Journal Entry

I have not yet arrived at in Antarctica, but did you know that there is a live video camera that is located right at the South Pole?

Most people do not really know about it, but it is taking pictures and relaying them to the Internet every 15 minutes (dependng on satellite availability, of course). The camera operates while there is sunlight--or at least twilight-- at the Pole, normally from mid April to early September, and it is very useful to understand seasonal changes at the Pole

You may view the most recent image here:

South Pole Live camera http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/livecamera.html

The solar declination is about –16 degrees at this time, which means that the Sun is about 16 degrees above the horizon.

There are also archived images that are most interesting to see. Weather disturbances are also plainly visible, as can be seen from this December 25, 2012 image:

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/images/spoimage.201212250950.jpg

During the Summer, however, the weather is usually sunny and cloudless, as can be seen in this January 21, 2013 image: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/images/spoimage.201301210605.jpg

We will be talking more about seasonal changes at the pole in the next couple of weeks.