his site fulfills the annual obligation of the United States of America as an Antarctic Treaty signatory to report its activities taking place in Antarctica. The organization and content respond to articles III(1) and VII(5) of the Antarctic Treaty. Format is as prescribed in the Annex to Antarctic Treaty Recommendation VIII-6, as amended by Recommendation XIII-3.

The National Science Foundation, an agency of the U.S. Government, manages and funds the United States Antarctic Program. This program comprises almost the totality of publicly supported U.S. antarctic activities-performed mainly by scientists (often in collaboration with scientists from other Antarctic Treaty nations) based at U.S. universities and other Federal agencies; operations performed by firms under contract to the Foundation; and military logistics by units of the Department of Defense.

Activities such as tourism sponsored by private U.S. groups or individuals are included. In the past, some private U.S. groups have arranged their activities with groups in another Treaty nation; to the extent that these activities are known to NSF, they are included. Visits to U.S. Antarctic stations by nongovernmental groups are described in Section XVI. This document is intended primarily for use as a web-based file, but can be printed using the PDF option. Its internal cross links and links to other sites present more information than in the print publications of past years. These links also are intended to facilitate easy use of the site.