Four Americans and eight Norwegians spent 3 and a half months (2007-2008) traversing from the Antarctic Coast to the South Pole as part of an International Polar Year (IPY) field expedition. Our scientific measurements included 1) drilling 700 meters of ice cores to measure chemical and physical properties; 2) collecting 2500-km of radar data to map snow and ice accumulation between drill sites; 3) making detailed near-surface physical and chemical snow measurements; 4) installing two automatic weather stations; and 5) making deep-ice temperature measurements. This suite of observations will be used to gain new insights into the paleo-environments and climate change of this virtually unexplored area of Antarctica.
 
Diary Excerpt (Glen), 1 December 2007

As I lie in my small tent at -48 °C (-54 °F) near the center of Antarctica, I try to mentally force my near-frozen toes back to life. The temperatures I am experiencing now are just about equal to the mean annual Antarctic air temperature in this area; something that typically changes only slowly over the decades and centuries. I also note that one month ago I was flying, uncontrolled, 15 meters (50 feet) through the air in response to a 52 m/s (132 mph) wind gust during a storm near the Antarctic coast. I am part of a scientific research expedition traversing from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, and this is exactly what we are here to study and understand: weather and climate variability and change on time scales of 1000 seconds (like my wind-borne flight) to 1000 years (like my cold, cold night).