McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

Women dressed in traditional folk costumes participate at the Epiphany day celebration in Bitushe, Macedonia January 19, 2017. (Photo by Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters)

Members of the Women's Fire Brigade with their Chief Officer, March 1916. (Photo by Topical Press Agency)

A child enjoys yellow gingko leaves outside the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on November 8, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Zhao Jun/China News Service via Getty Images)

North Koreans wave as Hughes MD-500 helicopters fly past during an aerial display on Saturday, September 24, 2016, in Wonsan, North Korea. North Korea on Saturday opened an air festival featuring sky diving, demonstrations by its air force and lots of beer to promote a newly renovated and upgraded commercial airport in the coastal city of Wonsan that it hopes will draw for foreign tourists. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A person viewing the Northern lights over the lava landscape, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. (Photo by Arctic-Images/Getty Images)

A worker spreads paddy crop for drying in a rice mill complex on the outskirts of Ahmedabad February 3, 2011. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Tourists visit an art installation of colorful umbrellas on November 10, 2022 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)