Palmer Station is a United States research station in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

located on

Anvers Island Anvers Island or Antwerp Island or Antwerpen Island or Isla Amberes is a high, mountainous island long, the largest in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. It was discovered by John Biscoe in 1832 and named in 1898 by the Belgian Antarctic ...

, the only US station located north of the

Antarctic Circle The Antarctic Circle is the most southerly of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of Earth. The region south of this circle is known as the Antarctic, and the zone immediately to the north is called the Southern Temperate Zone. S ...

. Initial construction of the station finished in 1968. The station, like the other U.S. Antarctic stations, is operated by the

United States Antarctic Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the A ...

(USAP) of the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

. The base is about as distant from the equator as

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

Description

The station is named for Nathaniel B. Palmer, usually recognized as the first American to see Antarctica. The maximum population that Palmer Station can accommodate is 46 people. The normal austral summer contingent varies, but it is generally around 40 people. Palmer is staffed year-round; however, the population drops to 15-20 people for winter maintenance after the conclusion of the summer research season. There are science labs located in the Bio-Lab building (pictured), the other main building is GWR (Garage, Warehouse, and Recreation).

Webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripheral d ...

images of the station and a

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

colony on nearby Torgersen Island are available at the station's web site. The facility is the second Palmer Station; "Old Palmer" was about a mile to the northwest adjacent to the site of the British Antarctic Survey "Base N", built in the mid-fifties. The site is on what is now known as

Amsler Island Amsler Island is a small island off the south coast of Anvers Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. It sits between Loudwater Cove and Arthur Harbour. The island is a roughly triangular rocky plot of granite land approximately long ...

. Old Palmer was built about 1965, and served as a base for those building "new" Palmer, which opened in 1968. Old Palmer was designated as an emergency refuge for the new station in case of disaster, though this perceived need disappeared over time. It was dismantled and removed from the Antarctic as part of the National Science Foundation's environmental cleanup efforts in the early 1990s. Most of the station's personnel are seasonal employees of the U.S. Antarctic Program's main support contractor,

Leidos Leidos, formerly known as Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), is an American defense company, defense, Aerospace manufacturer, aviation, information technology (Lockheed Martin IS&GS), and biomedical research company headquart ...

. The summer support staff is usually 23 people. Previous main support contractors were Raytheon Polar Services, Holmes and Narver of

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before ...

, ITT Antarctic Services of

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

, and Antarctic Support Associates of

Englewood, Colorado The City of Englewood is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 33,659 at the 2020 United States Census. Englewood is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Stati ...

. Over time many support staff have worked for two or more of these firms.

Science

Palmer Station is located at 64.77°S, 64.05°W. The majority of the science research conducted at Palmer Station revolves around

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

. The station also houses year-round monitoring equipment for global

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

, atmospheric, and UV-monitoring networks, as well as a site for the study of

heliophysics Heliophysics (from the prefix " helio", from Attic Greek ''hḗlios'', meaning Sun, and the noun "physics": the science of matter and energy and their interactions) is the physics of the Sun and its connection with the Solar System. NASA define ...

. Palmer also hosts a

radio receiver In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless, or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. Th ...

that studies

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

over the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...

. Other research is conducted from the

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

s (R/V) '' Laurence M. Gould'' and '' Nathaniel B. Palmer''. Science cruises cover physical

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

marine geology Marine geology or geological oceanography is the study of the history and structure of the ocean floor. It involves geophysical, geochemical, sedimentological and paleontological investigations of the ocean floor and coastal zone. Marine geolog ...

, and marine biology. The ship also carries field parties to sites around the Antarctic Peninsula to study

glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, climato ...

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

, and

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. The USAP has a science planning summary for each year at Palmer Station. In 2005, a research team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Southern Mississippi mapped the nearby ocean floor.

Climate

The Köppen Climate Classification for Palmer Station is a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

(ET). Due to its northern location within Antarctica and proximity to the coast, the temperatures moderate more than interior climates. Winters are generally cold and subzero, while summers are chilly, but regularly rise to temperatures above freezing. The average temperature for the year in Palmer Station is 28.8 °F (-1.8 °C). The warmest month, on average, is January. The coldest month is August.

