In keeping with my study of all the stations in Antarctica so that we can eventually do a tight circumnavigation, I'll look at each one individually and index it below. I've picked Syowa, the Japanese station, at random, to begin. I don't recall looking at Syowa before. One thing that comes up in the searches of Syowa a lot are the radio call letters. That's a bit anomalous. Other stations have ham radio letters as well but Syowa seems to be associated with ham more than others.
WEBCAM - The only embed I can find is for this postage stamp size feed which is never very clear.
Showa StationFullscreen — Showa Station: Syowa station
AN ANTENNA ARRAY at Syowa seems to me to be more unique and extensive than any other stations' antenna I've seen What are those U shaped ones?
More interesting looking antenna look like like masts of old sailing ships.
A more extensive electronics array lab from Syowa than I've seen at other research stations continues the ham radio and antenna mystery of Syowa.
A so-called "satellite dish" points skyward under the dome which is a dominant structure at Syowa. Since I don't believe in satellites (they're a hoax), the dish might be gathering signals bounced off the ionosphere-- which makes sense for ham radio. I know nothing about electronics in this regard other than having basic awareness of the general idea of ham radio.
The array of antenna in the background is NOT a common feature of all stations in Antarctica. This is unique.
Syowa is particular difficult to service, as a station, because it seems to be blocked by ice floes year round. Other research stations have warmer periods where its easy to dock a ship. Not Syowa. Consider the following tale of waiting two years before getting supplies in and how close they were to running out. This is made even more anomalous by the lack of an airstrip to fly supplies in. Interesting too is the lack of mention of a helicopter to fly supplies in.
Here is a playlist of Youtubes featuring Syowa that I chose. There are far fewer Youtubes of Syowa than other stations.
1. 5 minutes of a station worker getting up and going outdoors.
2. Ham radio chatter from Syowa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Js0_reLfAk
3. Jogging around the station grounds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw578IR94bw
4. Japan's icebreaker that presumably services Syowa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBCN1zOqotY
VISITS TO AND FROM OTHER STATIONS are non-existent as far as I can tell.
WIKIPEDIA has a short article about Syowa which they write consists of 60 buildings-- which is quite extensive.
Showa Station serves as a research outpost for astronomy, meteorology, biology and earth sciences. It comprises over 60 separate buildings, large and small, including a 3-storey administration building, living quarters, power plant, sewage treatment facility, environmental science building, observatory, data processing facility, satellite building, ionospheric station, incinerator, earth science building, and radiosonde station. Also present are fuel tanks, water storage, solar panels, a heliport, water retention dam, and radio transmitter.
TRAVERSE TO SOUTH POLE FROM SYOWA is claimed at this website.
https://nsidc.org/data/thermap/antarctic_10m_temps/traverses/syowa-pole.html
Treks to the Pole are not possible on a flat earth because the Pole doesn't exist on that configuration. The South Pole would be a South RIM that surrounds Antarctica some distance inland. On the site above, there is no indication of a rendezvous with workers at the claimed South Pole station, Amundsen Scott. The information on the traverse here is very sketchy and impossible to read as an amateur-- other than to indicate that it's possibly fake.
WORKER'S BLOGS are sometimes useful in terms of gaining some insight and verification of the research stations. I'd like to see workers' reports of travel to and from various stations so I can verify miles and distance but that sort of information is rare-- and when it exists, it's difficult to correlate to the overall situation I'm looking at. Here is a worker's blog that considers food at Syowa-- a safe topic that likely won't lead to any trouble.
http://sspaces.exblog.jp/11480659/
RADIO at SYOWA is prominant and when googling the two keywords, radio and syowa, there appears to be a big NASA connection. Here's a NASA website that deals with radio information at Syowa.
http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Metadata.do?Portal=amd&KeywordPath=%5BParameters%3A+Topic%3D%26%23039%3BSUN-EARTH+INTERACTIONS%26%23039%3B%2C+Term%3D%26%23039%3BIONOSPHERE%26%2347%3BMAGNETOSPHERE+DYNAMICS%26%23039%3B%2C+Variable_Level_1%3D%26%23039%3BMAGNETIC+FIELDS%26%2347%3BMAGNETIC+CURRENTS%26%23039%3B%5D&OrigMetadataNode=GCMD&EntryId=NICT_AURORAL_RADAR&MetadataView=Full&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb2
Apparently, the Aurora Borealis of the southern hemisphere-- called something other than Borealis in the south-- is a big deal. From my scant knowledge, the borealis lights are related to the ions in the ionosphere-- and how those ions are connected at the poles of earth by earth's magnetism. I haven't thought about how they make sense on a flat earth since that's not my focus-- the focus being simply the confirmation of distance around Antarctica. In any case, Syowa is definitely involved in a lot of radio and a lot of borealis study.
