Troll Station - Dronning Maud Land Antarctica

It's been a few exciting weeks for me, and a few other APECS members as we participated in the Students on Ice 2011 University Expedition. We had 3 wonderful weeks that started in Argentina, crashed through the Drake Passage, and explored the amazingly beautiful Antarctic Peninsula - and back again. You can learn more about our very educational trip and how you can get involved in the next expedition at http://www.uantarctic.org/.

Being a 'Norwegian' in Antarctica comes with a lot of history. The first person to get to the South Pole was Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, in 1911, almost 100 years ago. So this seems like a good time to tell you about Norway's Troll Station in Dronning Maud Land.

"Troll is a research station located at Jutulsessen, 235 kilometers (146 mi) from the coast in the eastern part of Princess Martha Coast in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. It is Norway's only all-year research station in Antarctica, and is supplemented by the summer-only station Tor. Troll is operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute and also features facilities for the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research and a satellite downloading dome run by Kongsberg Satellite Services.

Contrary to most other research stations on the continent, Troll is constructed on the snow-free slope of solid rock breaking through the ice sheet at Jutulsessen, located 1,275 meters (4,183 ft) above mean sea level. The station opened as a summer-only station in 1990 and was taken into use as an all-year station in 2005. It has an overwintering capacity of eight people and a summer capacity of 40. It is served by Troll Airfield, which is the base for the Dronning Maud Land Air Network."

-- Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28research_station%29

For more information on the station and the research conducted there:  http://npweb.npolar.no/english/subjects/1167816415.8