Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme
Encyclopedia
Bernardo O'Higgins
Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme was a Chilean independence leader who, together with José de San Martín, freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile , he is considered one of Chile's founding fathers, as he was the first holder...
is a permanently staffed Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an base in Antarctica. It is located at 63°19′15"S 57°53′55"W, at an elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
of 13 m, about 30 km southwest of Prime Head
Prime Head
Prime Head is a prominent snow-covered headland which forms the Northern extremity of Antarctic Peninsula. The name Siffrey was given to a cape in this vicinity by the French Antarctic Expedition under Capt. Jules Dumont d'Urville, 1837-40, and was previously approved for the feature here described...
, the northernmost point of the Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....
. It was established on February 18, 1948 and is one of the Antarctic bases with the longest times of continuous operation. The winter population is 16, and the peak population in the Antarctic summer is usually 44, although up to 60 persons can be accommodated. The base is operated by the Chilean Army. It is also known as Puerto Covadonga after the port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
on which it is located .
The German Antarctic Receiving Station (GARS) was established at O'Higgins in 1991 by the DLR
German Aerospace Center
The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...
. It is a satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
ground station sited in Antarctica to enable reception of data from satellite-based sensors within the south polar region that might otherwise be lost. High bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
sensors such as SAR
Synthetic aperture radar
Synthetic-aperture radar is a form of radar whose defining characteristic is its use of relative motion between an antenna and its target region to provide distinctive long-term coherent-signal variations that are exploited to obtain finer spatial resolution than is possible with conventional...
generate too much data to be stored on board the satellite for transmission to ground stations elsewhere. GARS was sited at O'Higgins because of the geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
and accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
of the base.
External links
Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Official website Instituto Antartico Chileno- Gecko2 Electric Boogaloo http://www.gecko2.proboards.com
- The O'Higgins Penguin Webcam (Gentoo penguins; seasonal)
- German Antarctic Receiving Station Antarktis Station, a personal website about life at GARS O'Higgins.
- COMNAP Antarctic Facilities
- COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map