Internet

Comparison of network bandwidth (the maximum data transfer rate) in megabits per second.
 McMurdo has about the bandwidth of one smartphone for 1200 people at peak season
      
       Current conditions:  Temp -17ºF (wind chill out of range), mostly clear.  Population: 298

 If you pay attention to the population size in the header, you'll start to notice it rising, initially slowly and then quite steeply.  Our internet access will go down proportionate with the number of people--and the type of people--on the station.  

 Here is why.  No high-speed fiber-optic cables connect us to the internet.   Rather, we get our internet through a network of tracking and data relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit.  Fiber optic cable transmissions go at the speed of light and usually transmit over short distances.  Satellite transmissions goes at the speed of radio waves over a very long distance, i.e, to space and back.  So, to download a movie that, in the US would take about 7 minutes, requires about 12 hours of download time.  And we're not allowed to do it (or use Netflix or Spotify or Skype or Facetime or messaging or  cloud computing or any number of other commonplace sites for entertainment and communication).

 To make things worse, scientists are allowed much broader access to the internet than contractors so that they can send big data files. Scientists set up times when they will transmit data--presumably with a few selfies along with them--but we have no such luck.   They also are given wifi access whereas contractors are not.  

 So starting tomorrow, when the summer season officially begins, expect my blogs to have fewer and fewer pictures and perhaps less frequent postings.  

 The good side of all this?  No one plays with their iPhones at dinner.  We actually have to talk.  Unless like the hermit types (and me at breakfast), you sit at the "suicide tables", the tables with seats for only one.

 So, while I still am assured internet access, here is a picture of Erebus at twilight.







Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Julie, you make it sound like the speed of radio waves is slower than the speed of light! ;-)
September 30, 2019 at 10:00 PM
JP said…
Doh! I guess I should leave the physics to smarter people!
October 1, 2019 at 3:10 PM
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