Time in South Pole Amundsen Scott Antarctica

What is the Time in South Pole Amundsen Scott (USA) Antarctica?

The current local time in South Pole, in the US Research Station Amundsen Scott is being displayed live on the Analog Clock placed above. At this time the Amundsen Scott United States Research Station is located on coordinates 90^oS, 0^oE in the New Zealand claimed area in Antarctica. At this moment the time in Amundsen Scott station on the South Pole is maintained as UTC+12:00 hours NZST or New Zealand Standard Time and follows DST or Daylight Saving Time in Amundsen Scott station. At this time in the summers on the last Sunday of September the clock is advanced by one hour to read UTC+13:00 hours NZDT or New Zealand Daylight Time. On the first Sunday of the month of April next year the clock is reversed back by one hour to NZST. This is repeated every year.
 

Only One Long Day and One Long Night at this Time in Amundsen Scott

At this time in Amundsen Scott research station DST has no meaning because on top of the South Pole the sun is visible for 6 months which means they just have one 6 months long day and one 6 months long night. The sun ruses on the September equinox and on the Summer Solstice the sun reaches its maximum angle over the horizon and finally sets on the March equinox. The temperatures plummet to below minus 62 degree Centigrade in the winter months and with very low humidity and low air pressure due to its high elevation of over 9000 feet above mean sea level, survival is a big challenge especially in the winter months when the station is totally cut off from the world as no flights operate and the coast for reaching a ship is too far.
 

About South Pole Amundsen Scott Station at this Time in Antarctica

At this time in Antarctica, the USA research station Amundsen Scott is geographically located right on top of the South pole which is the southernmost place on the earth and the location is written as 90 deg South and 0 deg East. The research station is located about 2,835 meters or 9,300 feet above the mean sea level. The Amundsen Scott south pole station can acommodate about 150 to 200 researchers in the summer and about 45 researchers in the winter months. The South Pole Amundsen Scott US operates throughout the year.
 

The South Pole Research Station Amundsen Scott of USA is administered by the Polar Progarms Division withint the National Science Foundation under the United states Antarctic Program. The Amundsen Scott was established in November 1956 and there were not human settlement in the South Pole before that. Amundsen Scott station has been continuously been occupied, demolished, rebuilt, expanded and upgraded many times since 1956.
 

Why USA Station Was Named Amundsen Scott?

The station was named Amundsen Scott in the honour of Roald Amundsen whose Norwegian expedition reached the Geographic South Pole in the month of December of 1911. About one month later in January of 1912 Robert F Scott whose British expedition of five men reached the South Pole. It was a race to reach South Pole and on the way back the entire expedition of Scott perished during the journey back towards the coast where as the entire expedition of Amundsen reached safely their base on the seacoast of Antarctica.
 

Research at this Time in South Pole Amundsen Scott Station Antarctica

In the year 1975 the old station was relocated and a Geodesic Dome 50 meters in diameter and 16 meters in height was constructed using steel archways which worked satisfactorily till 1988 when a loud crack was heard inside the dome and it was found that the foundation base ring beams were broken due to overstress. Within the dome there were detached buildings that housed instruments for monitoring the upper and lower atmosphere for manu complex projects in Astronomy and AstroPhysics. 
 

Experiments in the South Pole Amundsen Scott Station at this time also includes the Python, Viper and DASI telescopes and even the 10 meter diameter South Pole Telescope. The DASI telescope is decommissioned and its mount now is used for the Keck Array which is used to work on the Polarization Anisotropies of the CMB. The AMANDA Ice Cube experiment was also done in Amundsen Scott research station using a 3.0 kilometer thick ice sheet to detect neutrinos that may have passed through the earth.
 

At this time the station also has a Skylab which is a box shaped tower slightly taller than the Dome and connected by a tunnel. The Skylab housed numerous atmospheric sensors and later on a music room was also added inside. Another observatory building called the Martin A Pomerantz Observatory ro MAPO was also created in 1995 which changed the priorities in teh station operation thereby increasing teh status of scientific cargo and personnel in the South Pole Amundsen Scott research station in Antarctica.At this time the relative humidity is very low and this dry atomophere during the long nights makes it ideal place to make astronomical observations although the moon is up for two weeks every 27.3 days.
 

At this time in South Pole US Research Station Amundsen Scott has a new building with two floors build at a cost of $150 million when the construction started in 1999 which was finally commissioned on 12 January 2008. On the same date the old Dome was decommissioned as well. At this time in South Pole Amundsen Scott station all buildings are made using the modular concept to be able to expand as required when the research and researchers numbers increase or decrease and also has adustable elevation to see that the buildings do not get burried under the snow because 20 cm snow falls every year and it never thaws which means the snow level only keeps rising. At this time in the South Pole Research Station Amundsen Scott in Antarctica, fresh vegetables are grown in a green house hydroponically which means using only water and nutrients and NO soil at all in the Winters.

Location & Climate of South Pole Amundsen Scott Station at this Time in Antarctica

The location at this time in Antarctica of 90 deg S and 0 deg E makes the Amundsen Scott US Research Station the southernmost place on earth which can be seen on the Antarctica illustration below. The recorded wind speeds are about 5.5 meters per second but the peak gust recorded was 25 meters per second or close to 100 kmph. Although only 20 cm snow accumulates in a year on the South Pole, the wind blown snow accumulates very fast in the vicinity of man made structures.
 

At this time in the South Pole Amundsen Scott Station of USA in Antarctica, the average low temperatures during the year stands at -46.3 deg C or -51.3 F and the yearly average temperature is -52 deg C or -61.7 deg F. The lowest ever recorded temperature was -82.8 deg C or -117 deg F and the highest ever temperature recorded was -12.3 deg C or 9.9 deg F which is below freezing. The South Pole Amundsen Scott Research Station receives about 2940 hours of sunshine on an average per year in the 6 months of sun above the horizon. But due to refraction of light the sun shine is received at South Pole about four days before sun rise and four days after sun set as well.