Taking it at face value, green means go. Red means stop. White could mean neutral.
Source
ATCM XXXVIII - CEP XVIII
http://www.ats.aq/devAS/ats_meetings_meeting.aspx?lang=e
On a flat earth with an ice rim Antarctica, I've been mulling over the possibility that the actual distance between McMurdo and Rothera-- in effect-- the Marie Byrdland coast-- is where the compression mapping might take place. In other words, the distances and times are going to make sense in the green and white zones-- but the red zone is where distances will NOT make sense. I don't know what mathematics would be used to simulata lines of longitude and latitude to make that happen-- especially with airliners and ships running all over the place needing accurate information so I'm not proposing that this is the case. However, seeing the red zone causes me to reconsider that original thought. Here is my best flat earth map of Antarctica so far so the reader can compare the red and green zones above with the ice rim version.
Note that the area between Rothera and McMurdo has ONE station Russkaya that apparently no longer exists as a full station although a few references have been made to it in some reports. This stretch is, even as First Officer Felix notes, devoid of stations for the most part. The area between McMurdo around to Mawson is the green zone-- approximately where I have GREEN ARROWS above from a previous idea. From Mawson around to Rothera, is the white neurtral zone which I don't know how to interpret.
INSPECTIONS
Just one more thought on inspections. If mere sailboats can race around Antarctica at 45 to 60, then how difficult would it be for fully equipped military/scientific inspection ships to go around Antarctica for a "full and complete inspection" of all stations on the coast of Antarctica? It should not be very hard. Yet there was no inspection since the winter of 2012-2013 according to ATS reports.
ATS - Antarctic Treaty system
http://www.ats.aq/DevAS/ats_governance_listinspections.aspx?lang=e
LATEST ATS REPORT HAS NO PHOTOS
I find it amusing that the latest report is 260 pages with no pictures or diagrams or maps. How is that possible?
http://www.ats.aq/documents/ATCM37/fr/ATCM37_fr001_e.pdf
From your inspections upto 2013 link, Rick:
ReplyDelete1987-1988 Russian Federation
Other
Unknown Station (Unknown) (Russian Federation)
This was the only inspection made during that Antarctic summer by anybody. A mystery wrapped up in an enigma, aside from the fact it was the ATS keeps referring to the Soviet Union as the RF during USSR times]
-Ahoy, ATS, the SAE declares it has inspected a one of its own stations but we're not telling you which one or what they're up to.
-Copy, Soviet Antarctic Expedition, that's great. Thanks!
Cape Bird Hut, 43km from Scott base, was inspected the following Summer, 1988/9 by the US - a massive year for inspections. Here you can inspect Cape Bird Hut for yourself including the toilet from about 2:45
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjPomgcWIB4
But it doesn't seem to have been inspected since.
I'd hate to have to inspect that toilet now, then. (if it hasn't been inspected in 1989).
ReplyDeleteThere's apparently a large GPS/Seismic system in Marie Byrd Land - see map
ReplyDeletehttp://polenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014_2015_Basemap_3March14.jpg
in the A-NET/POLENET system.
http://polenet.org/?page_id=2214
http://polenet.org/?page_id=176
[A-NET]
The following blog reveals the vaguest details of the installation and maintenance of this system
http://polenet.org/?page_id=81
e.g.
Pirrit Hills Install by Eric Kendrick
March 5, 2014
The new GPS station installed at Pirrit Hills Antarctica on 30 Dec 2013.
http://polenet.org/?p=2340
A typcal GPS station - at Butcher Ridge, BURI, is here:
http://polenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/885498_10152887934366941_6132721841835235376_o.jpg
source: http://polenet.org/?p=2340
More photos here:
http://polenet.org/?page_id=61
[some are labelled with location]
Autonomous stations now rely on renewable energy sources to keep them operational. Solar panels are effective in the summer months when sunlight is abundant. In the winter months, however, when the poles are covered in constant darkness, wind power becomes important and the solar energy previously stored in battery banks is used to power the stations. Communication satellites are used to transmit GPS data from the remote sites to the scientists. The voluminous seismic data, however, must still be collected by returning to the stations.
http://polenet.org/?page_id=55
For GPS data:
http://polenet.org/?page_id=1389
we are referred to UNAVCO....[sponsored by NASA and NSF....]
http://www.unavco.org/data/data.html
http://www.unavco.org/projects/project-support/polar/polar.html
Seismic and geodetic measurements are being made at permanent research stations maintained by Antarctic Treaty nations, and by Arctic nations
http://polenet.org/?page_id=188
UNAVCO provides geodetic support to NSF-OPP funded scientific investigators working in the Arctic and Antarctic. ....Researchers are expected to contact UNAVCO to discuss project requirements and obtain a letter of support prior to proposal submission.
UNAVCO, a non-profit university-governed consortium, facilitates geoscience research and education using geodesy.
We challenge ourselves to transform human understanding of the changing Earth by enabling the integration of innovative technologies, open geodetic observations, and research, from pole to pole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxLMk120vMU
UNAVCO (Explained in 3 Minutes) [lots of blue marble imagery] It's essentially a US "community".