Supply and transport

Palmer Station is re-supplied by the R/V '' Laurence M. Gould'', a ship with an ice-strengthened hull that makes routine science research cruises around the peninsula. The R/V ''Nathaniel B. Palmer'', the

's other research vessel, has also made port calls to Palmer Station —

Hero Inlet Hero Inlet () is a narrow inlet at the south side of Palmer Station between Gamage Point and Bonaparte Point, along the southwest side of Anvers Island in Antarctica. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after the Research ...

, where the pier is located, is too shallow for the Palmer to dock at the station, though. Both ships are staffed and leased to the USAP by Edison-Chouest Offshore. Hero Inlet is named for the R/V ''Hero'', a 125-foot wooden trawler-type vessel built to conduct research and supply Palmer Station from

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

s in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. The ''Hero'' was owned by the

and built in 1968 by the Harvey Gamage shipyard in Maine. Palmer Station is located on

Gamage Point Gamage Point is a rock point that marks the north side of the entrance to Hero Inlet on the southwest side of Anvers Island in Antarctica. The United States Antarctic Research Program Palmer Station is located on this point. The name, applied by t ...

, named for the shipbuilder. Other people believe that Hero Inlet is named after Capt. Nathaniel Palmer's 47 foot sloop, Hero, that he was sailing when he first sighted Antarctica. After years of service, the ''Hero'' was retired in 1984 and replaced by the R/V '' Polar Duke'', a larger and more modern ice-strengthened vessel under charter from Rieber Shipping, based in

Bergen, Norway Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

. The ''Duke'' was replaced by the R/V ''Laurence M. Gould'' in 1997. There is no routine air access to Palmer. Over the years, small ski-equipped aircraft have occasionally landed on the glacier to the east of the station. USAP participants travel aboard the ''Laurence M. Gould'' from ''

Punta Arenas, Chile Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Aren ...

''. The course follows the

Straits of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural pas ...

to the east, then south along the coast of

, past

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

, then directly south across the

Drake Passage The Drake Passage (referred to as Mar de Hoces Hoces Sea"in Spanish-speaking countries) is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atla ...

and on to

. The entire journey usually takes four days; however,

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oce ...

and storms can slow the journey down.

In popular culture

The 1980

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

Fukkatsu no hi ''Virus'', known in Japan as , is a 1980 Japanese post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Based on Sakyo Komatsu's 1964 novel of the same name, the film stars an international ensemble cast featuring Masao Kusakari, ...

'' (Day of Resurrection/Virus) revolves around Palmer Station as the gathering place for humanity's last survivors of a deadly

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

. The film stars

George Kennedy George Harris Kennedy Jr. (February 18, 1925 – February 28, 2016) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played "Dragline" opposite Paul Newman in ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), winning the Academ ...

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Conway, the station's commanding officer and features

Glenn Ford Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as ...

as the President of the United States. Much of the footage for the film was shot in the vicinity of Palmer Station, though none was actually filmed at the station. Although the actual station can accommodate fewer than 50 people, the station depicted in the film housed several hundred.

Gallery

Ant-pen map anvers.PNG, Location on

. Gerlache Strait.png, Map of Palmer Archipelago region, Cartographic base: Antarctic Digital Database. PalmerFromGlaciar.JPG, Palmer Station. Greetings From Palmer Station, Antarctica.jpg, Residents use their red parkas to send a greeting to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in Ju ...

References

External links

Archived Palmer Station page
on Global Fiducials Program site
Research blog of a 2008 expedition at Palmer Station

Archived Palmer Station page
on Antarctic Connection
Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research

NSF (National Science Foundation) Ultraviolet (UV) Monitoring Network with pictureUSAP Palmer Station webcam
* Palmer Station on LocalWiki {{authority control Outposts of Graham Land Geography of Anvers Island Anvers Island United States Antarctic Program Argentine Antarctica British Antarctic Territory Chilean Antarctic Territory 1968 establishments in Antarctica