engineering

Kunlun Station

Kunlun Station is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kunlun Station rather than just read about it. In short: Kunlun Station (simplified Chinese: 昆仑站; traditional Chinese: 崑崙站; pinyin: Kūnlún Zhàn) is the southernmost of five 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.

Key takeaways

Kunlun Station belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kunlun Station to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kunlun Station from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kunlun Station (simplified Chinese: 昆仑站; traditional Chinese: 崑崙站; pinyin: Kūnlún Zhàn) is the southernmost of five 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. It is located at 4087 m above sea level on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, making it the highest base in Antarctica. It is only 7.3 km southwest of Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau. The station was officially opened on January 27, 2009. Fully constructed, the station is planned to cover an area of 558 m2. The main building, covering 236 m2, is planned to be erected in April 2009. The site is one of the coldest in the world, with temperatures occasionally reaching −80 °C (−112 °F) in the winter. It is indicated from satellite measurements that places nearby could reach a world record −90 °C (−130 °F) temperature. In April 2012 the first of three Antarctica Schmidt telescopes (AST3) was installed at Kunlun Station. The other two were planned for installation in 2013 and 2014. A bigger optical telescope, Kunlun Dark Universe Survey Telescope (KDUST), was planned to be installed by 2025, but due to budget constraints the plans were scrapped. A much smaller terahertz telescope, Antarctic Terahertz Explorer (ATE60), was built instead and is currently in operation.

Telescopes at Kunlun Station

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kunlun Station

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kunlun Station claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kunlun Station before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kunlun Station ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kunlun Station

In research: Kunlun Station appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kunlun Station in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kunlun Station is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2009 establishments in Antarctica, Buildings and structures completed in 2009, China and the Antarctic, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kunlun Station outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kunlun Station in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kunlun Station means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kunlun Station out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kunlun Station in simple terms?

Why does Kunlun Station matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kunlun Station?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kunlun Station.