Dome A or Dome Argus is the highest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau, located inland. It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth, with temperatures believed to reach . It is the highest ice feature 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 (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, consisting of an ice dome or eminence above sea level. It is located near the center of

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying primarily in the Eastern Hemisphere south of the Indian Ocean, and separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic ...

, approximately midway between the enormous head of Lambert Glacier and the geographic

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

, within the Australian claim.

Description

Dome Argus is located on the massive

East Antarctic Ice Sheet The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) lies between 45th meridian west, 45° west and 168th meridian east, 168° east longitudinally. It was first formed around 34 million years ago, and it is the largest ice sheet on the entire planet, with far gre ...

and is the highest ice feature of Antarctica. Dome A is a lofty ice prominence, the highest rooftop of the Antarctic Plateau, and the elevation visually is not noticeable. Below this enormous dome, underneath at least of ice sheet, lies the Gamburtsev Mountain Range, about the size of the European Alps. The name "Dome Argus" was given by the

Scott Polar Research Institute The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south ...

from Greek mythology. Argus built the ship ''

Argo In Greek mythology, the ''Argo'' ( ; ) was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. The ship was built with divine aid, and some ancient sources describe her as the first ship to sail the seas. The ''Argo'' carried the Argonauts on their quest fo ...

'', in which

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...

and the

Argonauts The Argonauts ( ; ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo'', named after it ...

traveled to

Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

in search of the Golden Fleece. This site is one of the driest locations on Earth and receives of snow per year. Due to this, as well as calm weather, this site is an excellent location to obtain

ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier ...

samples for the research of past climates. Temperatures at Dome A fall below almost every winter.

Exploration

Details of the morphology of this feature were determined by the SPRI-NSF-TUD airborne radio echo sounding program between the years 1967 and 1979. In January 2005 a team from the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expeditions (CHINARE) traversed from Zhongshan Station to Dome A and located the highest point of the ice sheet ( above sea level) by GPS survey at on January 18. This point is near one end of an elongated ridge (about long and wide), which is a major ice divide and has an elevation difference along its length of only a few meters. An automatic

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

(AWS) was deployed at Dome A, and a second station was installed approximately halfway between the summit and the coast at a site called Eagle (, 2830 m above sea level). These AWS are operated as part of an ongoing collaboration between China and Australia and include a third AWS (LGB69) at , above sea level, which has operated since January 2002. The station at Dome A is powered by

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s and

diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...

and requires yearly service and refuelling.

Extreme temperatures

The coldest air temperature recorded by thermometer at Dome A since January 2005 was in July 2005. This may have been beaten by an unconfirmed reading of in June 2019. The lowest surface temperature ever measured on the surface of the Earth () was recorded by satellite on August 10, 2010, between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji. Analysis of satellite data and atmospheric models shows that Ridge A, which is located southeast of Dome A, is potentially an even better location to look for the lowest temperatures on Earth.

Observatory

The Polar Research Institute of China deployed a robotic observatory called PLATO (PLATeau Observatory) on the dome in January 2008. PLATO was designed and built by the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

, Sydney, Australia to provide a platform from which astronomical observations and site-testing could be conducted. Various institutions from Australia, US, China and the UK provided instruments that were deployed with PLATO, these instruments included CSTAR, Gattini, PreHEAT, Snodar, Nigel and the PLATO web cameras. The Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Science

established a wireless network technology based observation system called Dome A-WSN on the dome in January 2008. The Antarctic Kunlun Station, Kunlun Station, China's third station in Antarctica, was set up at the dome on January 27, 2009. Thus far the Antarctic Kunlun Station is suitable as a summer station, but there are plans to develop it further and build an airfield nearby to ease servicing, as it is not reachable by

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

References

External links

AAD website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100324134431/http://mcba11.phys.unsw.edu.au/~plato/plato.html PLATO – Dome A Robotic Observatorybr>Live Webcams From Dome AInternational Polar Foundation coveragePLATO – Dome A Robotic Observatory – Chinese Translation
(China Daily, Oct 14 2004)

(People's Daily, Jan 19 2005)
Chinese Engineer Receives Medical Treatment After Falling Ill During Antarctic Traverse
(US National Science Foundation, Jan 19 2005)

(People's Daily, Jan 21 2005)

(Beijing Review, May 2005)
OpenStreetMap
{{Antarctica East Antarctica Plateaus of Antarctica Outposts of Antarctica Ice caps of Antarctica Mountains of Mac. Robertson Land Australian Antarctic Territory Extreme points of Earth