Name: How Living at the South Pole Works
Uploaded: 2021-06-11T12:19:49.000Z
Duration: 15 min 11 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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The South Pole is, without a doubt, one of the most extreme places on earth that's

In fact, it's safe to say that there's nowhere in earth with such a large population—about

45 in the winter and 150 in the summer—where nature is so constantly working to kill you.

The warmest it's ever been at the pole, in recorded history, is just 10 degrees Fahrenheit,

or -12 degrees Celsius—a temperature that most of the world would consider absolutely

unbearable—while most of the year is spent at 50 or 60 below zero, but it's not just

temperature that gives the pole its “extreme” classification.

It's also one of the driest places on earth, with a relative humidity regularly dipping

In comparison, most places' humidity hovers between 55% and 75%, meaning that those at

the South Pole are constantly battling skin and body dehydration.

In addition to all that, due to the thousands of feet of ice and snow layered on top of

the ground below, the Pole is located at about 9,300 feet or 2,800 meters above sea level,

which for most people isn't high enough to be deadly, but is enough to potentially

lead to sickness which could elevate the severity of other conditions.

Put together, these factors compound to paint a pretty clear picture: the South Pole was

not made for humans, but nonetheless, through sheer force of will, we're there, permanently.

What makes this possible is the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

This American-run facility is now in its third iteration.

The first was built in 1956 as a simple, wooden, pre-fabricated structure that quickly became

This was upgraded in 1974 to a larger geodesic dome that itself protected buildings inside,

but this too was buried by snow each winter, meaning that each summer, considerable time

and fuel had to be used to dig the station out.

In a place where absolutely everything has to be flown in, this was an enormous expense

Therefore, in the years leading up to the turn of the millennia, the United States Antarctic

Program worked to develop a more permanent solution.

Now, this current structure is undoubtably distinctive, but its design comes with good

The building itself is shaped like an airplane wing, with the leading edge facing the prevailing

This pushes air down, accelerating it underneath the facility, which naturally clears out the

As most of Antarctica is a desert, only about 8 inches or 20 centimeters of snow per year

accumulates at the South Pole, but as the temperature quite literally never goes above

In addition, since the landscape surrounding the Pole is quite flat, and the winds are

strong, enormous snow banks quickly form on the upwind side of any building.

While the shape of the main station building reduces this, snow still does accumulate in

Therefore, it's designed so that, every ten to fifteen years, the structure will be

This is a thirty-day process, which can only happen over the three-month summer period

when the station can be reached by plane, meaning that in order to not shut down the

facility during its busiest period, the building was designed to be operational while it's

Therefore, its different components are connected by a number of flexible joints that can move

Of course, the actual purpose of the station is for research, but that poses the question,

what sort of research do you actually need to be at the South Pole for?

You see, in most places, water vapor in the air ever so slightly distorts the image from

telescopes, which for most types of astronomy isn't a problem, but when one is trying

to observe galaxies billions of light years away, for example, precision is key.

In fact, the South Pole telescope itself has discovered truly countless far-away galaxies.

In addition, thanks to this clarity, it was a crucial component of the planet-wide network

of telescopes that created the first-ever direct image of a black hole in 2019.

Beyond that, the clean air of the pole allows for super-precise atmospheric research, and

the relatively low annual accumulation allows for climate research through studying ice-cores.

This is all to say, the South Pole station isn't just there for prestige.

It's a critical piece of scientific infrastructure supporting a huge variety of research.

However, most of the research itself isn't actually conducted there.

Given how expensive it is to travel to the pole, various institutions generally only

send a small number of people to the station to calibrate and maintain their scientific

equipment, while the data are sent back to their respective headquarters' for analysis.

That means that, each summer, in that three-month window when flights can land, there's a

flurry of activity as personnel try to get all their work done before the season is over.

Then, over winter, only a skeleton crew remains to keep everything running.

Of course, given the absolute isolation that occurs over this period, the station staff

Everyone is screened to assure that they're in near-perfect psychical health, as conditions

that might be minor in the rest of the world can turn deadly given the station's lack

of advanced medical care, and they're also subject to a extensive psychological evaluation.

This is primarily to assure that they can handle the severe degree of isolation, six-months

of continuous darkness, and small work community for nine months as, if mental health deteriorates

Over this period, there tends to only be a single doctor at the station, conducting their

work with somewhat limited medical facilities.

This doctor is subject to even more rigorous medical screening themselves, given their

importance to the health of everyone else at the facility.

In fact, some countries' Antarctic programs even require their doctors to have their appendix

removed to prevent the possibility of appendicitis.

Of course, a single doctor can't know everything, so for any advanced conditions that arise

with station staff, the facility is outfitted with advanced telemedicine equipment, which

can transmit medical data in real-time, so specialists in the US can attempt to diagnose

Of course, in order to do that they need internet, which is yet another challenge at the South

Most non-polar, isolated research stations nowadays are able to rely completely on commercial

satellite internet providers, but that's not entirely possible at the bottom of the

Commercial satellite internet is only widespread where there's a market, and there's only

That means that most telecommunications satellites are not positioned in an orbit that the South

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How Living at the South Pole Works

constantly

crucial

tough

period