Skiing and ARO

Over the years, the program has brought down quite an impressive collection of cross-country ski equipment. How could I turn down a chance to ski at the South Pole? It took me awhile to get adjusted and get my act together, but in early December, with a couple of others, we got ourselves outfitted with skis and set out to explore the base a bit.

One of the people I was with is a Research Assistant this year and had to check on some experiments that day at ARO (the Atmospheric Research Observatory). That is one of the science buildings I hadn't been to before, so we set off skiing in that direction.

It's a very cool-looking facility, with atmospheric experiments all over the roof, and is one of six NOAA stations around the world. It's located in the "clean air sector" of South Pole, which means it's upwind from all of the human operations and is said to have the cleanest air in the world, as the wind blows past it across the Antarctic plateau.

Inside, we got to see all of these iconic atmospheric experiments. The electronics you are looking at here have been tracking atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons since they were determined to be a concern for the ozone layer. The poster in the background shows, on the left atmospheric levels of CFCs as they escalated, and then the sudden drop-off when they were banned. The four graph trends on the right show the rise in the hydrochlorofluorocarbons that replaced the banned CFCs. Pretty amazing.

People also like to visit ARO to pick up the fun souvenirs they offer: you can go out on the deck and then seal a bottle full of the cleanest air on Earth to take home with you.

And finally we got to check out the experiments on the roof. I don't even understand what most of them are doing, but wow.

And then we skied back to the station. I'm keeping the skis I chose at the back exit of my rooming hallway, so from now on I can just head out and ski around the station anywhere and anytime.