Halley Research Station

Halley Research Station is a research facility in Antarctica on the Brunt Ice Shelf operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The base was established in 1956 to study the Earth's atmosphere. Measurements from Halley led to the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985.
The current base is the sixth in a line of structures and includes design elements intended to overcome the challenge of building on a floating ice shelf without being buried and crushed by snow. , the base has been left unstaffed through winter since 2017, due to concerns over the propagation of an ice crack and how this might cut off the evacuation route in an emergency.
The Halley Bay Important Bird Area with its emperor penguin colony lies in the vicinity of the base.
History
Halley Bay base was founded in 1956, for the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958, by an expedition from the Royal Society. The bay where the expedition decided to set up their base was named after the astronomer Edmond Halley. Taken over by FIDS (subsequently BAS), it was designated as Base Z. The name was changed to Halley in 1977 as the original bay had disappeared because of changes in the ice shelf.
In 2002, BAS realised that a calving event was possible which could destroy Halley V, so a competition was undertaken to design a replacement station. The current base, Halley VI, officially opened in February 2013 after a test winter. It is the world's first fully relocatable terrestrial research station.
On 30 July 2014, the station lost its electrical and heating supply during record low temperatures (as low as -55°C), due to coolant leakage. Plans were made to evacuate some of the eight modules and to shelter in the remaining few that still had heat. Power was partially restored 19 hours later, but all science activities, apart from meteorological observations essential for weather forecasting, were suspended for the season.
The buildings
As with the German Neumayer-Station III, the base floats on an ice shelf in the Weddell Sea rather than being built on solid land of the continent of Antarctica. This ice shelf is slowly moving towards the open ocean and, if not relocated, each base would eventually calve off into a drifting iceberg.
There have been five previous bases called Halley. Various construction methods have been tried, from unprotected wooden huts to buildings within steel tunnels. The first four all became buried by snow accumulation and crushed until they were uninhabitable.
Halley I
Built: 1956
1956: Main structure
1961: Main living hut
1964: Office block on surface
Abandoned: 1968
Structure: Timber hut
Halley II
Built: 1967
Abandoned: 1973
Structure: A series of wooden huts
The roofs were reinforced with steel supports to help support the weight of the snow but the station still had to be abandoned in 1973, after just six years.
Halley III
Built: 1973
Abandoned: 1983
In 10 years the base was buried below the surface and access and ventilation problems led to its abandonment. Years later it emerged from the ice cliff at the sea.
Structure: Built inside Armco steel tubing designed to take the snow loadings building up over it
Halley IV
Built: 1983
Abandoned: 1994
Structure:
Two-storey buildings constructed inside four interconnected plywood tubes with access shafts to the surface. The tubes were in diameter and consisted of insulated reinforced panels designed to withstand the pressures of being buried in snow and ice.
Halley V
Built: completed 1990, operational 1989
Demolished: late 2012
Once its successor, Halley VI, was operational, Halley V was demolished.
Structure:
Main buildings were built on steel platforms that were raised annually to keep them above the snow surface.
Stilts were fixed on the flowing ice shelf so it eventually became too close to the calving edge.
Lawes platform: Main platform
Drewry summer accommodation: Two-storey building was on skis and could be dragged to a new higher location each year.
The Drewry block was later moved to join the Halley VI base
Simpson Building (Ice and Climate Building) (ICB): On stilts and was raised each year to counteract the buildup of snow
It housed the Dobson spectrophotometer used to discover the ozone hole.
Piggott platform (Space Science Building): Used for upper atmosphere research.
Halley VI
Built: Over four summers, first operational data 28 February 2012, officially opened 2013.
Structure: Modular
Cost: Approximately £26 million
Halley VI is a string of eight modules which, like Halley V, are jacked up on hydraulic legs to keep it above the accumulation of snow. Unlike most of Halley V, there are retractable giant skis on the bottom of these legs, which allow the building to be relocated periodically.
The Drewry summer accommodation building and the garage from Halley V were dragged to the Halley VI location and continue to be used. The Workshop and Storage Platform (WASP) provides storage for field equipment and a workshop for technical services. There are six external science cabooses which house scientific equipment for each experiment spread across the site and the Clean Air Sector Laboratory (CASLab) from the station.
