The United States government maintains 3 bases on Antarctica: McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott and Palmer, which house and support the work of hundreds of American scientists as well as thousands of others around the world every year. The McMurdo Station itself houses 1258 residents, many of whom perform or support scientific research in Antarctica.
credit USAP.gov
And yes, John Carpenter's The Thing mentions McCurdo.
On October 8, orderswere given to evacuate all facilities with the exception of skeleton crews to maintain the bases. The field season in Antarctica only lasts a few months every year during the summer; during the long, Antarctic winter conditions are too harsh to allow much work. Scientists who want to work on the continent therefore have spent in most cases years planning and preparing their expeditions to get in during the narrow window around October when they can arrive, travel to the sites they wish to visit, and return before the beginning of winter.
The announcement was a devastating blow for the polar science community. The shutdown means the cancellation of millions of dollars of planned research. . Contractors are losing their jobs. Other countries rely on America's sea-ice runway at McMurdo Station and may not be able to conduct their own research after the pullout.
There are many types of science done on Antarctica every summer.
* Atmospheric scientists monitor air currents and the ozone.
* Geoscientists monitor ice caps and sample rocks on the continent,
* Oceanic scientists investigate the waters around the continent
* Biologists monitor the life that exists there.
According to reports many of these projects, have continuous data going back decades. Millions of dollars have been spent over the years creating those data sets. Those projects will lose a full year of data, and in some cases, if there is a 2014 field season, the research may essentially be starting from scratch.
NASA runs a program known as Icebridge every year which has produced fascinating data on the health of the ice sheets and the type of land that lies underneath; that project is likely dying for the year as well.
Photo Credit: NASA
The first flight of Operation Ice Bridge's Antarctic campaign flew Oct. 16, 2009, along the Amundsen Coast. The aircraft’s downward-looking Digital Mapping System camera captured images of sea ice from an altitude of about 6,000 meters.
And Natures News Blogreports the following.
Scientists are frustrated that long-term studies will be interrupted. “If we lose a year of observations, they are gone forever,” says Hugh Ducklow, a biological oceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.
Ducklow is working on a 20-year-old project to monitor the ecosystem near Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. The work includes an annual census of penguin populations, which have shifted significantly in recent years as the peninsula has warmed. “A number of the remaining colonies of Adélie penguins in our study are so low now that they could go extinct almost any time,” Ducklow says.
We know the Tea Party couldn't care less as they do not believe in science, but for the rest of us, this is just devastating as we attempt to find out what is going on with the planets air conditioners. This is just one of many worthwhile programs being destroyed by these know nothings. If you have a Republican congressman, you know what to do.