Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the largest research station in Antarctica?
The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents,[2] and serves as one of three United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.
The United States maintains the southernmost Base and the largest base and research station 
in Antarctica, Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. The second-southernmost base is the Chinese Kunlun Station at 80°25′02″S during the summer season, and the Russian Vostok Station at 78°27′50″S during the winter season.
The United States Antarctic Program announced that it changed its three research stations to "caretaker" status, meaning that "[a]ll field and research activities not essential to human safety and preservation of property will be suspended". Most work at Antarctica is done between the months of October and February, when the region experiences summer. Because of the logistical difficulties involved in working in Antarctica, the shutdown may result in the cancellation of all American research in Antarctica for the entire 2013–2014 season. Scientists at McMurdo Station, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and Palmer Station study topics such as biology, astrophysics and climate change.
Kunlun Station () is the southernmost of four Chinese research stations in Antarctica. When it is occupied during the summer, it is the second-southernmost research base in Antarctica, behind only the American Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station at the geographical South Pole. When Kunlun is not in operation, the year-round Russian Vostok Station is the second-southernmost base in Antarctica.
The Brazilian Antarctic Program (; PROANTAR) is a program of the Brazilian Navy which has presence in the continent of Antarctica. It coordinates research and the operational support for research in the region. It currently maintains a year-round research station in Antarctica (Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station), as well as several seasonal field camps. It also maintains two research vessels that sail in the Antarctic waters (the icebreakers "Almirante Maximiano" and "Ary Rongel").
Antarctica has few permanent residents, and contains research stations and field camps that are staffed seasonally or year-round, and former whaling settlements.[1] The largest station, McMurdo Station, has a summer population of about 1,000 people and a winter population of about 200.[2] Approximately 29 nations, all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, send personnel to perform seasonal (summer) or year-round research on the continent and in its surrounding oceans.
Each year, scientists from 28 different nations conduct experiments not reproducible in any other place in the world. In the summer more than 4,000 scientists operate research stations; this number decreases to just over 1,000 in the winter.[1] McMurdo Station, which is the largest research station in Antarctica, is capable of housing more than 1,000 scientists, visitors, and tourists.
, sometimes alternately spelled Syowa Station, is a Japanese permanent research station on East Ongul Island in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. Built in 1957, Showa Station is named for the era in the Japanese calendar during which it was established, the Shōwa period.
Holy Trinity Church () is a small Russian Orthodox church on King George Island near Bellingshausen Station, a Russian research station in Antarctica. It is one of the eight churches on Antarctica. It is the southernmost Eastern Orthodox church in the world (cf. St. Ivan Rilski Chapel).
The southern polar region has no permanent human habitation. McMurdo Station is the largest research station in Antarctica, run by the United States. Other notable stations include Palmer Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (United States), Esperanza Base and Marambio Base (Argentina), Scott Base (New Zealand), and Vostok Station (Russia).
It is managed by the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC). It is located in the Larsemann Hills by Prydz Bay in East Antarctica, and is near the Russian Progress II Station and the Romanian Law-Racoviţă Station.
Troll is a Norwegian research station located at Jutulsessen, from the coast in the eastern part of Princess Martha Coast in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. It is Norway's only all-year research station in Antarctica, and is supplemented by the summer-only station Tor. Troll is operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute and also features facilities for the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.
The U.S. Antarctic Program, funded by the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, supports only research that can be done exclusively in Antarctica or that can be done best from Antarctica. The scientific disciplines encompassed by the USAP are astronomy, atmospheric sciences, biology, earth science, environmental science, geology, glaciology, marine biology, oceanography, and geophysics. Currently, the USAP maintains three year-round research stations in Antarctica, the McMurdo Station, the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, and the Palmer Station. In addition, the USAP operates several summer research camps and several research vessels that sail in the Antarctic waters.
Brazilian Antarctica Esperanza Base Villa Las Estrellas Argentine Antarctica Research stations in Antarctica List of Antarctic field camps List of Antarctic expeditions Colonization of Antarctica Religion in Antarctica Crime in Antarctica
Taishan Station () is the fourth of four Chinese research stations in Antarctica.
Brockton Station () was an American research (weather) station in Antarctica, operated by the US Navy during the summer months from October 1965 to February 1972. It was located 300 miles southeast of McMurdo Station, close to the center of the Ross Ice Shelf.
A number of governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is (for practical purposes) fixed in place.
The Jang Bogo Station in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica is a permanent South Korean research station. It is the second base of South Korean Antarctic research mission (after King Sejong Station), and the first that is located in mainland Antarctica. Completed in February 2014, the station houses 15 people in winter and 60 in summer in a 4000 square-metre building with three wings, and is one of the larger permanent bases in Antarctica.
Zhongshan Station () is the second Chinese research station in Antarctica and was opened on February 26, 1989.
There are many research stations in Antarctica, both permanent and summer only. Many of the stations are staffed all year. McMurdo Station is the largest with an average population of 1200.
On January 13, 2006, the Law-Racovita Station was re-opened, becoming Romania's first research and exploration station in Antarctica. The base was named after the first Australian researcher that explored east Antarctica, Phillip Law, and the first biologist that studied living in Antarctica, Emil Racovita. It was founded in 1989 by the Australian Government.
The first female station leader on Antarctica is Australian, Diana Patterson, head of Mawson Station in 1989. The first all-female over-wintering group is from Germany and spends the 1990-1991 winter at Georg von Neumayer, with the first German female station leader and medical doctor Monika Puskeppeleit. In 1991 In-Young Ahn is the first female leader of an Asian research station (King Sejong Station), and the first South Korean woman to step onto Antarctica.
Concordia Research Station, which opened in 2005, is a French-Italian research facility that was built above sea level at a location called Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. It is located inland from the French research station at Dumont D'Urville, inland from Australia's Casey Station and inland from the Italian Zucchelli Station at Terra Nova Bay. Russia's Vostok Station is away. The Geographic South Pole is away. The facility is also located within Australia's claim on Antarctica, the Australian Antarctic Territory.
Officially opened on February 8, 2014, it is the fourth Chinese research station in Antarctica following Great Wall, Zhongshan and Kunlun stations.
In 2003, it was decided that Norway was to extend its operations in Antarctica by establishing an all-year research station. By then, Norway was the only country with a territorial claim to Antarctica to not have an all-year research station on the continent. The government stated that the investment was motivated to improve climate research, to strengthen Norway as a bi-polar research nation and to strengthen Norway's role as a premise-maker in the environmental policy of the Antarctic.