The #GUSTO#Telescope currently circling #Antarctica onboard a #NASA#balloon flying at 125.000 ft completed almost 16 days of flight and one and a half turns to the south pole.
So far, it has become the most successful flight of a balloon campaign marked by leaking balloons.
The mission aims to remain aloft for another 40 days before being carried away from the continent when the volar vortex disintegrates and finally sinks into the Ocean.
A heatwave in #Antarctica totally blew the minds of scientists. They set out to decipher it – & here are the results
"Under La Niña conditions, tropical heat near Indonesia poured into the skies above the Indian Ocean.
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When the tropical air collided with this so-called “blocking high”, it caused the most intense #AtmosphericRiver ever observed over East Antarctica. This propelled the tropical heat and moisture southward into the heart of the Antarctic continent."
My fellow partners in crime aka esteemed #running colleagues probably already know about this event, but I've just read about it for the first time.
A marathon in #Antarctica (or the #Arctic) would be a tempting place ... if it weren't for the hefty price tag, which ranges from USD 21,000 to EUR 55,000 depending on the location and date 😱
Irish explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic Ernest Shackleton died #OTD in 1922.
Shackleton's first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition of 1901–1904. During the Nimrod expedition of 1907–1909, he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 180 kilometres from the South Pole. via @wikipedia
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Disaster struck the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and finally sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica on 21 November 1915. The crew escaped by camping on the sea ice until it disintegrated, then by launching the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island, a stormy ocean voyage of 1,330 km and Shackleton's most famous exploit. via @wikipedia 2/
In 1921, Shackleton returned to the Antarctic with the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition, but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request, he was buried there. The wreck of Endurance was discovered just over a century later. via @wikipedia
Humans have undone millions of years of Earth #climate in a few decades
Melting ice shelves extended over Amundsen Sea in west #Antarctica is locked in & beyond human control for rest of this century EVEN IF EMISSIONS ARE SEVERELY REDUCED
Now, operations are underway at #McMurdo station in #Antarctica for the launch of #GUSTO the 2nd. mission of the #NASA balloon campaign.
GUSTO stands for Galactic / Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (ULDB for Ultralong-Duration Balloon) is a balloon-borne 0.9-meter far infrared reflector #telescope with a cryogenically-cooled camera, to map oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon lines in the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Examining satellite images, researchers from the #BritishAntarcticSurvey found that the then record drop in #SeaIce in late 2022 could have killed thousands of #EmperorPenguin chicks. The usually stable sea ice that colonies rely on to rear their young in the #BellingshausenSea just wasn’t there, likely causing a “catastrophic breeding failure”. #ClimateCrisis
📣 My nature documentary "Antarctica Unearthed", which I shot entirely solo during my recent expedition to Antarctica, is exciting and a huge undertaking.