Siple Station was a 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 ...
(), established in 1973 by Stanford's STAR Lab, to perform experiments that actively probed the magnetosphere using very low frequency (VLF) waves.
Its location was selected to be near the Earth's south magnetic pole, and the thick ice sheet allowed for a relatively efficient dipole antenna at VLF (very low frequency – 3 kHz range) frequencies. John Katsufrakis of Stanford University was the "father" of the station and the VLF experiment sponsored by Stanford.
There were two stations, Siple I and later Siple II, circa 1979, built above the original which was eventually crushed by the ice. The original Siple I station had a four-person winter over crew and the later Siple II station had an eight-person winter over crew.
The Siple II station used a 300 kW Kato square wound generator powered by a Caterpillar D353 engine to power the VLF (Jupiter) transmitter which transmitted to a receiver in Roberval, Canada. At the time, the Siple II station had the world's longest dipole antenna. Originally long, it was subsequently increased to and then a second antenna running at 90 degrees was added, resulting in a total antenna length of approximately 50 miles and allowing for phased VLF transmissions. Utah State also conducted a high-frequency radar experiment for a few years at the Siple II station.
The Siple II station's house power was provided by two 110 kW generators (one active, one standby) powered by 3306 Caterpillar engines. The Siple II building complex was a meta
Wonder Archstructure approximately long, wide and tall. During winter-over operation the facility stored a maximum of approximately of DFA (Diesel Fuel Arctic) in three fuel bladders.
Siple Station was named after
Paul Siple Paul Allman Siple (December 18, 1908 – November 25, 1968) was an American Antarctic explorer and geographer who took part in six Antarctic expeditions, including the two Byrd expeditions of 1928–1930 and 1933–1935, representing the Boy Scouts ...
, who, as a
Boy Scout
A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...
, was a member of two
Byrd expeditions and other
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
explorations. The station was closed in 1988 following completion of the program.
See also
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List of Antarctic field camps
Many Antarctic research stations support satellite field camps which are, in general, seasonal camps. The type of field camp can vary – some are permanent structures used during the annual Antarctic summer, whereas others are little more than te ...
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List of Antarctic research stations
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Brockton Station
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Byrd Station
The Byrd Station is a former research station established by the United States during the International Geophysical Year by U.S. Navy Seabees during Operation Deep Freeze II in West Antarctica.
History
A joint Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marin ...
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Ellsworth Station
Ellsworth Scientific Station ( es, Estación Científica Ellsworth, or simply ''Estación Ellsworth'' or ''Base Ellsworth'') was a permanent, all year-round originally American, then Argentine Antarctic scientific research station named after Amer ...
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Hallett Station
Cape Hallett is a snow-free area ( Antarctic oasis) on the northern tip of the Hallett Peninsula on the Ross Sea coast of Victoria Land, East Antarctica. Cape Adare lies to the north.
History
In 1956, during Operation Deep Freeze II, was dama ...
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Little America V
Little America was a series of Antarctic exploration bases from 1929 to 1958, located on the Ross Ice Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales.
The coordinates are approximate.
Little America I
The first base in the series was established in January ...
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McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the Unit ...
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Operation Deep Freeze
Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz or ODF) is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There w ...
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Palmer Station
Palmer Station is a United States research station in Antarctica located on Anvers Island, the only US station located north of the Antarctic Circle. Initial construction of the station finished in 1968. The station, like the other U.S. Antarcti ...
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Plateau Station
Plateau Station is an inactive American research and South Pole—Queen Maud Land Traverse support base on the central Antarctic Plateau. Construction on the site started on December 13, 1965, and the first traverse team (named SPQML II) arr ...
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South Pole Station
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
References
External links
STAR Lab
{{Antarctica
1973 establishments in Antarctica
1988 disestablishments in Antarctica