, sometimes alternately spelled Syowa Station, is a Japanese permanent research station on

East Ongul Island East Ongul Island is an island in the Flatvaer Islands off of Antarctica. It is long, lying immediately east of the northern part of Ongul Island at the east side of the entrance of Lutzow-Holm Bay. East Ongul Island this island was original ...

in Queen Maud Land,

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 ...

. Built in 1957, Showa Station is named for the

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Compa ...

in the Japanese calendar during which it was established, the

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

Overview

Showa Station serves as a research outpost for

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

earth science Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

s. 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.

PANSY Incoherent Scatter Radar

Showa station is home to the Program of the Antarctic Syowa Mesosphere–Stratosphere–Troposphere/Incoherent Scatter (PANSY) incoherent scatter radar, which took its first measurements in 2017.

Legacy

1957 Expedition

The station was founded by the inaugural

Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition The refers to a series of Japanese Antarctic expeditions for scientific research. The first JARE expedition was launched in 1957 to coordinate with the International Geophysical Year. This was the team which left 15 dogs, including Taro and Ji ...

in 1957. This expedition was airlifted out after a storm made deploying the second team impossible in February 1958. In January 1959, the third team returned to the station and found that, of 15 sled dogs that had been left by the previous team, two,

Taro and Jiro Taro (タロ; 1955–1970) and Jiro (ジロ; 1955–1960) were two Sakhalin Huskies which survived for eleven months in Antarctica after being left behind by the 1958 Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition. Due to poor weather conditions, the exp ...

, had survived.

Historic monument

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

and plaque at the station commemorate Shin Fukushima, a member of the 4th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition, who died in October 1960 while carrying out his duties. The cairn, which contains some of his

ashes Ashes may refer to: *Ash, the solid remnants of fires. Media and entertainment Art * ''Ashes'' (Munch), an 1894 painting by Edvard Munch Film * ''The Ashes'' (film), a 1965 Polish film by director Andrzej Wajda * ''Ashes'' (1922 film), a ...

, was erected on 11 January 1961 by his colleagues. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 2) following a proposal by Japan to the

Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting russian: link=no, Договор об Антарктике es, link=no, Tratado Antártico , name = Antarctic Treaty System , image = Flag of the Antarctic Treaty.svgborder , image_width = 180px , caption ...

In popular culture

* Showa Station is the Antarctic destination of the protagonists of '' A Place Further than the Universe'', a 2018 Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series. * The monster

Ghidorah is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', which first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1964 film ''Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster''. Although the name of the character is officially trademarked by Toho as "King Ghidorah", the character was originally ...

is located on the base - called "Outpost 32" - in the 2019 film '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' * Showa Station is depicted in the 1983 film ''

''.

Climate

The climate is classified as an Ice cap climate ( Köppen: EF), since there are no months where the average temperature exceeds .

References

External links

Official website National Institute of Polar Research

Syowa Base Now!! (Japanese only)

OpenStreetMap

COMNAP Antarctic Facilities

COMNAP Antarctic Facilities MapShowa Research Station Amateur Radio Station 8J1RL
{{Authority control Outposts of Queen Maud Land Japanese Antarctic Program Buildings and structures completed in 1957 Prince Harald Coast 1957 establishments in Antarctica Historic Sites and Monuments of Antarctica