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Kohnen Station

Coordinates: 75°00′07″S 0°04′00″E / 75.001882°S 0.066792°E / -75.001882; 0.066792
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Kohnen Station
Kohnen Station
Kohnen Station
Location of Kohnen Station in Antarctica
Location of Kohnen Station in Antarctica
Kohnen Station
Location of Kohnen Station in Antarctica
Coordinates: 75°00′07″S 0°04′00″E / 75.001882°S 0.066792°E / -75.001882; 0.066792
Country Germany
Location in AntarcticaDronning Maud Land
Antarctica
Administered byAlfred Wegener Institute
Established11 January 2001 (2001-01-11)
Elevation2,892 m (9,488 ft)
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Summer
6
 • Winter
0
UN/LOCODEAQ KHN
TypeSeasonal
PeriodSummer
StatusOperational
ActivitiesCore drilling
WebsiteKohnen Station AWI
Kohnen Skiway
Summary
Airport typePrivate
LocationKohnen Station
Elevation AMSL9,566 ft / 2,916 m
Coordinates75°00′04″S 0°04′08″E / 75.001186°S 0.06881°E / -75.001186; 0.06881
Map
Kohnen Skiway is located in Antarctica
Kohnen Skiway
Kohnen Skiway
Location of airfield in Antarctica
Map
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
17/35 2,957 901 Ice

Kohnen-Station is a German summer-only polar research station in the Antarctic, able to accommodate up to 28 people.[1] It is named after the geophysicist Heinz Kohnen (1938–1997), who was for a long time the head of logistics at the Alfred Wegener Institute.

The station opened on January 11, 2001, in Dronning Maud Land. The station is located at 75°00'S, 00°04'E, and 2892 m above sea level. It is located 757 km southeast of Neumayer Station III, which lies on the Ekstrom Ice Shelf and provides logistics and administration for Kohnen-Station. Like the United Kingdom's Halley V station, the base is built on steel legs allowing the station to be jacked up as the height of the snow surface increases.

The station contains a radio room, a mess room, a kitchen, bathrooms, two bedrooms, a snow melter, a store, a workshop, and a power plant (100 kW). It is supplied by a convoy of 6 towing vehicles, which carry up to 20 tons each, and 17 sledges. The base is resupplied twice each year, with up to 6 sledge trains at a time. This traverse takes 9–14 days.[3]

Sledges

About 17 sledges are kept at the station. They are mainly used for transport (pulled via a snowmobile) and logistics.

Towing vehicles

About a convoy of 6 towing vehicles are stationed. They are mainly used for logistics.

PistenBully

Around 3 PistenBully snowcats are stationed at the base. They are mainly used for logistics, filling the snow melter, and clearing the snow.

Kohnen station is the logistic base for the ice coring project in Dronning Maud Land, the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA). A core was also drilled at Kohnen station.[4]

In 2019, researchers found interstellar iron in Antarctica in snow from the Kohnen Station which they relate to the Local Interstellar Cloud[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Antarctic Station Catalogue (PDF) (catalogue). Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs. August 2017. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-473-40409-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Kohnen Skiway". Airport Nav Finder. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  3. ^ "Drilling into the past - The Kohnen Station in the Antarctic". Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  4. ^ Thomas Stocker. "European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA)". European Science Foundation. Archived from the original on 2012-06-12.
  5. ^ Koll, D.; et., al. (2019). "Interstellar 60Fe in Antarctica". Physical Review Letters. 123 (7): 072701. Bibcode:2019PhRvL.123g2701K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.072701. hdl:1885/298253. PMID 31491090. S2CID 201868513.
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