These investigators and supporting personnel make up the U.S. Antarctic Program, which carries forward the Nation's goals of supporting the Antarctic Treaty, fostering cooperative research with other nations, protecting the antarctic environment, and developing measures to ensure only equitable and wise use of resources. The program comprises research by scientists selected from universities and other research institutions and operations and support by a contractor and the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, and the Coast Guard. Some 2,500 Americans are involved each year. The program has three year-round research stations. Navy and Air Force crews operate these planes.
Helicopters provide close support for many research teams.
McMurdo, on a barren area of Ross Island, is the largest station in Antarctica. It has more than 80 buildings, including laboratories for biology, earth science, meteorology, and upper atmosphere science. McMurdo is the logistics hub for much of the program. In December, when summer heat has softened the sea ice, air operations shift to a skiway on the Ross Ice Shelf, which only ski-equipped airplanes can use. Wheeled airplanes can use yet another runway on glacier ice during all but the warmest months.