Beam me up, Scotty

While Antarctica is stuck in a perpetual state of darkness during its winter, astronomers at the Concordia Research Station are busy conducting observations that provide valuable scientific insights. Without the interfering presence of daylight, the Light Detection and Ranging instrument’s (LIDAR) laser is able to pierce the sky in order to find out more about our planet’s atmosphere. Scattered light is recorded by sensors and reveals more about atmospheric density, temperature, wind speed, cloud formation and aerosol particles.