Design competition
An architectural design competition was launched by RIBA Competitions and the British Antarctic Survey in June 2004 to provide a new design for Halley VI. The competition was entered by a number of architectural and engineering firms. The winning design, by Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects was chosen in July 2005.
Halley VI was built in Cape Town, South Africa. The first sections were shipped to Antarctica in December 2007. They were assembled next to Halley V, then dragged one-by-one to the intended final location and connected.
Halley VI was officially opened in Antarctica on 5 February 2013. Kirk Watson, a filmmaker from Scotland, recorded the building of the station over a four-year period for a short film. A description of the engineering challenges and the creation of the consortium was provided by Adam Rutherford to coincide with an exhibition in Glasgow.
Design elements
A focus of the new architecture was the desire to improve the living conditions of the scientists and staff on the station. Solutions included consulting a colour psychologist to create a special colour palette to offset the more than 100 days of darkness each year, daylight simulation lamp alarm clocks to address biorhythm issues, the use of special wood veneers to imbue the scent of nature and address the lack of green growth, as well as lighting design and space planning to address social interaction needs and issues of living and working in isolation.
Another priority of the construction was to have as little environmental impact on the ice as possible.
Relocation
The BAS announced that it intended to move Halley VI to a new site in summer 2016–2017, prompted by a large crack that had been propagating through the ice and which threatened to cut the station off from the main body of the ice shelf. The station was shifted from its previous site, the only time the station has been moved since it became operational. Horizon, the long-running BBC documentary series, sent film-maker Natalie Hewit to Antarctica for three months to document the move. Relocation was completed in February 2017.
Whilst the station was being relocated, concerns over another crack (dubbed the "Halloween Crack") emerged. This crack had been discovered on 31 October 2016, and the BAS realised that it too could cut off the station, and possibly make it drift out to sea. Since evacuating the crew is all but impossible during winter, the BAS announced in March 2017 it would withdraw its staff from the base from March to October. Staff returned after the Antarctic winter in November 2017 and found the station in very good condition. The staff have been removed every winter since.
Climate
Inhabitants
In the peak summer period, from late December to late February, staff numbers count about 52.
Winter crew
Before BAS shut down winter operations, there were around 13 overwintering staff. Most were the technical specialists required to keep the station and the scientific experiments running. The 2016 wintering team at Halley included a chef, a doctor, a communications manager, a vehicle mechanic, a generator mechanic, an electrician, a plumber, a field assistant, two electronics engineers, a meteorologist and a data manager. In addition there was a winter station leader who was sworn in as a magistrate prior to deployment and whose main role was to oversee the day-to-day management of the station.
1996 saw the first female winterers at Halley. In 2006, five out of sixteen winterers were women.
Base life
Life in Antarctica is dominated by the seasons, with a short, hectic summer and a long winter. In bases such as Halley that are resupplied by sea, the most significant event of the year is the arrival of the resupply ship (planned , until 2020 , before 1999) in late December. This is followed by intense activity to unload all supplies before the ship has to leave again; typically, this is done in less than two weeks.
The Halley summer season runs from as early as mid-October when the first plane lands, until early March when the ship has left and the last aircraft leaves, visiting Rothera Research Station before heading to South America.
Significant dates in the winter are sundown (last day when the Sun can be seen) on April 29, midwinter on June 21 and sunrise (first day when the Sun rises after winter) on August 13. Traditionally, the oldest person on base lowers the tattered flag on sundown and the youngest raises a new one on sunrise.
In popular culture
The 2019 movie Where'd You Go, Bernadette ends with footage and animated renderings of Halley VI.
See also
List of Antarctic research stations
List of Antarctic field camps
List of airports in Antarctica
References
Further reading
External links
Official website British Antarctic Survey
Designed By Petrel Engineering
BAS images of Halley station
Videos
RIBA, Architecture and Climate Change talks: Hugh Broughton, Halley VI Research Station
Outposts of Antarctica
British Antarctic Territory
British Antarctic Survey
1956 establishments in Antarctica