Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How cold is the South Pole?
In midsummer, as the sun reaches its maximum elevation of about 23.5 degrees, high temperatures at the South Pole in January average at −25.9°C (−15°F). As the six-month "day" wears on and the sun gets lower, temperatures drop as well: they reach −45°C (−49°F) around sunset (late March) and sunrise (late September). In midwinter, the average temperature remains steady at around −58°C (−72°F). The highest temperature ever recorded at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was −12.3°C (9.9°F) on Christmas Day, 2011,[31] and the lowest was −82.8°C (−117.0°F) on June 23, 1982[32][33][34] (for comparison, the lowest temperature directly recorded anywhere on earth was −89.2°C (−128.6°F) at Vostok Station on July 21, 1983, though −93.2°C (−135.8°F) was measured indirectly by satellite in East Antarctica between Dome A and Dome F in August 2010[35]). Mean annual temperature at the South Pole is -49.3 °C (-56.7 °F)[36].
On 31 October 1956, during Operation Deep Freeze II, "Qué Será Será", a ski-equipped R4D Dakota piloted by LCDR Conrad S. Shinn, became the first plane to land at the South Pole. The seven United States Navy men (RADM George J. Dufek, CAPT Douglas L. Cordiner, CAPT William M. Hawkes, LCDR Conrad S. Shinn, LT John R. Swadener, AD2 John P. Strider, and AT2 William A. Cumbie, Jr.) aboard that aircraft were the first to stand at this spot in 44 years, the last being Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition in January 1912. RADM Dufek had chosen LCDR Shinn and his flight crew to attempt the landing, which was an extraordinary undertaking since the South Pole was almost above sea level where the aircraft engines would operate considerably below their optimum power levels. In addition it was expected that extremely cold conditions could be expected on the surface. The landing party remained at the South Pole for only 49 minutes, setting up navigational aids to assist the future delivery of materials and equipment for constructing a scientific observation station at the spot. Also in 1956, an R4D Dakota delivered the first group of 11 Seabees and 11 dog sleds, together with tents and other equipment to the South Pole, to begin construction of the first South Pole Station.
The polar easterlies (also known as Polar Hadley cells) are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow from the high-pressure areas of the polar highs at the North and South Poles towards the low-pressure areas within the westerlies at high latitudes. Like trade winds and unlike the westerlies, these prevailing winds blow from the east to the west, and are often weak and irregular. Due to the low sun angle, cold air builds up and subsides at the pole creating surface high-pressure areas, forcing an outflow of air toward the equator; that outflow is deflected westward by the Coriolis effect.
On 16 January 1909 three men (Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay) from Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition claimed to have found the South Magnetic Pole, which was at that time located on land. They planted a flagpole at the spot and claimed it for the British Empire. The three men began the expedition to the South Magnetic Pole in a motor car specially adapted for the cold conditions, but abandoned it when it proved useless on soft surfaces. They then walked a total of 1260 miles to reach the South Magnetic Pole while pulling sledges and supplies that weighed approximately 670 lbs. Walking on foot across the coldest place on earth was perilous, and the men faced many dangers such as falling in concealed snow crevasses and acquiring frostbite and snow-blindness. Fearing starvation, they strictly rationed their biscuits down to the crumbs, and hunted seals and penguins. However, there is now some doubt as to whether their location was correct. The approximate position of the pole on 16 January 1909 was .
Students taking beginning pole classes learn how to perform spins supporting their body weight with their hands. Over time they learn how to climb the pole, invert (or flip upside down), and perform complicated maneuvers or tricks. Pole classes therefore are physically challenging. Pole sports requires a high level of skill in understanding how the body’s points of contact work with the pole. As pole athletes advance in skill they are able to use fewer body points of contact with the pole, engage in more moves aerially without being on the ground, including deadlifting their bodies from one stationary aerial position where they are parallel to the pole into an inverted (or upside-down) position. Pole sports requires not just strength and flexibility, as one must also endure the pain and bruising that comes when interacting with a metal pole. 
The first men to reach the Geographic South Pole were the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his party on December 14, 1911. Amundsen named his camp Polheim and the entire plateau surrounding the Pole King Haakon VII Vidde in honour of King Haakon VII of Norway. Robert Falcon Scott returned to Antarctica with his second expedition, the Terra Nova Expedition, initially unaware of Amundsen's secretive expedition. Scott and four other men reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, thirty-four days after Amundsen. On the return trip, Scott and his four companions all died of starvation and extreme cold.
All magnets have two poles, where the lines of magnetic flux enter and emerge. By analogy with the Earth's magnetic field, these are called the magnet's "north" and "south" poles. The convention in early compasses was to call the end of the needle pointing to the Earth's North Magnetic Pole the "north pole" (or "north-seeking pole") and the other end the "south pole" (the names are often abbreviated to "N" and "S"). Because opposite poles attract, this definition means that the Earth's North Magnetic Pole is actually a magnetic "south" pole and the Earth's South Magnetic Pole is a magnetic "north" pole.
