Antarctica
Terra Incognita, the Antipodes, Antarctica.. Literally,
the South end of the Earth. Shrouded in mystery for centuries, stuff
of legends and myths, the Holy Grail of the Southern Continent beckoned
explorers and adventurers.
In the
Eighteenth Century, the great Captain James Cook tried to pierce the
mystery of the Antarctic regions. He, "whose ambition leads me not
only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as
I think it possible for man to go" was turned back by the ice before
sighting land. It was not for another 40 years that the audacious
American sealing captain, Nathaniel B. Palmer, on the 45-foot sloop
HERO sighted the Antarctic Peninsula at approximately 63 degrees 45
minutes South Latitude. Within 20 years of this first sighting, the
American Charles Wilkes, the Frenchman Dumont D'Urville, and the Englishman
James Clark Ross had proved the existence of an Antarctic continent
by sailing along substantial portions of its coastline. Amundsen,
Shackleton, Scott, Byrd, and a host of others pioneered the efforts
to make the way to the South Pole and establish precarious footholds
on this most inhospitable of continents. Some made the supreme sacrifice
in this quest.
NOAA
and its ancestor agencies have taken part in Antarctic investigations
since the late 1920's when Weather Bureau meteorologists accompanied
Admiral Byrd to his base camp at Little America and provided forecasts
for his flight to the South Pole. Since then NOAA and its ancestors
have: monitored weather conditions on Antarctica; studied sea ice,
sea conditions, marine life, and oceanography of areas surrounding
Antarctica; monitored and observed geophysical parameters such as
geomagnetism, seismological activity, and gravity in Antarctic regions;
and established observatories on the Antarctic continent to study
global change parameters such as the buildup of greenhouse gases and
the loss of ozone from the upper atmosphere.
In viewing
this section of the "NOAA at the Ends of the Earth" album, you will
learn a little about the history of Antarctic exploration, the Antarctic
environment, and the role of NOAA scientists today in studying and
monitoring potential harbingers of global change in this harsh but
pristine environment.
