Science and Antarctic exploration have gone hand in hand since the first people began visiting the continent in the early 19th century. Expeditions, like those of Captain Scott, undertook extensive scientific programmes alongside the headline-grabbing attempts to reach the South Pole. Since the Second World War, many countries have operated scientific research stations in the Antarctic, especially since the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959, to protect the entire continent for peace and science.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to ten of the most well-known research stations in Antarctica, unveiling the place they hold in the continent’s fascinating history and some of the groundbreaking research they’re undertaking to better understand our natural world.
Can you visit Antarctic research stations?
There are more than 70 national research stations dotted around Antarctica, representing 29 signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. Although exact numbers are notoriously hard to come by, this gives Antarctica a population of 4,500–4,800 during the summer, falling to around 1,000–1,100 during winter.
Until 2020, it was often possible for expedition cruise ships to visit certain research bases in Antarctica, subject to local conditions. The Argentinian bases of Esperanza and Brown, and the Ukrainian Vernadsky bases were particularly popular with visitors. Unfortunately for cruise ship passengers, all Antarctic bases closed their doors to outside visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic, and have not reopened them since. Several can still be seen from ships depending on the stretch of Antarctic Peninsula you’re visiting.
NSF McMurdo Station (USA)
Our list starts with the largest research base in Antarctica, McMurdo Station, which is located on the southern tip of Ross Island in the Ross Sea, on Hut Point Peninsula. It’s a sprawling place, affectionately known by those who work there ‘MacTown’, and at the height of summer is home to around 1,100 people.
McMurdo Station has a real frontier mining town feel to it. It has three airfields, a fire department, hospital, radio station, bowling alley and even ATMs. At least ‘Nukey Poo’, the station’s very own nuclear reactor, was removed in 1972. A short distance away, the carefully preserved historic huts of Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition provide a stark contrast between the earliest days of Antarctic exploration and the modern logistics hubs demanded by modern polar science.
Halley VI Research Station (UK)
One of a handful of British research stations in Antarctica, Halley Research Station is nothing short of an engineering masterpiece. It’s the latest of a series of Halley stations that have operated here since 1956, specialising in global atmospheric and space weather.
What makes Halley so extraordinary is its amazing modular structure, composed of eight pods that are mounted on ski-fitted hydraulic legs. This radical design makes it look like something from a science fiction film, but it was a practical solution to the challenges of its unique location on the Brunt Ice Shelf on the edge of the Weddell Sea. The skis allow the Antarctic research station to be towed pod by pod should cracks in the ice shelf render its location unsafe. This manoeuvre was carried out in 2015/16, when Halley was moved 23 km (14 miles) because of local ice cracking.
In 1985, Halley became famous when researchers here discovered the hole in the Ozone Layer: a breakthrough of global significance that was only possible thanks to its unbroken history of atmospheric data collection.
Rothera Research Station (UK)
Perched on Adelaide Island along the Antarctic Peninsula, Rothera is the largest British research station in Antarctica. Although it has its own airstrip like most bases, it is also served by the RRS Sir David Attenborough, the UK’s icebreaking polar research ship (which carries the internet-famous autonomous underwater vehicle Boaty McBoatface).
Rothera is a centre for marine and atmospheric studies in the Southern Ocean, as well as long term monitoring of the Filchner Ice Shelf and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The main building at Rothera is called New Bransfield House in tribute to the original Bransfield House at the UK’s first Antarctic base at Port Lockroy: now a heritage site better-known to visitors at the Penguin Post Office.
During the summer season, this base in Antarctica is home to roughly 100 people, though only around 22 or so overwinter here. With Halley base no longer occupied over winter due to safety concerns over the condition of the Brunt Ice Shelf, Rothera is now the only British base with winter residents.
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, USA
Unlike many countries active in Antarctica, the USA has never made any formal territorial claim on the continent, but establishing the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station at 90º south could perhaps be read as the most audacious geopolitical act in the entire Antarctic. It’s the southernmost year-round research station in the world, not least due to the fact that it’s simply not possible to travel any further south.
The base was established in 1956 during the explosion of polar science that took place in the International Geophysical Year, and is jointly named, of course, after the leaders of the first successful expeditions to reach the South Pole in 1911/12. The station is high on the Antarctic Plateau at 2,835 metres (9,301 feet) above sea level.
Amundsen-Scott supports astrophysics and atmospheric science at extreme altitudes and conditions. It’s home to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and South Pole Telescope, collecting unique data that’s impossible to gather anywhere else on Earth.
