Showa Station (Antarctica)

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Showa 昭和基地
Antarctic base
Shōwa Kichi
Aerial photograph of Showa Station, December 2018.
Showa Location of Showa Station in Antarctica
Coordinates: 69°00′15″S 39°34′55″E / 69.004122°S 39.581836°E / -69.004122; 39.581836
Country	Japan
Location in Antarctica	East Ongul Island Queen Maud Land Antarctica
Administered by	Japanese Antarctic Program
Established	1957 (1957)
Elevation [1]	29 m (95 ft)
Population  (2017)[1]
• Summer	170
• Winter	40
Time zone	UTC+3 (SYOT)
UN/LOCODE	AQ SYW
Type	All-year round
Period	Annual
Status	Operational
Activities	PANSY incoherent scatter radar
Facilities	60 separate buildings
Website	National Institute of Polar Research

Showa Station (Japanese: 昭和基地, Hepburn: Shōwa Kichi), sometimes alternately spelled Syowa Station,^[2] 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.

Showa Station serves as a research outpost for astronomy, meteorology, biology and earth sciences. It comprises over 60 separate buildings, large and small, including a 3-storey administration building, living quarters, power plant, sewage treatment facility, environmental science building, observatory, data processing facility, satellite building, ionospheric station, incinerator, earth science building, and radiosonde station. Also present are fuel tanks, water storage, solar panels, a heliport, water retention dam, and radio transmitter.

Showa station is home to the Program of the Antarctic Syowa Mesosphere–Stratosphere–Troposphere/Incoherent Scatter (PANSY) incoherent scatter radar, which took its first measurements in 2017.^[3]

The station was founded by the inaugural Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 1957. This expedition was airlifted out after a storm (by a nearby American ship that had a helicopter). However there was no space for the dogs to get on. The storm made deploying the second team impossible in February 1958. In January 1959, the third team returned to the station and found that, of the 15 sled dogs that had been left by the first team at the base, two, Taro and Jiro, had survived.

A cairn and plaque at the station commemorate Shin Fukushima, a member of the 4th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition, who died in October 1960 while carrying out his duties. The cairn, which contains some of his ashes, was erected on 11 January 1961 by his colleagues. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 2) following a proposal by Japan to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.^[4]

• Showa Station is the Antarctic destination of the protagonists of A Place Further than the Universe, a 2018 Japanese anime series.
• The monster Ghidorah is located on the base - called "Outpost 32" - in the 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters
• Showa Station is depicted in the 1983 film Antarctica.

The climate is classified as an Ice cap climate (Köppen: EF), since there are no months where the average temperature exceeds 0.0 °C (32.0 °F).

Showa
IATA: none ICAO: AT25
Summary
Airport type	Private
Serves	Syowa
Location	East Ongul Island
Time zone	(+3)
Elevation AMSL	95 ft / 29 m
Coordinates	69°00′22″S 39°35′24″E / 69.006167°S 39.590000°E / -69.006167; 39.590000
Map
Showa Location of airfield in Antarctica
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 17/35 3,274 998 Snow
[6]

• List of Antarctic research stations
• List of Antarctic field camps
• List of airports in Antarctica
• Asuka Station
• Dome Fuji Station
• Mizuho Station
• Antarctica (1983 film)
• A Place Further than the Universe

• Official website National Institute of Polar Research
• Syowa Base Now!! (Japanese only)
• OpenStreetMap
• COMNAP Antarctic Facilities
• COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map
• Showa Research Station Amateur Radio Station 8J1RL