiral George J. Dufek was present with a U. S. congressional delegation during a change of command ceremony. McMurdo became the center of scientific and logistical operation during the International Geophysical Year, the Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System, was opened for signature on December 1,1959, and officially entered into force on June 23,1961. The first scientific diving protocols were established before 1960 and the first diving operations were documented in November 1961, in 1974, Mary Alice McWhinnie and Sister Mary Odile Cahoon became the first women to winter-over at McMurdo Station. On March 3,1962, operators activated a nuclear plant at the station. The plant, like nearby Scotts Discovery Hut, was prefabricated in modules, engineers designed the components to weigh no more than 30,000 pounds each and to measure no more than 8 feet 8 inches by 8 feet 8 inches by 30 feet. A single core no larger than an oil drum served as the heart of the nuclear reactor and these size and weight restrictions were intended to allow the reactor to be delivered in an LC-130 Hercules aircraft. However, the components were delivered by ship. The reactor generated 1.8 MW of electrical power and reportedly replaced the need for 1,500 US gallons of oil daily, engineers applied the reactors power, for instance, in producing steam for the salt water distillation plant. As a result of continuing safety issues, the U. S. Navy Nuclear Power Program decommissioned the plant in 1972, after the nuclear power station was no longer operational, conventional diesel generators were used. There were a number of 500 kilowatts diesel generators in a central powerhouse providing electric power, a conventionally fueled water desalination plant provided fresh water. The station is home to the continents two ATMs, both provided by Wells Fargo Bank. Scientists and other personnel at McMurdo are participants in the USAP, werner Herzogs 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World reports on the life and culture of McMurdo Station from the point of view of residents. An annual sealift by cargo ships as part of Operation Deep Freeze delivers 8 million U. S. gallons of fuel and 11 million pounds of supplies, the ships are operated by the U. S. Military Sealift Command but are manned by civilian mariners, cargo may range from mail, construction materials, trucks, tractors, dry and frozen food, to scientific instruments
2.
Antarctica
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It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer
3.
Runway
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According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a runway is a defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Runways may be a surface or a natural surface. Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally the magnetic azimuth of the heading in decadegrees. This heading differs from true north by the magnetic declination. A runway numbered 09 points east, runway 18 is south, runway 27 points west, when taking off from or landing on runway 09, a plane would be heading 90°. A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each separately, e. g. runway 33 in one direction is runway 15 when used in the other. The two numbers usually differ by 18, Runway Zero Three Left becomes Runway Two One Right when used in the opposite direction. In some countries, if parallel runways are too close to each other, at large airports with four or more parallel runways some runway identifiers are shifted by 10 degrees to avoid the ambiguity that would result with more than three parallel runways. For example, in Los Angeles, this results in runways 6L, 6R, 7L. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, there are five parallel runways, named 17L, 17C, 17R, 18L, for clarity in radio communications, each digit in the runway name is pronounced individually, runway three six, runway one four, etc. A leading zero, for example in runway zero six or runway zero one left, is included for all ICAO, however, most U. S. civil aviation airports drop the leading zero as required by FAA regulation. This also includes some military airfields such as Cairns Army Airfield and this American anomaly may lead to inconsistencies in conversations between American pilots and controllers in other countries. It is very common in a such as Canada for a controller to clear an incoming American aircraft to, for example, runway 04. In flight simulation programs those of American origin might apply U. S. usage to airports around the world, for example, runway 05 at Halifax will appear on the program as the single digit 5 rather than 05. Runway designations change over time because the magnetic poles slowly drift on the Earths surface, depending on the airport location and how much drift takes place, it may be necessary over time to change the runway designation. As runways are designated with headings rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, for example, if the magnetic heading of a runway is 233 degrees, it would be designated Runway 23. If the magnetic heading changed downwards by 5 degrees to 228, if on the other hand the original magnetic heading was 226, and the heading decreased by only 2 degrees to 224, the runway should become Runway 22. Because the drift itself is slow, runway designation changes are uncommon
4.