The sky is seen here at Syowa, lit up by the borealis.
Here's a close up of that U shaped antenna array that I have not seen elsewhere in Antarctica.
From the website just above, we learn that there is a
World Data Center for Ionosphere....
http://wdc.nict.go.jp/IONO/wdc/index.html
Apparently, Syowa is THE data collection point for Antarctica ionosphere data. I suppose it's strategically located for that particular job-- which no other station has. That would explain why it was located in a "hard-to-service" location where it recently took two years to get supplies in. You have to wonder why THAT location had to be chosen. And you have to wonder why JAPAN is the primary station for this type of data and why OTHER stations don't gather the same type of data.
Here's a sample of what Ionospheric data looks like.
http://wdc.nict.go.jp/IONO/wdc/iono_antactica/data/10/IonosphericDataAtSyowaStation-2015.pdf
Somehow, all this is tied into GRAVITY WAVES? Wow, that's wild. So-- is this what NASA and Japan are doing? Working with gravity waves? But why in Antarctica? Does the borealis have something to do with it? Is the borealis a manifestation of the ionosphere dropping to earth?
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2008JAS2539.1
IS SYOWA RADAR LOOKING "OUTWARD" for the "ICE WALL"???
http://www.ann-geophys.net/14/1454/1996/angeo-14-1454-1996.pdf
Fascinating, Rick. It's a key geodesic station on the earth. But the research, as far as I can see, seems fairly insular, i.e. Japanese, although there is evidence of some collaboration with France.
ReplyDeleteThe pdf here
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/80016339436/en
describes pretty well everything that goes on there...plenty of Satellite talk. That GRACE acronym sounds a little hoaxy.
Some distances on Fig 3 which of course we can't verify.
The sea level "GLOSS" data is 10 years old from Syowa...in fact the whole set up is rather moribund, which is rather worrying when we are all supposed to be worried ourselves about sea level rise....
http://www.gloss-sealevel.org/station_handbook/
http://www.gloss-sealevel.org/network_status/
And isn't that all-important measurement of Antarctic ice thickness done by satellites...
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6110
Hmmm, GRACE is a joint NASA - German venture.
There's a bit more about the comings and goings and all the various problems experienced at Syowa [2012]
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20150003874.pdf
which does make one wonder why the location was chosen.
hi rick, looking at the pictures, its easy to see that the antenna array consists of yagi directional antennas, sizing in relation to the person, it in the vhf range. so its a vhf long distance radar. look here http://www.ann-geophys.net/14/1454/1996/angeo-14-1454-1996.pdf
ReplyDeletethere you see that two radar beams are directed land inward. so whats lurking out there ?
VHF Yagi directional antennas.... long distance radar... directed inland... toward the outer limits and the ice wall maybe? Thanks for the technical help. I'll update the blog entry with the graphics.
ReplyDeletethe ice wall its the sea side, this radar goes land inwards on a roud earth, eventually, as its directional line of sight, you leave earth and reach ionosphere, but on a flat earth, the beam travels a few meter (mast height) over the earth until the power is too weak. (but they have an array so lots of power). its horizontally polirized (horizontal antennas) so it never bounces between earth and ionosphere. vhf radar also can be ground penetrate, so it can go through the next 'fuji dome....'
ReplyDeleteI'll need a diagram to understand that. Can you post that?
ReplyDeleteStepping into the city like Delhi for the 1st time, looking to have a luxurious stay but worried about the price? Not a problem, get the "Service Apartment In Delhi ,pocket friendly pricing that brings all the comforts and let you enjoy the stay with no comparison in the quality. The complete range of well equipped, furnished room located in the heart of the city with an easy transportation facility brings a complete attraction for the visitors. www.prestigeluxuryapartmentsdelhi.com
ReplyDelete