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ANTARCTICA - THE FROZEN CONTINENT
Antarctica is the highest, coldest and driest place on earth. Antarctica has an average elevation of 2300 meters. The ice sheet covering this continent is approximately 2,000 meters thick and covers some 98% of the continent. The continent is roughly 14 million km2 in size. To understand the magnitude of 14 million km2 just imagine the combination of the United States and Mexico. During the harsh winter months a belt of sea ice ranging from 500 to 1,500 km in width surrounds Antarctica.
by the National Science Foundation
The Atmosphere - Cold, southerly air moving off the continental interior is the major influence on regional weather patterns at Mcmurdo Station. The coupling of surface winds and local terrain is an important feature of the atmospheric environment of the Ross Island Region.
McMurdo Sound Panorama
Photograph by: Michael Hoffman
National Science Foundation
The Climate - The annual mean temperature at Mcmurdo is -18°C; monthly mean temperatures range from -3°C in January to -28°C in August. Weather Stations in remote areas of Antarctica collect meteorological data by the ARGOS Data Collection System (DCS) on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) series of polar-orbiting satellites. Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole is the only year around interior weather station in Antarctica. The remaining year around stations are located on the Antarctic Coast at sites that can be reached by ship. The coast of West Antarctica from 180 degrees east to 85 degrees west longitude does not have one station with year around observations.
Gerlache Strait, Antarctica Peninsula
Photograph by: Kurt Burmeister National Science Foundation
The Terrestrial/Marine Setting- The terrestrial; microbial and invertebrate biota of the Antarctic is a graded series of environments, ranging from cold desert, though progressively warmer conditions on the continental coast fringe. The terrestrial communities of the Antarctic contain an impoverished and disharmonic flora and fauna; they are relatively simple in terms of the number and component species, and hence the interactions involved are fewer than in species-rich communities, which have more complicated and hierarchical structures.
Dry Valleys Antarctica
Photograph by: Brien Barnett
National Science Foundation
The unique features of the waters surrounding McMurdo Station, Antarctica the following:
1. The presence of pack-ice around the Antarctic continent and the seasonal waxing and waning of the pack-ice zone.
2. The variability of the light regime which alternates between perpetual darkness in the winter and continuous daylight during summer.
3. The extensive cloud cover
Castle Rock, Ross Island
Photograph by: Brien Barnett
National Science Foundation
The Circumpolar Current which serves to connect circum-Antarctic waters into a single system, the Southern Ocean, through the transport of nutrients and plankton.
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