Palmer Station on May 9, 2015. Palmer is located on a protected harbor on the southwestern coast of Anvers Island off the Antarctica Peninsula. It is the only U.S. Antarctic station north of the Antarctic Circle. Palmer is well-located for biological studies of birds, seals, and other components of the marine ecosystem. #

South Pole “fuelie” Rose Meyer gets pretty cold when performing her job fueling airplanes at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on October 26, 2010. The warmest temperature recorded that week at Pole was -34.8 degrees Fahrenheit (-37.1 degrees Celsius) and the coldest temperature was -58.4 degrees Fahrenheit (-50.2 degrees Celsius). #

The Peltier Channel separates Doumer and Wiencke Islands in the Palmer Archipelago. It was named for Jean Peltier, a noted French physicist. Photographed on May 17, 2012. #

A Weddell seal sports a video data recorder that scientists use to create a three-dimensional map of its movement in the water as it hunts for prey. Researchers hope to learn more about the seals’ hunting behavior during late-winter darkness and how they find their breathing holes in the ice. #

Raised footprints in the Antarctic snow. After a storm, the loose snow surrounding the compacted snow under a footprint is scoured away by the wind, leaving strange-looking elevated footprints. Original here. #

Nacreous clouds over the NASA Radome, a weatherproof structure housing a 10-meter antenna. Nacreous clouds, or polar stratospheric clouds, form high in the dry stratosphere, catching sunlight well after dusk and displaying brilliant colors. Original here. #

The Chilean Navy’s ship Aquiles moves alongside the Hurd Peninsula, seen from Livingston Island in Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands archipelago on January 25, 2015. This is also the place where a hole in the ozone layer, from man-made refrigerants and aerosols, parks for a couple months when sunlight creeps back to Antarctica in August. It triggers a chemical reaction that destroys ozone molecules, causing a hole that peaks in September and then closes with warmer weather in November. #

Long-Term Ecological Research field team member Anna Bramucci throws hot water into the air to watch it turn to ice crystals and vapor on a -25 degrees Fahrenheit (-32 degrees Celsius) day at Lake Fryxell field camp in Taylor Valley, Victoria Land, on March 30, 2008. #

A killer whale swims amid floating ice in the Ross Sea. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southwest Fisheries Science Center are studying the whales to determine if there are three separate species of Antarctic killer whales. #

A mirage-like illusion called a fata morgana, usually seen in a narrow band right above the horizon, distorts Ivan the Terra Bus as it approaches Ross Island. The Royal Society Range is in the distance. The green buildings make up Scott Base, a New Zealand research facility. Photographed on November 27, 2012. #