Sunset.

Antarctica is located at the bottom of the globe. It is one of the two places on earth that sees almost exactly six months of winter and six months of summer. The seasons are dictated not by snow, which we see year round, but rather by the presence or absence of the sun. In the summer the sun is in the sky for more hours than in the winter, the same is true all over the world. Right now in Oregon the sun is staying in the sky for an extra ~2.5 minutes longer each day, so the days are getting longer. Here in Antarctica the opposite is happening.

Here the days are getting shorter as we enter winter. For the next 48 days the length of our days will decrease by 30 minutes a day. This means that we lose in one day more then you gain in one week!

But don't worry. It will not be until mid March that I start to really feel the effects of the darkening skies. At that point the days will start becoming noticeably shorter, for now we will just be having darker nights, which will be pretty fun.

And there are good things to look forward to. First of all when the sun sets we will finally be able to see stars! Also with the darkening skies we get to see sunsets and sunrises, and most importantly we may be able to see the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights.

Aurora Australis are formed by a group of charged particles that reach the Polar Regions from the sun. Through a series of collisions these particles increase their energy and then lose excess energy in the form of light. The reason these lights are often seen in polar regions is that a wind and very cold temperatures are needed to see the brilliant colors; however, they can be seen as far south as Montana.

I will not be seeing the Aurora for some time yet, but for now we can see the moon in the dusky sky, hanging over our camp like a silent reminder of what is yet to come...

SoLaR EcLiPsE...

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, potentially blocking out all sunlight and throwing parts of the earth into midday darkness. A partial solar eclipse occurred here in Antarctica just last week. The eclipse that we saw had 80% coverage, so the sun was not completely behind the moon. In America when partial eclipses occur you can look at the sun with special lenses or OMSI glasses and still observe the moon slowly creeping along in front of the sun. Depending on where you are and the percentage of the sun that is blocked, it may even still look like the sky is darkening.





The eclipse that we saw was very interesting. All of the scientists in Crary Lab went outside at around 4:20 in the afternoon and looked up at the sun with goggles and camera lenses as eye protection. (Remember that because we are so far south the sun was still very high in the sky, at 4pm the sun looks like it does at 11am in the States!)



Even though the eclipse was not total the sky did darken slightly, it looked like dusk was coming on, which after having the last month of 24 hour sunlight was quite a lot! But because there is so much snow and ice covering the ground in Antarctica the little sun that did shine through got reflected off the white ground and scarttered across McMurdo so that it still seemed bright to us.



Keep in mind that these pictures show the sun in a darkened sky because that is the only way the camera will produce a shot.