******************************************************* DIRECTIONS, COMPASSES, TIME ZONES ******************************************************* ************** DIRECTIONS ************** __________ QUESTION: How do you give directions at the South Pole? Wouldn't everything point north? ANSWER from Craig Mundell You are correct. Theoretically, every direction from the South Pole is north. To get around this problem, people in the U.S. look at the continent as a grid map with McMurdo Sound to the bottom of the page and the Antarctic Peninsula to the upper left of the page. They then use directions like it was any other map, i.e., the top of the page is north, bottom south, etc. In fact, with the grid map system the navy pilots use here, they actually fly north from McMurdo to get to the South Pole. ANSWER from Bob Loewenstein on February 8, 1995 Geographically speaking, every direction at the south pole is North (except up and down). But we do have to tell people things, like the wind direction is so and so. To do this, we adopt what is called a 'grid north' system, where north is in the direction of zero longitude (toward Greenwich, England). East is 90 degrees, South 180, and West 270. ******************* COMPASS NEEDLES ******************* __________ QUESTION: What happens to a compass needle when you stand right over the magnetic South Pole? ANSWER from Katy McNitt on February 7, 1995 I've never stood at the magnetic South Pole (it's somewhere in the Southern Ocean, a few hundred miles from the coast of Antarctica), but I can tell you what happens at the Geographic South Pole. On a good-quality compass, the needle will still point toward magnetic north. But the compass on my zipper-pull just spins in slow, lazy, unpredictable circles. ****************** MAGNETIC FIELDS ****************** __________ QUESTION: Are there any unknown magnetic fields in Antarctica similar to those supposedly found in the Bermuda Triangle? If so, where is it located? ANSWER from Todd Duncan on 1/4/95: I don't know much about the supposed magnetic fields near the Bermuda Triangle. You probably know that ships and airplanes can use compasses for navigation. The Earth has an overall magnetic field that roughly lines up with the north and south directions, so the alignment of a magnetic compass needle allows ships to tell which direction they are heading. (If you're interested in learning more about magnetic fields, ask your science teacher how to set up an experiment with a bar magnet, some iron filings and a compass to see how the compass needle points along the field lines). I guess the suggestion about the Bermuda Triangle is that if there is something like a large iron deposit producing a strong magnetic field in the area, then a compass might point somewhere other than north, so that you could get lost because your directions are confused. There are scientists who study the magnetic fields around the South Pole. The way in which the Earth's magnetic field is generated and how it changes over time are very complicated questions. But magnetic fields are produced by electric currents (you might want to ask your science teacher about an experiment to detect the magnetic field produced by a current, too), so there are electric currents in the Earth which produce its magnetic field. One thing the scientists try to do is model the structure of the Earth's magnetic field and determine the position of the south magnetic pole. The pole is where a compass needle points--there are magnetic fields all around, including where you are now, so I can't really tell you a specific place where there is a magnetic field. But you can give the position of the magnetic pole. The position of this magnetic pole is changing with time, and I think it actually is now somewhere in the ocean, off the coast of Antarctica. ************* NAVIGATION ************* __________ QUESTION: How did early explorers who tried to reach the South Pole navigate? Our class thinks that magnetic compasses wouldn't work and using the position of the stars wouldn't work either. ANSWER from Deane Rink Your class is correct on both counts. Magnetic compasses do tend to go screwy down here, and the stars are not visible during the summer (i.e., warmer) months when exploration was first attempted. But you also can navigate through sighting the sun, especially if you have accurate time-keeping devices that allow you to tell time of day and number of elapsed days during those months when the sun never sets and counting sunsets would be impossible. By tracking the rotations of the sun around the polar sky and determining the angle at which the sun appears at a given time, one can roughly determine one's position on the planet. This skill had been developed by early explorers long before the Antarctic was mapped, so that technology was well- understood by the Amundsens and Scotts and Shackletons when they started their inland treks. ******************************************************* TIME ZONES, ZIP & AREA CODES ******************************************************* ************** TIME ZONES ************** ___________ QUESTION: How do time zones work in Antarctica? ANSWER from Craig Mundell on December 15, 1994 Time in Antarctica is very strange and does not seem to follow time zones like you are used to. Most of the stations down here set their time with either the place that they communicate with the most, or the point of debarkation from the "real world." For example, McMurdo Station is on the same time as Christchurch, New Zealand, since we communicate a lot with offices there and that is where we depart from when coming to McMurdo. Along the same lines, South Pole Station and the rest of the field camps that originate from McMurdo are on the same time since they all work together. However, Palmer Station, which is another U.S. station that is on the Antarctic Peninsula, is set closer to the time in Punta Arenas, Chile, since that is the closest "real world" station and is the point of debarkation for people going to Palmer. But to make things a little more complicated, Vostok, which is one of the Russian stations, is set on the same time as Moscow, Russia. This is probably due to the fact that this is where they have most of their communications. So the final answer is that there are no set time zones in Antarctica and you would not be able to figure out the time here by looking at a map. __________ QUESTION: Is it true that the time zone for the continent is eastern plus 18 hours? ANSWER: from Craig Mundell on January 8, 1995 The time at McMurdo is EST plus 18. However, this is only because the time zone of Christchurch, New Zealand, is EST plus 18, and we use Christchurch time. This would be the same for all of the camps that are linked with McMurdo even though they are spread across the continent, and most likely several time zones. For example, South Pole Station is located at the geographic south pole, where all time zones converge, yet it is linked timewise with McMurdo (or truly, to Christchurch NZ). Then, to use the same example as before, Vostok station is based on Moscow time which is EST plus 8 hours, or 10 hours behind McMurdo time. It can then be said that you can not safely guess time in Antarctica based strictly on the geographic time zone lines. ____________ QUESTION: How is time measured or divided? ANSWER from Deane Rink The American program in McMurdo and South Pole all run on New Zealand time, which is 18 hours ahead of American Eastern Standard Time. Palmer Station on the peninsula runs on South American time. ************************** AREA CODES & ZIP CODES ************************** __________ QUESTION: How do Area Codes and Zip Codes work in Antarctica? ANSWER from Craig Mundell on January 9, 1995 There are no area or zip codes in Antarctica. The way these work is actually similar to the time zones in that it varies by station. At McMurdo station, our "area code" is actually in Sacramento, California. That is where our satellite carrier is based. The mail we receive comes via military means from an FPO box in San Francisco, California, so the zip code is in San Francisco. The bases for other countries most likely work in a similar manner.