Williams Field
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Williams Field or Willy Field is a United States Antarctic Program airfield in Antarctica. Williams Field consists of two runways located on approximately 8 meters of compacted snow, lying on top of 8–10 ft of ice. The airport, which is seven miles from Ross Island, serves McMurdo Station. Until the 2009-10 summer season, Williams was the airfield for on-continent aircraft operations in Antarctica. Williams Field is named in honor of Richard T. Williams, the skiway was typically in operation from December through to the end of February. Other McMurdo Station airfields include the Ice Runway and Pegasus Field used in August, the Williams Field snow runway is known locally as Willys Field. The airfield is a snow surface that can support ski-equipped aircraft landings only. A cluster of facilities for operations, referred to as Willy Town, includes several rows of containers for workers. Some of the buildings are relocated to support operations at the nearby Ice Runway. Willy Field Tavern, a bar at the airfield, closed in 1994, aviation fuel at Williams Field is pumped in a 16 km flexible pipe from McMurdo Station. Fuel is stored in up to 12 tanks, the fuel tanks, like other structures at the airfield, are mounted on skis or runners for portability. Generator and heating fuel is delivered to the station by fuel trucks from McMurdo Station, the extraordinary conditions encountered at Williams Field include the fact that the airfield is in a continuous slow slide towards the sea. Seaward movement of the floating McMurdo Ice Shelf upon which the airfield is constructed has forced Williams Field to be relocated three times since its original construction, workers last moved the airfield during the 1984-85 season. Subsequently, personnel housed at Williams lived in buildings constructed on sleds to facilitate relocation, in the past, up to 450 people were housed at the airfield, according to the National Science Foundation. 1960, U. S. Navy WV-2 BuNo 126513 crashes after landing short of the ice runway,1960, First ski-equipped C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft lands in Antarctica. 1960, Sunspots knock out radio communications for eight days, forcing cancellation of all flights between New Zealand and McMurdo,1966, First all-jet aircraft lands at Williams. 1970, U. S. Navy Pegasus C-121J crash lands, aircraft is destroyed but no fatalities among the 80 persons aboard. Pegasus Field is named after this aircraft,1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashes on nearby Mt Erebus
5.
Lockheed Constellation
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The Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation between 1943 and 1958 at Burbank, California. Lockheed built 856 in numerous models—all with the same triple-tail design, most were powered by four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones. The Constellation was used as an airliner and as a military and civilian air transport, seeing service in the Berlin. Three of them served as the aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lockheed had been working on the L-044 Excalibur, a four-engine, pressurized airliner, TWAs requirements led to the L-049 Constellation, designed by Lockheed engineers including Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard. Willis Hawkins, another Lockheed engineer, maintains that the Excalibur program was purely a cover for the Constellation, the Constellations wing design was close to that of the P-38 Lightning, differing mostly in size. The triple tail kept the aircrafts height low enough to fit in existing hangars, while features included hydraulically boosted controls and a de-icing system used on wing and tail leading edges. The aircraft had a speed of over 375 mph, faster than that of a Japanese Zero fighter, a cruise speed of 340 mph. These rumors were discredited by Johnson, Howard Hughes and Jack Frye confirmed that the rumors were not true in a letter in November 1941. The first prototype flew on January 9,1943, a short hop from Burbank to Muroc Field for testing. Eddie Allen, on loan from Boeing, flew left seat, rudy Thoren and Kelly Johnson were also on board. Lockheed proposed the model L-249 as a long-range bomber and it received the military designation XB-30, but the aircraft was not developed. A plan for a very long-range troop transport, the C-69B, was canceled, a single C-69C, a 43-seat VIP transport, was built in 1945 at the Lockheed-Burbank plant. The C-69 was mostly used as a high-speed, long-distance troop transport during the war, a total of 22 C-69s were completed before the end of hostilities, but not all of these entered military service. The USAAF cancelled the remainder of the order in 1945, at least one of these airplanes had passenger seats installed backward, with occupants facing toward the rear of the direction of travel during flight. After World War II, the Constellation came into its own as a fast civilian airliner, Aircraft already in production for the USAAF as C-69 transports were finished as civilian airliners, with TWA receiving the first on 1 October 1945. TWAs first transatlantic proving flight departed Washington, DC, on December 3,1945, arriving in Paris on December 4 via Gander, TWA transatlantic service started on February 6,1946 with a New York-Paris flight in a Constellation. On June 17,1947, Pan American World Airways opened the first-ever scheduled round-the-world service with their L-749 Clipper America, the famous flight Pan Am 1 operated until 1982
6.
Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
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The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft. It was developed for the United States Air Force from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas, the C-17 carries forward the name of two previous piston-engined military cargo aircraft, the Douglas C-74 Globemaster and the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II. The C-17 commonly performs tactical and strategic missions, transporting troops and cargo throughout the world, additional roles include medical evacuation. It was designed to replace the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, and also some of the duties of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. Boeing, which merged with McDonnell Douglas in the 1990s, continued to manufacture C-17s for export customers following the end of deliveries to the U. S. Air Force. Aside from the United States, the C-17 is in service with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, NATO Heavy Airlift Wing, India, the final C-17 was completed at the Long Beach, California plant and flown on 29 November 2015. In the 1970s, the U. S. Air Force began looking for a replacement for its Lockheed C-130 Hercules tactical cargo aircraft, the Advanced Medium STOL Transport competition was held, with Boeing proposing the YC-14, and McDonnell Douglas proposing the YC-15. Though both entrants exceeded specified requirements, the AMST competition was canceled before a winner was selected, the Air Force started the C-X program in November 1979 to develop a larger AMST with longer range to augment its strategic airlift. By 1980, the USAF found itself with a fleet of aging C-141 Starlifter cargo aircraft. Compounding matters, USAF needed increased strategic airlift capabilities to fulfill its rapid-deployment airlift requirements, the USAF set mission requirements and released a request for proposals for C-X in October 1980. McDonnell Douglas elected to develop a new aircraft based on the YC-15, Boeing bid an enlarged three-engine version of its AMST YC-14. Lockheed submitted two designs, a C-5-based design and an enlarged C-141 design, on 28 August 1981, McDonnell Douglas was chosen to build its proposed aircraft, then designated C-17. Compared to the YC-15, the new aircraft differed in having swept wings, increased size and this would allow it to perform the work done by the C-141, and to fulfill some of the duties of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, freeing the C-5 fleet for outsize cargo. Alternate proposals were pursued to fill airlift needs after the C-X contest and these were lengthening of C-141As into C-141Bs, ordering more C-5s, continued purchases of KC-10s, and expansion of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. Limited budgets reduced program funding, requiring a delay of four years, during this time contracts were awarded for preliminary design work and for the completion of engine certification. In December 1985, a development contract was awarded. At this time, first flight was planned for 1990, the Air Force had formed a requirement for 210 aircraft. Development problems and limited funding caused delays in the late 1980s, criticisms were made of the developing aircraft and questions were raised about more cost-effective alternatives during this time
7.
Night vision device
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A night vision device, also known as a night optical/observation device, is an optoelectronic device that allows images to be produced in levels of light approaching total darkness. The image may be a conversion to light of both visible light and near-infrared, while by convention detection of thermal infrared is denoted thermal imaging. The image produced is typically monochrome, e. g. shades of green, NVDs are most often used by the military and law enforcement agencies, but are available to civilian users. The term usually refers to a unit, including an image intensifier tube, a protective and generally water-resistant housing. Many NVDs also include components such as a sacrificial lens. An NVD may have an IR illuminator, making it an active as opposed to passive night vision device, Night vision devices were first used in World War II and came into wide use during the Vietnam War. The technology has evolved greatly since their introduction, leading to several generations of night vision equipment with performance increasing, consequently, they are available for a wide range of applications, e. g. for gunners, drivers and aviators. The classification below was introduced by the US manufacturers through the US government. Other manufacturers do not abide by it, in 1929, Hungarian physicist Kálmán Tihanyi invented the infrared-sensitive electronic television camera for anti-aircraft defense in Britain. The first military night vision devices were introduced by the German army as early as 1939, the first devices were being developed by AEG starting in 1935. In mid-1943, first tests with infrared night-vision devices and telescopic rangefinders mounted on Panther started, two different arrangements / solutions were created and used on Panther tanks. Solution A - Sperber FG1250, with range up to 600m, was made up of one 30 cm infrared searchlight and this was matched by an earlier experimental Russian version dubbed the PAU-2 and was field tested in 1942. From late 1944 to March 1945, some Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Ausf G mounted with FG1250, were successfully tested, by the end of World War II, the German Reich had equipped approximately 50 Panther tanks, which saw combat on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The Vampir man-portable system for infantrymen was being used with Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifles, parallel development of night vision systems occurred in the USA. The M1 and M3 infrared night sighting devices, also known as the sniperscope or snooperscope, were introduced by the US Army in World War II and they were active devices, using a large infrared light source to illuminate targets. Vladimir K. Zworykin working for the Radio Corporation of America, zworykins idea came from a former radio guided-missile. At that time infra-red was commonly called black light, a term later restricted to ultraviolet and it was not a success due to its size and cost. First generation passive devices, introduced during the Vietnam War, were an adaptation of earlier active GEN0 technology, using an S-20 photocathode, their image intensifiers produce a light amplification of around 1, 000×, but are quite bulky and require moonlight to function properly
8.
National Weather Service
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It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970, the NWS performs its primary task through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices. As the NWS is a government agency, most of its products are in the public domain, the agency was placed under the Secretary of War as Congress felt military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in the required observations. Within the Department of War, it was assigned to the U. S. Army Signal Service under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer, General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name, The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. The agency first became an enterprise in 1890, when it became part of the Department of Agriculture. The first Weather Bureau radiosonde was launched in Massachusetts in 1937, the Bureau would later be moved to the Department of Commerce in 1940. On July 12,1950, bureau chief Francis W, the Weather Bureau became part of the Environmental Science Services Administration when that agency was formed in August 1966. The Environmental Science Services Administration was renamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 1,1970, at this time, the Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service. NEXRAD, a system of Doppler radars deployed to improve the detection and warning time of local storms, replaced the WSR-57. Bob Glahn has written a history of the first hundred years of the National Weather Service. The NWS, through a variety of sub-organizations, issues different forecast products to users, although, throughout history, text forecasts have been the means of product dissemination, the NWS has been using more forecast products of a digital, gridded, image or other modern format. Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices send their graphical forecasts to a server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database. The NDFD is a collection of weather observations used by organizations and the public, including precipitation amount, temperature. Specific points in the database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service. The National Weather Service issues many products relating to wildfires daily, for example, a Fire Weather Forecast, which have a forecast period covering up to seven days, is issued by local Weather Forecast Offices daily, with updates as needed. The forecasts contain weather information relevant to fire control and smoke management for the next 12 to 48 hours, such as direction and speed. The appropriate crews use this information to plan for staffing and equipment levels, the ability to conduct scheduled controlled burns, and assess the daily fire danger. Once per day, NWS meteorologists issue a coded fire weather forecast for specific United States Forest Service observation sites that are input into the National Fire Danger Rating System
9.
