Mawson Station
- For other places, people, and things named Mawson see: Mawson
Mawson Station is a permanent base in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). It is named after the explorer, Douglas Mawson. Mawson is the oldest continuously inhabited Antarctic station below the Antarctic Circle.
It is located at 67°36′S 62°53′E / 67.600°S 62.883°E in Mac Robertson Land. The site was chosen in 1954 by Dr. Philip Law, first director of the AAD, because there is a large natural harbour, named Horseshoe Harbour, and there is permanent exposed rock for building.
Mawson Station is the only station to use wind generators for over 70% of its power needs, saving over 600,000 litres of diesel fuel per year.
Climate
Mawson Station experiences a Polar climate:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily maximum temperature (°C) | 2.6 | -1.3 | -7.2 | -11.8 | -13.6 | -13.6 | -15.0 | -15.6 | -14.4 | -10.0 | -2.7 | 2.1 | -8.4 | |
| Mean daily minimum temperature (°C) | -2.6 | -7.3 | -13.2 | -17.3 | -19.3 | -19.5 | -20.8 | -21.7 | -20.6 | -16.4 | -8.9 | -3.2 | -14.3 | |
| Mean daily sunshine (hours) | 8.3 | 7.7 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 7.5 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 5.0 | |
| Mean number of cloudy days | 16.0 | 13.3 | 13.8 | 11.9 | 10.5 | 9.6 | 10.6 | 10.9 | 11.7 | 13.2 | 14.4 | 15.7 | 151.5 | |
| Source: Bureau of Meteorology | ||||||||||||||