The Sun sets over the US South Pole station for the last time until this fall. (credit: NOAA)
The first day of spring causes most people in North America to think longingly of warmer days ahead in the summer months. But at the southern edge of the world—specifically, the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station—spring marks the last time researchers will see the sun for six months.
On Sunday, NOAA posted a haunting photo of the last sunset at the research station, where a few dozen researchers will spend the next six months in darkness. It's so cold, with temperatures as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit, that airplanes will not return to the site until October at the earliest.
But the experience is not without its amusements. As the Atlantic described in a 2015 article, many South Pole winter denizens will attempt to join the 300 Club, in which one enjoys a 200-degree sauna and then streaks naked to the South Pole itself in -100 degree conditions. Most participants wear nothing but a scarf.
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