Concordia Station
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Concordia Research Station, which opened in 2005, is a French-Italian research facility that was built 3,233 m above sea level at a location called Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. Russias Vostok Station is 560 km away, the Geographic South Pole is 1,670 km away. The facility is located within Australias claim on Antarctica, the Australian Antarctic Territory. Concordia Station is the permanent, all-year research station on the Antarctic Plateau besides Vostok Station. It is jointly operated by scientists from France and Italy and regularly hosts ESA scientists, in 1992, France decided to build a new station on the Antarctic Plateau. The program was later joined by Italy in 1993, in 1996, a French-Italian team established a summer camp at Dome C. The two main objectives of the camp were the provision of support for the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica. The new all-year facility, Concordia Station, became operational in 2005, the first winterover began with a staff of 13 in February 2005. Most of the cargo is moved to Dome C by traverse from Dumont dUrville Station, Station personnel and light cargo arrive by air, using Twin Otter aircraft from DDU or Mario Zucchelli Station at 1200 km. Dome C is one of the coldest places on Earth, temperatures hardly rise above −25 °C in summer and can fall below −80 °C in winter with a recent record –84.6 °C in 2010. The annual average air temperature is −54.5 °C, humidity is low and it is also very dry, with very little precipitation throughout the year. Dome C does not experience the katabatic winds typical for the regions of Antarctica because of its elevated location. Typical wind speed in winter is 2.8 m/s, Dome C is situated on top of the Antarctic Plateau, the worlds largest desert. No animals or plants live at a distance of more than a few tens of kilometers from the Southern Ocean, however, south polar skuas have been spotted overflying the station,1,200 km away from their nearest food sources. It is believed that birds have learned to cross the continent instead of circumnavigating it. During the winter the crew are without possibility of evacuation or deliveries for 9 months and live for a period in total darkness. The physiological and psychological strains on the crew are marked, Concordia station has been proposed as the one of the highest fidelity real-life Earth-based analogues for long duration deep space missions. In the 1970s, Dome C was the site of ice core drilling by field teams of several nations, in the 1990s, Dome C was chosen for deep ice core drilling by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica
10.
Halley Research Station
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Halley Research Station, run by the British Antarctic Survey, is a scientific research station on the Brunt Ice Shelf floating on the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. As with the German Neumayer-Station III it is built on an ice shelf floating on the sea, because the ice shelf is slowly moving towards the open ocean it will eventually calve off creating a drifting iceberg. In 2002, the BAS realized there was a event that would destroy Halley V. It is a British research facility dedicated to the study of the Earths atmosphere, measurements from Halley led to the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985. Halley was founded in 1956, for the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958, the bay where the expedition decided to set up their base was named Halley Bay, after the astronomer Edmond Halley. The name was changed to Halley in 1977 as the bay had disappeared due to changes in the ice shelf. The latest station, Halley VI, was opened in February 2013 after a test winter. On 30 July 2014, the station lost its electrical and heating supply for 19 hours, during the outage, there were record low temperatures. Power was partially restored, but all activities, apart from meteorological observations essential for weather forecasting, were suspended. Plans were made to some of the eight modules and to shelter in the remaining few that still had heat. There have been five previous bases at Halley, various construction methods have been tried, from unprotected wooden huts to steel tunnels. The first four were all buried by snow accumulation and crushed until they were uninhabitable, built,1973 Abandoned,1983 In 10 years the base was buried 12–15 metres below the surface and access and ventilation problems led to its abandonment. Years later it emerged from the ice cliff at the sea, the tubes were 9 metres in diameter and consisted of insulated reinforced panels designed to withstand the pressures of being buried in snow and ice. Designed to cope with being buried in snow, stilts were fixed on the flowing ice shelf so it eventually got too close to the calving edge. Lawes platform, Main platform Drewry summer accommodation, 2-storey building was on skis, piggott platform, Used for upper atmosphere research. Built, Over four summers, first operational data 28 February 2012, structure, Modular Cost, Approximately £26 million It is a structure which, like Halley V, is jacked up on hydraulic legs to keep it above the accumulation of snow. Unlike Halley V, there are retractable giant skis on the bottom of these legs and it is a string of eight modules, each on stilts with skis. The Drewry summer accommodation building and the garage from Halley V were dragged to the Halley VI location, an architectural design competition was launched by RIBA Competitions and the British Antarctic Survey in June 2004 to provide a new design for Halley VI
