The first expedition team to reach South Pole was 100 years ago. On December 14, 1911 a five-member Norwegian team led by Ronald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole. The team started in 1902 and reached the South Pole in 1911. A little more than a month later, on January 17, 1912 a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott reached here as well, but perished on its way back.

The first expedition led by Amundsen was an adventure expedition. They went with dogs and sledge, but today explorer-scientists have at their disposal ice trucks, ice vehicles which travel like normal SUVs at 80 to 90 km a hour.

India's first National South Pole Expedition is being lead by the 62-year old scientist and Director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research Dr Rasik Ravindra

The 8-member Indian team led by Dr Ravindra was flagged off from New Delhi on Monday (November 1, 2010) by the Union minister for science and technology and earth sciences, Prithviraj Chavan.

Other members of the team are comprising Ajay Dhar, Javed Beg, Thamban Meloth, Asit Swain, Pradip Malhotra, Krishnamurthy and Surat Singh.

The Indian team will reach Maitri (station set up by India in Antarctica) to begin its expedition and then proceed to the South Pole and return by mid-December, this year.
The expedition will be for about 40 days.

The scientists will bring samples which will give information about climate change which has taken place in last thousands of years.

The news of India's first ever expedition to South Pole has been well received by Antarctic Treaty nations. It may be mentioned that temperatures in the interiors of Antarctic continent are extremely low with lowest record of -89.6 degree C.

Taking into account the expertise required for traveling in the highly crevassed terrain at sub-zero temperatures touching minus 45° C and strong winds up to 200 km a hour, only the scientists who have the experience of severe winter over in Antarctica and having knowledge of snow vehicles have been included in the team. The scientists also have to be expert in the field of specific scientific activity proposed to be undertaken during the traverse to South Pole.

The ongoing 30th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica under taken for the period 2010 - 11 also marks a landmark year as India marches ahead with the construction activity of its third station in the Larsemann Hills in eastern Antarctica. This modern station is slated to be ready by 2012 when India would be a part of club of nations that has more than one station in Antarctica. This gives an opportunity to the Indian scientific community to cover a large spectrum of area in Antarctica. This would also help us to understand the coastal dynamics of the icy continent and to delve into the past climatic changes.

The Indian team led by Dr Ravindra for South Pole expedition will conduct various scientific experiments on their way to South Pole. These include raising short cores at regular spacing along Maitri-South Pole (Amundsen-Scot station), traverse for study of variability of snow chemistry, particulate matter, conduct GPR section along traverse to understand bed rock topography and sub-surface ice structure, study glacial-geomorphological landforms along the plateau. Indian scientists will collect meteorological parameter along the 2000 km long traverse and data on atmospheric aerosol and magnetic data all along the traverse.

The Indian team is carrying dual frequency ground penetrating radar, shallow ice coring machine with hoisting mechanism, digital flux-gate magnetometer, vehicle mounted weather station or alternatively wind pressure, temperature, humidity measuring hard held devices and high pixel digital camera with wide angle and magnifying lens with stand and a video camera.

Considering the importance of Antarctic as a pedestal for front ranking scientific research, India launched its first Indian Antarctic Expedition in 1981 under the vision of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Since then India has made major strides in polar sciences and related logistics through a blend of multi-institutional support and expertise brought together under the erstwhile Department of Ocean Development and currently the Ministry of Earth Sciences. This paved the direction towards annual expeditions to the icy continent on a year round basis from the first Indian station 'Dakshin Gangotri' from 1983 to 1988.

Another Indian station, 'Maitri' was built in 1989 which serves the Indian scientific community to conduct research in diverse scientific disciplines which include atmospheric sciences and meteorology, earth sciences and glaciology, biology and environmental sciences, human biology and medicine and engineering and communications.

The first flight over the Pole, on November 29, 1929, was accomplished by four men, the leader of the party being Richard E Byrd. The first plane to land at the South Pole was piloted by Conrad S. Shinn, as part of Operation Deep Freeze, on October 31, 1956. A month later, construction of Amundsen-Scott station began in preparation for the International Geophysical Year. The next year, a party became the first to winter at the South Pole, under the scientific leadership of Paul Siple.

As part of the Common Wealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, a group under Sir Edmund Hillary became the first to reach the Pole in motorized transport - and the first to do it overland since Scott - on 4 January 1958. Fifteen days later, they were joined by Vivian Fuchs' part of the expedition, which then continued across the continent. In recent years, many adventurers have trekked to the South Pole, the first solo effort being by Erling Kagge in 1993.

South Pole is the earth's southern most point, at latitude 900 S, where the meridians of longitude converge. It is located on the polar plateau at an elevation of approximately 9300 ft (2835m) and marks the southern end of the Earth's axis of rotation. It is generally considered in a fixed location, though it actually shifts slightly over a period of 14 months. The area around the South Pole is featureless except that lot of sastrugis (hardened ice ridges at surface) are seen all around.

At the South Pole, the sun rises on or about September 21 every year and does not set again until about March 21. The winter low temperature recorded at the station was 82.8°C, and the summer high temperature was 13.6°C. The wind speed averages 12.1 miles per hour (5.5 m/sec).The closest land is actually straight down through the ice, approximately two miles (3.2 km) away. Temperatures at the South Pole are much lower than at the North Pole, primarily because the South Pole is located at altitude in the middle of a continental land mass, while the North Pole is at sea level in the middle of an ocean (which acts as a reservoir of heat).

In mid-summer, 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 winter, the average temperature remains steady at around −58 °C (−72 °F).