Antarctica update #1

Greetings to everyone,

Thank you for joining my Antarctica mailing list. I hope that over the next year or so I will be able to share with you my experience of living and working in Antarctica with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). Things are well under way in my preparations for departure in January. I’ll start off with a bit of information

Australia has 4 research stations. Davis, Casey and Mawson on the Antarctic continent and Macquarie Island which is in the subantarctic.  

I am heading off to Davis Station which is in the Australian Antarctic Territory, approximately 5,234kms from my home in Melbourne. I’ll be in the UTC +7hrs time zone, so 3 hours behind Melbourne. And because this year Davis Station is not observing any time changes for daylight savings we’ll be 4 hours behind Melbourne time. It is the most southern station of the Australian stations.

Whilst at Davis station I’ll be experiencing some of the very coldest and driest places on earth. Davis Station is located right next to the Vestfold Hills, which are ice free. Only 1-2% of Antarctica is dry (no ice) so will be great to see this area. Obviously during the winter it will be white…..everywhere! Temperatures have been recorded as low as -40˚c to as high as 4˚c. With the cold temperatures even though the relative humidity might be high the air is very dry as the cold air cannot hold much moisture. When the air is heated it drops the relative humidity to around 15%, so whilst it might be a nice 20˚c+ inside, the air is going to be extremely dry.  

Lots of weird and wonderful things happen in Antarctica and can’t wait to share them with all of you.

I’d be happy to answer any of your questions, or anyone has any school projects or things I could help with please reply to this email or email info@apsphotography.com.au

***Please note from January that it might take a few days for me to reply. Please do not send any photos or attachments with your email as my internet will be limited.***

Please invite your friends and family to subscribe to the list, go to www.apsphotography.com.au and click on the link.

Thank you,

Aaron Stanley