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The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is a United States scientific research station at the Geographic South Pole, the southernmost place on the Earth. The station is located on the high plateau of Antarctica at an elevation of above sea level. The original Amundsen–Scott Station was built by the United States government during November 1956, as a part of its commitment to the scientific goals of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), an international effort lasting from January 1957 through June 1958, to study, among other things, the geophysics of the polar regions. Before November 1956, there was no permanent human structure at the South Pole, and very little human presence in the interior of Antarctica at all. The few scientific stations in Antarctica were located on and near its seacoast. The station has been continuously occupied since it was built. The Amundsen–Scott Station has been rebuilt, demolished, expanded, and upgraded several times since 1956. Since the Amundsen–Scott Station is located at the South Pole, it is at the only place on the land surface of the Earth where the sun is continuously up for six months and then continuously down for six months. (The only other such place is at the North Pole, on the sea ice in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.) Thus, during each year, this station experiences one extremely long "day" and one extremely long "night". During the six-month "day", the angle of elevation of the Sun above the horizon varies continuously. The sun rises on the September equinox, reaches its maximum angle above the horizon on the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, around December 20, and sets on the March equinox. During the six-month "night", it gets extremely cold at the South Pole, with air temperatures sometimes dropping below . This is also the time of the year when blizzards, sometimes with gale-force winds, strike the Amundsen–Scott Station. The continuous period of darkness and dry atmosphere make the station an excellent place from which to make astronomical observations. The number of scientific researchers and members of the support staff housed at the Amundsen–Scott Station has always varied seasonally, with a peak population of about 200 in the summer operational season from October to February. In recent years the winter-time population has been around 50 people. ==Description and history== The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Scientific Station is the southernmost habitation on Earth. It is continuously inhabited. Its name honors Roald Amundsen, whose Norwegian expedition reached the Geographic South Pole in December 1911, and Robert F. Scott, whose British expedition of five men reached the South Pole about one month later (in January 1912) in a race to become the first person ever to reach the South Pole. All of Scott's expedition perished during the journey back towards the coast, while all of Amundsen's expedition returned safely to their base on the seacoast of the continent. The original Amundsen–Scott Scientific Station was constructed during November 1956 to carry out part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of scientific observations during 1957 through 1958, and the station has been continuously occupied since then. , this station lies within of the Geographic South Pole. Because this station is located on a moving glacier, this station is, as of 2005, being carried towards the South Pole at a rate of about 10 meters (or yards) per year. Although the United States Government has continuously maintained an installation at the South Pole since 1957, the central berthing, galley, and communications units have been constructed and relocated several times. Each of the installations containing these central units has been named the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Snow accumulation is about 60–80 millimeters (water equivalent) per year (3 in/yr). The station stands at an elevation of on the interior of Antarctica's nearly featureless ice sheet, which is about thick at that location. The recorded temperature has varied between and , with an annual mean of ; monthly mean temperatures vary from in December to in July. The average wind speed is 5.5 m/s (12 mph); the peak gust recorded was 25 m/s (55 mph).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=National Science Foundation South Pole Station )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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