Mawson Station
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Mawson Station is a permanent base in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). It is named after the explorer, Douglas Mawson. Mawson is Australia's oldest Antarctic station and the oldest continuously inhabited Antarctic station of any nation below the Antarctic Circle.
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[edit] History
Mawson Station is located in Mac Robertson Land, named in January 1930 by Sir Douglas Mawson during the first British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) voyage, aboard Discovery. It is in a region which Mawson proclaimed as British territory on several occasions in 1930 and 1931 (including at Proclamation Island, Scullin Monolith and Cape Bruce), and later became Australian Antarctic Territory.
Some features in the region (including the Framnes Mountains, which form the dramatic backdrop to Mawson Station) were named in the 1930s by Norwegian explorers financed by the shipowner and whaling magnate Lars Christensen.
The station site was chosen in 1953 by Dr. Phillip Law, first director of the AAD, who drew on aerial photographs taken during the U.S. ‘Operation Highjump’ of 1946-1947 to select the site for its large natural harbour (Horseshoe Harbour) and permanently exposed rock for building. The station was built during 1954. Some of the small pre-fabricated huts used in the first years remain on the station, but these are overshadowed by large steel-framed modular buildings dating from a major rebuilding program which started in the late 1970s.
Mawson Station houses approximately 20 personnel over winter and 60 in summer. It is the only Antarctic station to use wind generators for over 70% of its power needs, saving over 600,000 litres of diesel fuel per year.
[edit] Climate
Mawson Station experiences a Polar climate:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily maximum temperature (°C) | 2.6 | -1.3 | -7.2 | -11.8 | -13.6 | -13.6 | -15.0 | -15.6 | -14.4 | -10.0 | -2.7 | 2.1 | -8.4 | |
| Mean daily minimum temperature (°C) | -2.6 | -7.3 | -13.2 | -17.3 | -19.3 | -19.5 | -20.8 | -21.7 | -20.6 | -16.4 | -8.9 | -3.2 | -14.3 | |
| Mean daily sunshine (hours) | 8.3 | 7.7 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 7.5 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 5.0 | |
| Mean number of cloudy days | 16.0 | 13.3 | 13.8 | 11.9 | 10.5 | 9.6 | 10.6 | 10.9 | 11.7 | 13.2 | 14.4 | 15.7 | 151.5 | |
| Source: Bureau of Meteorology | ||||||||||||||
[edit] See also
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