Science from the South Pole Karina Leppik Science Museum of Minnesota September 5, 2003

Aerial View of Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station February 2003

The South Pole Astronomy and Astrophysics Climatology and Aeronomy Geophysics, Glaciology and Seismology Dark Sector Quiet Sector Clean Air Sector

Objects emit more than one kind of light X-Ray (image from ROSAT) Ultraviolet (image from UIT) Visible (image from IAC/RGO/Malin) Infrared (image from 2MASS) Radio (image from VLA/WSRT) M33, a spiral galaxy

Receiver Room TREND Dewar 230 GHz Dewar PoleSTAR Dewar

–Galactic Center CI ( 3 P P 0 ) CO (4-3) CO (7-6) Sgr B SgrA

Why Astronomy at the South Pole?

Water in the atmosphere

Weather at the South Pole Data are binned by week. –Large dots show median –Thick bar shows 25%  75% –Thin bar shows 10%  90% –Small dots show maximum and minimum measured values Top panel shows PWV as measured by AIR Model 4a balloon flights 1991 to 1996 Bottom 3 panels summarize hourly NOAA weather data from 1977 to 2001 Week of Year

Climate Temperature: –Average annual: F –Record high: +7.5 F (December 1978) –Record low: F (June 1982) Average wind: 12.4 mph Average pressure: millibars Average pressure altitude: 10,576 feet

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)

Other Dark Sector Science: VIPER, DASI, AMANDA

What do I do?

Liquid Helium Fills

A day in the life of a polie

The dome

The New (Elevated) Station

South Pole Greenhouse

Waste Disposal

The Ceremonial Pole

The Geographic South Pole 90 o South Latitude

Other South Poles 90 o South Pole of Inaccessibility Dipmeter reading 80 o at the geographic South Pole South Polar Axis of Rotation Magnetic Dip Pole Geomagnetic Pole

Solar Halos

March 20, 2003: two days before sunsetMarch 20: two days before the equinox

March 23, 2003: one day after the equinox March 24, 2003: two days after the equinox

Green/Blue Flash: March 26, 2003 Pillar: March 25, 2003

The terminator: the line between night and day April 1, 2003

Venus April 5, 2003: two weeks after sunset

Fisheye image of sky Winter 2001 Photo: Chris Martin Aurora (green) Mars

Fisheye image of sky Winter 2001 Photo: Chris Martin Aurora Moon

Q&A