Polar Adjustments

After about three months at the pole, one can notice several changes the body makes to adapt to the environment here. The main environmental factors are cold, altitude, dryness, sunlight, and bathing schedules. While cold is a factor when working outside, most of the time one's body is influenced by the extreme dryness and low air pressure. The South Pole is located 9301 ft (2835 m) above sea level, but because of the dry, cold air, the pressure is ~682 mb, making the physio-altitude 10,587 ft (3287 m). The high altitude can cause blood oxygen levels drop below 90%. This can result in sleep apnea, and I've woken up from sleep or a nap a few times short of breath because of this. This is best combated by exercising regularly to increase your blood oxygen level.

Extreme dryness was more of a factor during the first few weeks here, but eventually the body adjusts the amount of oils it outputs, which is also related to the amount of bathing we do. To conserve water, everyone is limited to two two-minute showers a week. However, most people don't smell because it is simply so dry here that it is difficult to work up a sweat, even in the gym. In general, the dry air makes most things devoid of odor - food doesn't rot either. Two showers a week is completely sufficient (for most people..); we didn't evolve to bathe every day and the body easily adapts to less routine bathing. In fact, when we were asked to take additional showers (because they needed more water output for plumbing maintenance), it caused more drying out of the skin, making additional showers undesirable.

The lack of normal daily sunlight can also interrupt sleeping and disrupt one's circadian rhythm. It's a bit too early to notice signs of seasonal depression, but I wouldn't be surprised if they occur in the next couple months. A full spectrum light was installed in the galley if people want to get a dose of the sun. Some people also choose to read in the greenhouse.

In the movie Lawrence of Arabia, when Lawrence was asked why he loved the desert so much, he replied "because it's so clean". I agree with his sentiment, and enjoy the lack of odors and rot, absence of insects that might flock to unattended crumbs, and general purity of the snowy landscape. Although my sleep schedule is a bit off because of the altitude and dryness, it's a fair trade for the 'desert clean'.

Twilight Descends

March brought the setting of the sun, the last we will see of that great orb of flame for six months. The sun takes about a day and a half to set from the time it touches the horizon to when it completely disappears. Sunset can have very sporadic weather, so we did not actually get to see the sun finally disappears, which meant we also didn't get to witness the hours-long green flash. 

Spoolhenge at Sunset

Sunset, being one of the "antarctica holidays" was accompanied by a Sunset Dinner. The galley was decorated and the kitchen staff served a fancy dinner. No, we don't always eat on tablecloths or on a single long table. The next big dinner of this sort will be for Winter's Solstice.

The twilight that follows the disappearance of the Sun lasts for weeks. I'm not sure what the building below is, it is just one of many remnants of past construction projects left abandoned near the station. The extra fuel tanks in the background mark the "end of the world". 

The panorama below shows the Earth's shadow - it is actually taken opposite the direction of the Sun and shows the shadow of the Earth projected into the atmosphere - a phenomenon more easily observed here. The station is directly behind and the view is towards the summer camp, a collection of buildings and storage units mostly left untouched during the winter. The two white domes house the dishes that communicate with satellites and provide us with internet. Apart from being just a station, the south pole houses a large assortment of buildings, and from the air it can look like the station is next to a junk yard.