Antarctic is a unique environment that has global significance in a range of ways. The Antarctic ice sheet as a whole contains 90% of the world's fresh water, this vast ice mass influences conditions and processes over the entire earth. Detection of change in Antarctica is of global interest as changes in the Antarctic environment are directly coupled to the earth system (Zwally, 1994, Waterhouse 2001). Academic and social interest in human impact in Antarctica has heightened recently because of concerns about compromising the 'last great wilderness'. Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island (Figure 1) is an area of intense human activity with two major Antarctic stations (McMurdo Station, USA, and Scott Base, New Zealand) and associated transport facilities. This activity generates emissions and disperses dust (Mahlon et al. 1998) (Figure 2). The introduction of dust and emissions to the surface Of snow and ice areas around Hut Point Peninsula affects the processes of energy exchange there. A thin layer of surface debris can affect the rates of ablation and theæfore have significant implications on the mass balance of glacieß and the vvfi Ids there (Nakawo and Rana 1999, Ostrem 1959). Antarctic is a unique environment that has global significance in a range of ways. The Antarctic ice sheet as a whole contains 90% of the world's fresh water, this vast ice mass influences conditions and processes over the entire earth. Detection of change in Antarctica is of global interest as changes in the Antarctic environment are directly coupled to the earth system (Zwally, 1994, Waterhouse 2001). Academic and social interest in human impact in Antarctica has heightened recently because of concerns about compromising the 'last great wilderness'. Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island (Figure 1) is an area of intense human activity with two major Antarctic stations (McMurdo Station, USA, and Scott Base, New Zealand) and associated transport facilities. This activity generates emissions and disperses dust (Mahlon et al. 1998) (Figure 2). The introduction of dust and emissions to the surface Of snow and ice areas around Hut Point Peninsula affects the processes of energy exchange there. A thin layer of surface debris can affect the rates of ablation and theæfore have significant implications on the mass balance of glacieß and the vvfi Ids there (Nakawo and Rana 1999, Ostrem 1959).