Frei Base (Chile)
Anyone visiting Antarctica on a Fly & Cruise will get to see the Chilean research station at Frei Base on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands. The airstrip here is the gateway to the continent for those making the short flight to Antarctica rather than sailing the Drake Passage. Visitors land here to transfer to their waiting cruise ships
Frei, or to give its full name, Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva, is Chile’s largest Antarctic base. It’s one of nine research stations on King George Island: those flying in to the island can also see Frei’s immediate neighbours, including China’s Great Wall Base and Russia’s Bellinghausen Base (with the immediately recognisable dome of its Orthodox Church) from the air.
Frei Base is one of the few stations in Antarctica that is occupied year-round. Attached to the base is Villa Las Estrellas, one of the only two permanent civilian settlements in Antarctica.
Esperanza Base (Argentina)
Argentina has maintained a close interest in Antarctic affairs ever since it sent ship Uruguay to help rescue the crew of the stricken Nordenskjöld Expedition in 1904, and its southern port of Ushuaia remains the main starting point for Antarctic Peninsula cruises. It has operated a number of Antarctica research stations, of which Esperanza Base is the one most frequently seen by cruise travellers.
Esperanza Base is located at Hope Bay on the Western Antarctic Peninsula. It was first established in 1952, but entered the history books on January 7th 1978 with the birth at the station of Emilio Palma, the first recorded person to be born in Antarctica. The birth was arranged by the ruling Argentinian junta of the time, to reinforce their sovereignty claim over the Antarctic Peninsula. Ten other babies have subsequently been born at the research station. Along with Chile’s Frei Base, Esperanza is home to one of Antarctica’s two permanent civilian settlements, a number of families and even a school, alongside its scientific facilities.
Vernadsky Research Station (Ukraine)
Ukraine’s tradition of Antarctic science dates back to the days of the Soviet Union, when many Ukrainian scientists took part in polar expeditions. After Ukraine’s independence at the end of the Cold War, it became a signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, and in 1996 it took possession of Vernadsky Research station, which had formerly been the British Antarctic base Faraday. Since Faraday was first established in 1947, this makes Vernadsky the longest continually manned station in Antarctica.
Vernadsky is at Marina Point on Galindez Island in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. It was formerly popular with visiting expedition cruise ships mainly thanks to its atmospheric Faraday Bar constructed in the style of a traditional English pub, which offered homemade Antarctic vodka and decor that heavily featured old bras collected from former visitors.
Scott Base (New Zealand)
Scott Base is located at McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea, and is named after the polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott -the remains of Scott’s Terra Nove hut lie on the opposite side of Hut Point Peninsula, home to this Antarctic research station. Ironically, Scott Base’s historic ties are actually to another historic expedition. It was constructed in 1956 to help support the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the first successful overland crossing of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Pole. New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, fresh from his conquest of Everest, played a major part in the expedition.
This Antarctic outpost is New Zealand’s main base on the continent, It’s home to around 85 researchers and support staff in winter, reducing to around a dozen who stay over winter. The base is currently undergoing a major refurbishment in line with the country’s commitment to Antarctic science.
Concordia Station (France & Italy)
Operated jointly by France and Italy, Concordia Station is the European Union’s main presence on the White Continent, and is one of the most remote research stations in Antarctica. It sits high on the plateau of East Antarctica at a windswept location known simply as Dome C, at an altitude of 3,233 metres (10,607 feet). It’s a common joke that the combination of French and Italian cuisine makes Concordia home to the best food in Antarctica.
This Antarctica station is one of the most extreme places on Earth to carry out polar science, due to its high altitude and temperatures that can drop as low as -80C (-112F) for the handful of people that overwinter at the base. But its location brings the opportunity for amazing research. In early 2025, the Concordia team announced the success of their project to drill ice cores that were over a million years old, to extract ancient atmospheric data that can help us better understand today’s climate crisis (read our interview with the project leader to learn more).
Vostok Station (Russia)
No place in Antarctica could truly be deemed hospitable for people, but Russia’s Vostok Station surely takes the prize for living in the continent’s toughest neighbourhood. It’s found in Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica, close to the Pole of Inaccessibility – the point on the Antarctic continent that’s furthest from any ocean. When the station began a much-needed upgrade in 2024, materials carried by icebreaker had to be dragged 1,460 kilometres (905 miles) overland just to reach it.
Like many Antarctica stations, Vostok was first established in 1957 during the International Geophysical Year. It was here that scientists from the Soviet Union measured the coldest temperature recorded on Earth in 1983: a mind-boggling -89.2C (-128.6F).
The station is close to Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) below the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet, thought to have been isolated from the rest of the world for 15 million years, and of major research interest for understanding Earth’s deep and complex history.
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