As part of Antarctica day in early December schools across the UK and beyond were prompted to send flag designs to be displayed in Antarctica. During their weekly Societies hour the Battle Abbey School Eco Society designed and submitted several flag designs for consideration. We are delighted to report that Frankie F, Elizabeth D and Betsi B (All Year 8) were joint winners, and very excitingly had their flag taken to the Halley Research Station in January! Fiona Sherrif from UK Polar Network Education, said; “Your flag has travelled to Antarctica with Finley Gilbert who is an Electrical Maintenance Engineer. The photograph was taken at the Halley VI Research Station which is on the Brunt Ice Shelf. Thank you so much for sending your beautiful artwork to us so that we could send it to Antarctica.” Mrs Carey Said ‘We are delighted to see the photographic evidence of our flag on location at Antarctica. We have put our Certificate up in our Geography Zone and we couldn’t be prouder. ’The Halley Research Station is Built on a floating ice shelf in the Weddell Sea, and is the world’s first re-locatable research facility. Here they study pressing global problems from climate change and sea-level rise to space weather and the ozone hole – which was first discovered at Halley in 1985. At Halley typical winter temperatures are below -20°C with extreme lows of around -55°C. There is 24-hour darkness for 105 days per year. Halley sits on the 130 metre-thick Brunt Ice Shelf. The ice shelf flows slowly out onto the Weddell Sea, where chunks of ice ‘calve’ off as icebergs with this particular part of the ice shelf moving westward by approximately 700 metres per year. Approximately 1.2 metres of snow accumulates each year on the Brunt Ice Shelf and buildings on the surface become covered and eventually crushed by snow. Halley accommodates up to 70 staff during the summer (late December to early March) and has previously had 16 over-wintering staff or ‘winterers’.
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