On a volcanic rock just off the coast of Antarctica, McMurdo Station is busy with scientific research this time of year, and for all that it needs high-speed internet.
Run by the US National Science Foundation, the station hosts up to 1,000 visitors in the Antarctic summer from October through February, who travel here to conduct research on topics ranging from climate to ocean science, The Verge reports.
But despite its central role in Antarctic research, McMurdo Station lacks something most scientists working at 21st-century labs take for granted: high-speed internet.
McMurdo is on the only continent that doesn’t have a high-speed fibre-optic cable connection to the rest of the world. But that could soon change.
Earlier this year, the NSF began thinking seriously about the possibility of laying a fibre-optic cable that would run along the seabed from Antarctica to New Zealand or Australia.
The idea was first floated a little over a decade ago, but has faded in importance as other projects have taken priority. If this latest effort to upgrade the Antarctic internet is a success, scientists say it would transform both research and everyday life on the frozen continent.
“It would change the fundamental experience of living in Antarctica,” said Peter Neff, a glaciologist and research assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.
Today, researchers working in Antarctica rely on low-bandwidth satellites to communicate with the outside world.
Researchers have to save their data on hard drives and not all of them can analyse it in real time.
Compared to a typical rural household, the amount of bandwidth available per person at McMurdo is limited, says Patrick Smith, technology development manager at NSF.
Researchers often have to store their data on a hard drive instead of exporting it to the cloud so others can analyze it in real time. This creates a bottleneck that slows down scientific research.
In late June, NSF sponsored a three-day workshop that brought together U.S. and international researchers to discuss the transformative potential of a fiber optic cable to Antarctica, including how it will affect research, education, and the well-being of those who spend time at McMurdo Station.
In October, workshop organisers released a comprehensive report highlighting key points, potential routes and how the fibre optic cable could be used to collect additional scientific data in this remote land.
Fibre optic internet would offer more research possibilities
Conference participants said that daily life and research at McMurdo Station would change in countless ways if a high-speed fiber-optic Internet connection were available.
Researchers could live-stream daily operations instead of relying on archival recorders, weather forecasting could be improved, satellite imagery could be analyzed in real time, cybersecurity could be advanced, and participation in projects could be expanded beyond those conducting research in the field.
In addition to more efficient data analysis, the physical presence of the cable could make it possible to collect new types of data.
For example, fibres in the cable could be used to collect seismic data through a new technique called ‘distributed acoustic sensing’.
Sensors could be added to the cable to make continuous observations of temperature and pressure in the Antarctic Ocean, a key site for understanding the speed of climate change. The Antarctic Ocean is poorly researched, Neff says, and as temperatures rise, continuous real-time observations could greatly improve scientists’ understanding of it.
Beyond research opportunities, faster internet would make it easier for visitors to the station to connect with their family, their colleagues outside Antarctica and the general public.
“Having that kind of interactivity allows people to imagine themselves in that situation and see what that work is like on a day-to-day basis,” says Antarctic director Ariel Waldman.
In 2018, Waldman traveled to Antarctica for five weeks to film life under the ice through the NSF Antarctica Artist and Writers program.
Waldman said that a faster internet will make a big difference to scientific communication because it will allow communicators to interact with people outside Antarctica in real time.
While a high-speed internet connection could provide many benefits, some scientists also worry about how such a change will affect the culture at McMurdo Station.
High-speed internet could change community interactions
“Another important debate is about how it would change the way the community operates” Neff said.
Antarctic research stations are tight-knit communities because of their isolation, Neff explained. Full connectivity could bring very big changes, including in how researchers interact with each other and how focused they are on field work versus events at home.
The next step in making Antarctica’s high-speed Internet upgrade a reality is a formal study that NSF will conduct with assistance from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Completing this study, which will include pricing the cable and related infrastructure, studying the routing, and developing a schedule for installation of all, is a key milestone. After that, NSF will decide whether to proceed with the project.
“Improved communications will remove some of the burden, make it much easier for [people] to be organized in the field, and expand the experience of those who couldn’t travel. We look at this as a transformational opportunity,” Smith said.