The Valley of Dor, with the ring of cliffs around it and Sea of Korus within it, is placed in a mile-deep crater at Mars' South Pole. However, Burroughs makes a mistake in that he has the sun rise in the east and set in the west as elsewhere in the planet, and the moons are visible from the Valley. In reality, at the South Pole, Mars' moons would not be seen, and the sun would not rise in the east and set in the west (all directions away from the Pole are "north" in any case), but instead ring the cliffs for half the Martian year, and leave the area shrouded in darkness for the other half of the Martian year. In addition, unlike what one would expect at the south pole of Mars, the temperature in the Valley of Dor is mild and temperate, and although that may be accounted for by its being in a deep crater, the temperature in the Therns' fortress on the surrounding cliffs does not appear to be all that cold either.
Mount Howe harbours the southernmost known indigenous life — a colony of bacteria and yeasts. All bacteria and other life on the ice as far south as the pole appear to be weather deposited strays. The Mount Howe area has the closest blue ice runway to the South Pole (an area with no net annual snow accumulation with an ice surface capable of supporting aircraft landing on wheels instead of skis).
Cold Mountain, where the film is set, is a real mountain located within the Pisgah National Forest, Haywood County, North Carolina. However, it was filmed mostly in Romania, with numerous scenes filmed in Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The film was one of an increasing number of Hollywood productions made in eastern Europe. This is occurring as a result of much lower costs in the region; and in this specific instance, Transylvania was less marked by modern life than the Appalachians (fewer power lines, electric poles, paved roads and so on). The film also marked a technological and industry turnaround in editing. Walter Murch edited "Cold Mountain" on Apple's sub-$1000 Final Cut Pro software using off-the-shelf G4s. This was a leap for such a big budgeted film, where expensive Avid systems are usually the standard editing system. His efforts on the film were documented in the 2005 book "Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple's Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema."
Scott and his four companions reached the South Pole via the Beardmore route on 17 January 1912, 33 days after Amundsen. All five died on the return journey from the Pole, through a combination of starvation and cold. The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was later named after these two men.
Cold traps are some of the important places on the lunar south pole in terms of possible water and iced deposits. Cold traps can contain water and ice that were originally from comets, meteorites and solar wind induced iron reduction. From experiments and sample readings scientists were able to confirm that cold traps do contain ice. Hydroxyl has also been found in these cold traps. The discovery of these two compounds has led to the founding of missions focusing primarily on the lunar poles using global scale infrared detection. The ice stays in these traps only because of the thermal behavior of the Moon. These thermal behaviors are controlled by thermophysical properties, scattered sunlight, thermal re-radiation, internal heat and light given off by the Earth. With the cold temperatures in the cold traps delivering ice could be a possibility in the near future, since it would not melt. 
The polar easterlies are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow around the high-pressure areas of the polar highs at the North and South Poles. Cold air subsides at the poles creating high pressure zones, forcing an equatorward outflow of air; that outflow is then deflected westward by the Coriolis effect. Unlike the westerlies in the middle latitudes and trade winds in tropics, the polar easterlies are often weak and irregular. The polar easterlies are one of the five primary wind zones, known as wind belts, that make up our atmosphere's circulatory system. This particular belt of wind begins at approximately 60 degrees north and south latitude and reaches to the poles.
Pomerantz saw the potential of the South Pole as an observing platform remarkably early. Its proximity to the South magnetic pole of the Earth means that charged cosmic rays can be detected there without the deflections they experience when detected at lower latitudes. Astronomical observations near the Earth's poles can be done over long periods, without the diurnal variations at lower latitudes. The South Pole is at an altitude of nearly , so the astronomical seeing should be comparable to other high-altitude observatories; the extreme cold in Antarctica also corresponds to relatively little water vapor in the atmosphere there, which is a particular advantage for infrared astronomy. Finally, the South Pole lies at the top of a very deep, nearly permanent ice sheet that has been used to advantage in experiments such as the IceCube Neutrino Detector.
In the southern hemisphere, the Pole of Cold is currently located in Antarctica, at the Russian (formerly Soviet) Antarctic station Vostok at . On July 21, 1983, this station recorded a temperature of . This is the lowest naturally occurring temperature ever recorded on Earth. Vostok station is located at the elevation of above sea level, far removed from the moderating influence of oceans (more than from the nearest sea coast), and high latitude that results in almost three months of civil polar night every year (early May to end of July), all combine to produce an environment where temperatures rarely rise above during summer and frequently fall below in winter. By comparison, the South Pole, due to its lower elevation, is, on average, warmer than Vostok, and the lowest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole is .
