Distance signs near the station-Courtesy of Paolo Calisse [1].

Dome C, also known as Dome Circe or Dome Charlie, located at 75°06′S 123°20′E at an altitude of 3,233 m or 10,607 ft above sea level, is one of several summits or "domes" of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Dome C is located on the Antarctic Plateau, 1,100km inland from the French research station at Dumont D'Urville, 1,100 km inland from the Australian Casey Station and 1,200 km inland from the Italian Zucchelli station at Terra Nova Bay. Russia's Vostok Station is 560km away. Dome C is the site of the Concordia Research Station, jointly operated by France and Italy. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (903x600, 67 KB) Courtesy of Paolo Calisse http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (903x600, 67 KB) Courtesy of Paolo Calisse http://www. ... According to the British Antarctic Survey: The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. ... Greek ἀνταρκτικός, opposite the arctic) is a continent surrounding the Earths South Pole. ... The Dumont dUrville Station (French: Base Dumont dUrville) is a French scientific station located in Antarctica on ÃŽle des Pétrels, archipel de Pointe Géologie (66°40′ S 140°01′ E) in Adelie Land. ... Casey Station is a permanent base in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). ... Terra Nova Bay is a bay which is often ice free, about 64 km (40 mi) long, lying between Cape Washington and Drygalski Ice Tongue along the coast of Victoria Land. ... Ice cores drilled at Vostok, with a portion of the station behind Vostok Station is a Russian research station located near the Geomagnetic South Pole (see South Pole), at the center of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. ... Concordia Research Station is a newly constructed facility located at 75° S 123° E, on Dome C, Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. ...

History

In the 1970s, Dome C was the site of ice core drilling by field teams of several nations. It was called Dome Charlie (NATO Phonetic Alphabet code for the letter C) by the U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica, and its Squadron VXE-6, which provided logistical support to the field teams. In January and November 1975, three LC-130 Hercules aircraft suffered severe damage during attempted takeoffs from Dome Charlie. In November 1975 and November 1976, the U.S. Navy established field camps on Dome Charlie to recover the aircraft. Following major structural repairs and replacement of engines in the field, the three LC-130's were flown to McMurdo Station on December 26, 1975 January 14, 1976, and December 25, 1976. FAA radiotelephony phonetic alphabet and Morse code chart. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... A scene at McMurdo Station McMurdo Station, located at 77°51′S 166°40′E, sits on the southern tip of Ross Island in Antarctica, on the shore of McMurdo Sound, 2,200 miles (3,500 km) due south of New Zealand. ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... January 14 is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

From November 1977 to March 1978 a French party of 13 people settled down in the existing camp left by the aircraft rescuers. They brought several tons of equipment - thanks to the VXE-6 airplanes - and achieved the planned ice-coring campaign down to almost 1000m -980 to be acurate - bringing to surface, and later on in their labs for study, ice samples 45000 to 50000 years old.

In 1992, France decided to build a new station on the Antarctic Plateau. The program was later joined by Italy. In 1996, a French-Italian team established a summer camp at Dome C. The two main objectives of the camp were the provision of logistical support for the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) and the construction of a permanent research station. The new all-year facility, Concordia Station, became operational in 2005. The Antarctic Plateau is an area of the Antarctic continent, extending for a few hundred kilometres around the South Pole. ... Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band which puts emphasis on the use of operatic elements, and death grunts, also performing some song passages in the Latin language. ... The station at initial state in January 2002 -Courtesy of Paolo Calisse[1] Concordia Research Station is a newly constructed facility located at 75°06′S 123°20′E, 3,233 m above sea level, on Dome C, Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. ...

The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) considers "Dome Charlie" to be superior to the informal name, "Dome C," and that it has precedence over "Dome Circe", a name suggested from Greek mythology by members of the SPRI airborne radio echo sounding team in 1982. The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending names for features in Antarctica. ...

Environment

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. 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 coastal regions of Antarctica because of its elevated location and its relative distance from the edges the Antarctic Plateau. Typical wind speed in winter is 2.8 m/s. A katabatic wind, from the Greek word katabatikos meaning going downhill, is a wind that blows down a topographic incline such as a hill, mountain, or glacier. ... The Antarctic Plateau is an area of the Antarctic continent, extending for a few hundred kilometres around the South Pole. ...

Dome C is situated on top of the Antarctic Plateau, the world's largest desert. No animals or plants live at a distance of more than a few tenths of kilometers from the Southern Ocean. However, skuas have been spotted while overflying the station, 1,200 km away from their nearest food sources. It is believed that these birds have learned to cross the continent instead of circumnavigating it. The Antarctic Plateau is an area of the Antarctic continent, extending for a few hundred kilometres around the South Pole. ... For other uses: see Skua (disambiguation). ...

