Chapter 03 of 5
The Long Night: Winter-Over
Life at the edge of the world during total solar absence.
- Solar Cycle
The Last Sunset
In late April, the sun dips below the horizon at McMurdo and does not return for four months. The station plunges into a twilight that gradually deepens into total polar night.
- Atmospheric Barrier
The Polar Vortex
A massive cyclone of cold air encircles the continent every winter. This vortex traps frigid air over the ice, creating a physical wall that separates the station from the global climate.
- Physical Isolation
The No-Fly Zone
Between February and October, temperatures drop so low that jet fuel gels and hydraulic seals fail. McMurdo becomes physically unreachable by aircraft.
17 more cards in this chapter
Could you answer this?
Why is McMurdo Station physically unreachable by aircraft during the winter months?
❄️ McMurdo Station: The Antarctic Metropole
- 01The Volcanic AnchorThe strange geography of Ross Island and its frozen bridge.
- 02Logistics of the VoidLanding planes on ice and the engineering of the Ice Pier.
- 03The Long Night: Winter-OverLife at the edge of the world during total solar absence.
- 04The Dry Valleys: Earth's MarsA journey to the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a snowless desert.
- 05A Continent Without BordersThe Antarctic Treaty and the geography of scientific sovereignty.