A magnet's magnetic moment (also called magnetic dipole moment and usually denoted μ) is a vector that characterizes the magnet's overall magnetic properties. For a bar magnet, the direction of the magnetic moment points from the magnet's south pole to its north pole,[9] and the magnitude relates to how strong and how far apart these poles are. In SI units, the magnetic moment is specified in terms of A·m2 (amperes times meters squared).
She entered again in 2011 and won with Love in a Very Cold Climate. It is a love story about a Nord, a north-pole dweller, and a Suit, a south-pole dweller, who can never touch.
Cold air damming typically happens in the mid-latitudes as this region lies within the Westerlies, an area where frontal intrusions are common. When the Arctic oscillation is negative and pressures are higher over the poles, the flow is more meridional, blowing from the direction of the pole towards the equator, which brings cold air into the mid-latitudes. Cold air damming is observed in the southern hemisphere to the east of the Andes, with cool incursions seen as far equatorward as the 10th parallel south. In the northern hemisphere, common situations occur along the east side of ranges within the Rocky Mountains system over the western portions of the Great Plains, as well as various other mountain ranges (such as the Cascades) along the west coast of the United States. The initial is caused by the poleward portion of a split upper level trough, with the damming preceding the arrival of the more equatorward portion.
The lunar south pole is of special interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. Of the lunar poles, the south pole is of greater interest because the area that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the north pole. The lunar south pole craters are unique in that sunlight does not reach the bottom. Such craters are cold traps that contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.
Shulman is the author of several books, both factual and fiction, including "Some Like It Cold", which is a philosophical and humorous account concerning his expeditions to the North Pole and subsequently to the South Pole, "Climbing the Equator, Running the Jungle" and "Zen in the Art of Climbing Mountains".
Robert Schwarz is an astrophysicist who is () now beginning his 14th winter at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station--the 8th winter in a row. This is the most winters that anyone has ever spent at the South Pole, and the most that anyone has ever spent in a row. An avid photographer of the pole, many news organizations used his photographs in their coverage of the medical evacuation flights from the south pole in June, 2016.
Schwarz, a native of Munich, Germany, told "The Antarctic Sun" that he first became interested in astronomy on a Boy Scout field trip to the island volcano of Stromboli, near Sicily. “It was an absolutely amazing star sky,” Schwarz said. “That’s how I got hooked on that. I wanted to know more about it.” He holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry, math and physics, as well as a master's degree in physics from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. While a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, he saw a job posting to spend the winter of 1996-1997 working at the South Pole, and has returned for many winter seasons to work on a variety of science experiments at the Pole. He applied to the European Space Agency to become an astronaut, and has expressed interest in traveling to Mars. In his spare time at the pole, he teaches an introduction to astronomy class to other winter-overs. When not at the south pole, he visits his family in Germany and goes sailing near New Zealand.
Leijerstam completed the almost- route from the Ross Ice Shelf on the edge of the Antarctic to the South Pole in just over 10 days. During the trip, she followed the South Pole Traverse, which led her on a steep climb through the Transantarctic Mountains, over the high Leverett Glacier and above the Antarctic plateau. Whilst riding, she fought against extreme cold, strong winds and snow drifts on the track.
The South Pole is the premier observing site in the world for millimeter-wavelength observations. The Pole's high altitude (2.8 km/1.7 mi above sea level) means the atmosphere is thin, and the extreme cold keeps the amount of water vapor in the air low. This is particularly important for observing at millimeter wavelengths, where incoming signals can be absorbed by water vapor, and where water vapor emits radiation that can be confused with astronomical signals. Because the sun does not rise and set daily, the atmosphere at the pole is particularly stable. Further, there is no interference from the sun in the millimeter range during the months of polar night.
The first humans to reach the South Pole were Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his party on December 14, 1911. Amundsen named his camp Polheim and the entire plateau surrounding the Pole "King Haakon VII Vidde" in honour of King Haakon VII of Norway. Robert Falcon Scott had also returned to Antarctica with his second expedition, the Terra Nova Expedition, in a race against Amundsen to the Pole. Scott and four other men reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, thirty-four days after Amundsen. On the return trip, Scott and his four companions all died of starvation and extreme cold.
A polar vortex is an upper level low-pressure area lying near the Earth's poles. There are two polar vortices in the Earth's atmosphere, overlying the North and South Poles. Each polar vortex is a persistent, large-scale, low-pressure zone that rotates counter-clockwise at the North Pole (called a cyclone) and clockwise at the South Pole, i.e., both polar vortices rotate eastward around the poles. The bases of the two polar vortices are located in the middle and upper troposphere and extend into the stratosphere. Beneath that lies a large mass of cold, dense Arctic air.