Polar Exploration

Polar mesospheric clouds in the Northern Hemisphere are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 31 crew member on the International Space Station. In both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, during their respective late spring and early summer seasons, polar mesospheric clouds are at the peak of their visibility.

Fifteen orbits of the recently launched Suomi NPP satellite provided the VIIRS instrument enough time (and longitude) to gather the pixels for this synthesized view of Earth showing the Arctic, Europe, and Asia. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Suomi NPP

Click here to view the western hemisphere Blue Marble 2012 from Suomi NPP: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001

A nice video contact with the crew overwintering in Concordia, the European Antarctic research station. This photo was taken on June 3, 2012 by International Space Station astronaut Andre Kuipers using a Nikon D2Xs. Credit: ESA/NASA Larger image

Sunsets started to tease the Arctic horizon as scientists on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy headed south in the Chukchi Sea during the final days collecting ocean data for the 2011 ICESCAPE mission.

Engineer Eric Trautmann checks on Yeti during a test of the robot in October 2010 along the South Pole Traverse route through the McMurdo shear zone. The goal was to compare GPR quality and rover utility with a manual GPR system mounted in a Pisten Bully. Photo Credit: Jim Lever

A team of scientists representing several international institutions, including Texas A&M University, has succeeded in installing the first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3-1) at the Chinese Kunlun Station at Dome Argus, the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau.