Here's the first of many balloon missions being flown over Antarctica-- this one tracked on Google maps via satellite ostensibly. A reader fed me this information and I was completely unaware balloons were being used to this extent. Note how the balloon almost circumnavigated the island. This is certainly worth looking into further and I'll do so in coming months.
It's not just one balloon... but hundreds of balloons have been released.
Source: From Comments by Felix below...
Can we really believe that balloons have been released from all the following marked [in red] locations?
http://www.livescience.com/17599-research-balloons-antarctica-nsf-bts.html
[superimposed on the missing google hole,in part]
http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/022/925/i02/Figuretwo.jpg?1324504771
It doesn't seem possible that there could have been the sheer number of releases as pictured above. Imagine the cost for one thing. And the launches require crane trucks and other equipment. How is it possible that crane trucks can be all over antarctica? Note the missing hold part in the middle again on the Google photo... which appears quite distorted.
