<story><title>The McMurdo Webcams</title><url>https://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dchristian</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s amazing that they have the bandwidth for this.  I assume there is a US or NZ based server that serves the world, but still.&lt;p&gt;I was there in the 92-93 season.  We were lucky to have e-mail back then.&lt;p&gt;We did our own special internet link for a project that used spare bandwidth on a non commercial satellite.  We had 1.544mbit up and 9600 down.  We sent what would eventually be called motion jpeg for &amp;quot;video&amp;quot;.  There was no audio.  The satellite dish was pointed 3deg below the horizon; but we were on a mountain, so that was fine.&lt;p&gt;McMurdo is a fabulously weird place.  The US Navy manages all the food&amp;#x2F;fuel&amp;#x2F;housing logistics.  Then you get the researchers coming through to do projects.  They may be working  from McMurdo, but most are just be gearing up to go out on the ice.  These are often grad students, researchers, and faculty.  So the average IQ is much higher than your typical ski town.&lt;p&gt;The staff that works the station is there because they like the environment.  You find people with college degrees doing maintenance and safety trainings.  Most are just there for the summer season (which is now).  Some will winter over.&lt;p&gt;Most of the fuel and cargo comes in once a year.  The ice breaker is at the ice dock, so that can happen any time now.&lt;p&gt;Everything else is flown in&amp;#x2F;out from NZ at considerable expense.  Early in the season the ice is thick enough to land jets like the C-5 and C-17.  While they are in the ground, they have to move them every few hours to keep the ice from cracking under all that weight.  By this time in the season it&amp;#x27;s probably just C-130s doing everything.  Once the sun goes back down, all flights cease and there is nothing can get out for 9 months.</text></comment>
<story><title>The McMurdo Webcams</title><url>https://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Nitrolo</author><text>I always imagined these antarctic stations as a kind of spaceship, with a lot of technology and effort poured into them but maybe a few dozen scientists at most operating everything.&lt;p&gt;Instead this is a whole town! Wikipedia says the population is 1000 people in the summer, which is probably 20 times more than I would have guessed.&lt;p&gt;Fascinating, thanks for the link!</text></comment>