Astronomical observatory

Dome C is notable for being the site of an astronomical observatory capable of extremely accurate observations; the transparency of the Antarctic atmosphere allows stars to be observed, even when the sun is at an elevation angle of 38°. The good viewing is due to very low infrared sky emission, extremely low humidity, a high percentage of cloud-free time, low atmospheric aerosol and dust content, and an absence of light pollution. Radio telescopes are among many different tools used by astronomers Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ... The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system. ... Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. ... Humidity is the concentration of water vapor in the air. ... Cumulus of fair weather Different cloud types A cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. ... http://visibleearth. ... After just three years of use dust has blocked this laptop heat sink, making the computer unusable Dust is a general name for minute solid particles with diameter less than 500 micrometers (otherwise see sand or granulates) and, more generally, for finely divided matter. ... This photo of New York City shows excessive sky glow, one form of light pollution, partly caused by many unshielded lights. ...

Writing in the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2005, Karim Agabi et al discuss the suitability of the site for astronomy in terms of the seeing.^[2] They determined the median seeing (measured with a DIMM placed on top of an 8.5 m high tower) to be 1.3+-0.8 arcseconds. This is significantly worse than most major observatory sites, but similar to other observatories in Antarctica. However, they found (using balloons) that 87% of turbulence was below 34 meters. This "boundary layer" is 200 meters at the South Pole and may be as low as 20 meters at Dome A. The authors suggest telescopes may need to be placed on towers. Schematic diagram illustrating how optical wavefronts from a distant star may be perturbed by a turbulent layer in the atmosphere. ... In probability theory and statistics, a median is a number dividing the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution from the lower half. ... Two types of DIMMs: a 168-pin SDRAM module (top) and a 184-pin DDR SDRAM module (bottom). ... A second of arc or arcsecond is a unit of angular measurement which comprises one-sixtieth of an arcminute, or 1/3600 of a degree of arc or 1/1296000 ≈ 7. ... Balloons, like greeting cards or flowers, are given for special occasions. ... The South Pole is the southernmost point on the Earth. ... Dome A or Dome Argus (81°0′S 77°0′E) is an Antarctican plateau located 1200 kilometres inland. ...

In an earlier (2004) paper, Lawrence et al considered the site and concluded that "Dome C is the best ground-based site to develop a new astronomical observatory".^[3] This team measured superior seeing of 0.27 arcseconds, twice as small as at Mauna Kea Observatory. This figure, and the 0.35 arcseconds Agabi et al got for "free atmospheric seeing", does not properly take the diminished viewing from turbulence into account. The Mauna Kea Observatory, an institute of the University of Hawaii, is considered one of the most important land-based observatories in the world for its isolated, unobstructed views of space without interference from man-made light sources. ...

The 2004 experiments to measure the astronomical conditions at the site were controlled by a computer system that had to supervise the generation of its own electricity using a jet-fuel powered stirling engine. The computer, running Linux, communicated with the outside world using an Iridium phone. A Stirling engine and generator set with 55 kW electrical output, for combined heat and power applications. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... An Iridium phone (without the aerial) The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites and spares around the Earth. ...

See also

• Concordia Station
• Dome A (or Dome Argus)
• Law Dome
• EPICA
• Pole of Cold
• Inaccessibility Pole
• Climate of Antarctica

Concordia Research Station is a newly constructed facility located at 75° S 123° E, on Dome C, Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. ... Dome A or Dome Argus (81°0′S 77°0′E) is an Antarctican plateau located 1200 kilometres inland. ... Dome A or Dome Argus () is an Antarctican plateau located 1200 kilometres inland. ... Law Dome () is a large ice dome which rises to 1,395 m directly south of Cape Poinsett. ... Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band which puts emphasis on the use of operatic elements, and death grunts, also performing some song passages in the Latin language. ... The Poles of Cold are the places in the Northern and Southern hemispheres where the lowest air temperature was recorded. ... The pole of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach owing to its remoteness from geographical features which could provide access. ... Surface temperature of Antarctica in winter and summer The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on earth, with the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth being -89. ...

External links

• The unofficial Dome C FAQ (Paolo G. Calisse)
• Another Dome C FAQ (Guillaume Dargaud)
• First Winterover at Concordia Station (2005) blog by Guillaume Dargaud
• 2nd Winterover at Concordia Station (2006) blog by Eric Aristidi, LUAN (Laboratoire Universitaire d'Astrophysique de Nice)
• Official website of Concordia Station Institut Polaire Français - Paule Emile Victor (IPEV) and Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA)

References

• ↑  Abdelkrim Agabi, Eric Aristidi, Max Azouit, Eric Fossat, Francois Martin, Tatiana Sadibekova, Jean Vernin, Aziz Ziad (2005). "First whole atmosphere night-time seeing measurements at Dome C, Antarctica". Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

• ↑  Jon S. Lawrence, Michael C. B. Ashley, Andrei Tokovinin, and Tony Travouillon (2004). "Exceptional astronomical seeing conditions above Dome C in Antarctica". Nature 431: 278-281. 16 September 2004 DOI:10.1038/nature02929 (FAQ by the authors)