POLAR PROJECTS

摘要

Icebergs, midnight sun, penguins, mile after mile of pristine snow: the North and South Poles have an allure that many adventurous scientists find hard to resist. The scientific possibilities are also tempting. Research areas include extracting records of ancient climate encoded in the ice, studying life in extreme environments, and observing the cosmos through some of the thinnest and driest air on Earth. There are unique opportunities to probe the interactions of the solar winds with Earths magnetic fields, collect meteorites to detect pre-solar grains, or monitor earthquakes thousands of miles away using seismic signals transmitted through Earths core. But finding research positions at the poles is often competitive, and interested researchers should be aware of the less-than-glamorous reality of prolonged fieldwork on a polar base.