A light show in Antarctic darkness
Antarctica in winter, for most people, would be a pretty miserable experience — extreme cold, indoor confinement, and almost permanent darkness.
For Barry Becker, Antarctica is the place to practise his work as a meteorologist for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and to pursue his passion as a landscape photographer. “Winter [on Antarctica] provides amazing opportunities to photograph phenomena that only occur in polar regions,” he said.
Becker is at Casey Station, about 3900km due south of Perth, and experiences average maximum temperatures of below -10C degrees and daylight lasting just 2.5 hours. The sun reaches a maximum of one degree when it does crawl above the horizon.
Becker writes in a blog: “Over the last few weeks there have been several wondrous long nights when expeditioners have been treated to the aurora australis”. The aurora is caused by solar wind colliding with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen high up in the Earth’s ionosphere, releasing energy as colourful light halos and occurring at both poles.
He also describes several other light phenomena unique to these environments and has taken some spectacular photographs to illustrate them:
● Light and solar pillars. Vertical beams of light appearing to extend above and/or below a light source, caused by the reflection from tiny ice crystals suspended or falling through a super cold atmosphere.
● Fata Morgana — a complex form of mirage visible in a narrow band right above the horizon — was named after the Italian name of Morgan le Fay (Morgan the Fairy) from the King Arthur legend. The mirages were believed to be fairy castles or false land conjured to lure sailors to their deaths.
● Sun dogs, mock suns and parhelia. These are variations in the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals in the cold atmosphere. Ice crystals form between panes of
double and triple-glazed windows. Becker uses a macro lens to photograph these quite small phenomena, magnifying the crystals to reveal their intricate lattice patterns.
“The Antarctic is such a unique environment and there are so many opportunities to photograph the special things that only can be seen here,” Becker writes.
If you don’t fancy months of extreme cold, captivation and nearpermanent darkness, you can enjoy his work instead.