South Pole Station

The South Pole Station (Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station) is a US scientific research facility at the South Pole, which is on a plateau of about 2835 meters' altitude. The station consists of a single building and nearby science equipment. It dates from 1957, the building since replaced twice. Among its past and present astronomy facilities:

• ACBAR (on the telescope, Viper, past).
• AMANDA (past neutrino observatory).
• BICEP, BICEP2, and BICEP3.
• DASI (past).
• IceCube.
• Keck Array.
• QUaD (past).
• South Pole Telescope (SPT).

The altitude and dry air make it of interest for astronomical observation, particularly millimeter astronomy and the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The region's thick layer of ice (2700 meters, accounting for most of the location's altitude) is used as a scintillator for neutrino detection.