I am a glaciology researcher, conducting a research campaign in the Wasa research station as part of the iQ2300 project (Deltagare iQ2300 2025/26 - Polarforskningssekretariatet).
We have starlink, and occasional bad weather days when I can open the game. The station is not registered as a spot and therefore suggested it, but it keeps being denied. I am given no reason for that. This is publicly accessible, although really expensive, it’s a permanent station. Can I get some feedback? I’m aware that Pokémon go in Antarctica was essentially a sign of spoofing until recently… But now things are different thanks to starlink.
Wayspot Title: Wasa research station
Location (lat/lon):-73,0429305, -13,4124817
City: NA
Country: NA
Screenshot of the Rejection Email (do not include your personal information):
Additional Information (if any): here is the description I included: Wasa research station was built during the summer 1988-89. It serves as the base for all scientific and Meteorological operations of Sweden in Antarctica, as run by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. Teams of scientists work there every summer ever since it’s creation. It could theoretically host 24 people, but usually sticks to a dozen each season.
It’s not obvious where you should post ( and appeals is a specialist area) so I am moving this to Nomination Support where we can help with the nomination
This sounds like an interesting place, let’s see if we can help😀
Can you provide full details - as well as description, supplementary and title, photos.
is there more than one building? Is there anything else at this location that might be considered.
Hi, thanks for helping! The stop name could be “Was research station main building” or something alike. Description of the stop I have before.
The only address for the station is a PO box in Sweden so not appropriate. There is no other formal address for this place.
I maintain that this is a publicly accessible place, it simply requires a lot of resources to make it here. It’s days of snowmobiling from the continent’s margin, or many thousands of usd worth of flying.
Follow some pictures I took of the station. There are 3 buildings: the main station, the old workshop and the new workshop. There are living modules that are like bungalows, they can’t move. There are many containers and other labs inside of containers. The Finnish station Aboa is 200m to the east of us too. They have living modules and bungalows, I added no photo though.
My view is that it will be difficult to get not get a straight rejection from the auto system as what it will “see” are containers. But I actually think that should be helpful as you can then appeal and it will go to the wayfarer team - I’m not sure how this would otherwise get reviewed by the community .
You should be able to create a wayspot for the communal socialising space as well as trying for the base as a whole as a place to explore. Is there a gym?
I Like This. Keep trying! It’s clearly a research station with beautiful scenery, perfect for visiting and exploring. Would be an amazing addition to the game.
The problem is likely the reviewers. Since it’s Antarctica, they can’t verify the location easily on satellite maps (it just looks like snow or old imagery), so they panic and reject it as ‘fake’ or ‘temporary’.
I Think u Can Upload a Photosphere (360° view) to Google Maps right at the station. If reviewers can ‘drop in’ and see the buildings match your photo, they will accept it immediately.
If you have more than one submittable place and they are correctly located in separate cells you will get a stop and a gym. If the Finnish base is in the same S2 level 14 it would also be relevant to gym creation.
If 2 spots are in the same S2 level 17 and 22m apart you should get a powerspot.
It would be great to get some wayspots to add to this topic
I’ll make a 360 photo of the base and upload it. I struggled doing that in the past for other work sites so let’s see if I succeed!
Photo 4 is the old workshop. It’s visible at the back of photo 1, it is the first building with a white background on photo 2, it’s on the right of photo 3, and where photo 5 was taken from.
I have the same issue with the map: I can’t see where things are, nor do I have a scale! I just know that I am in the Wasa station when submitting it, because I’m inside the building myself! I cannot add Aboa because our starlink wifi does not reach there and the lack of scale or marker on the map doesn’t help. There are good satellite maps available online, but not in Google maps it seems? Maybe I should get the base added to open street map. We do not have a gym, but we have a bicycle home trainer in the new workshop!
I’m not especially keen on optimizing the location of stops, but it would be nice indeed. The station spreads northward from the coordinated I provided, I was on the south end of the building, so it would make sense to move the pin north and complement it with the other buildings. That’s what I first did when I arrived in the station but it was rejected too…
The appeal system is just impossible to find for me, how do I appeal the denial?
If you use the web submission (in your wayfarer account), you can submit remotely up to around 10km. There is even an additional tool that can take the location of where you took a photo and move the pin for you to that spot, which might be very helpful in this instance where satellite isn’t helping you and the wifi doesn’t reach.
I would definitely document all the key parts of the base that are designed for exercise, socialising, or exploring/learning. There are bases that do have PoIs - I looked this up when there was a recent story that the King had sent a postbox to Antarctica so that they can have an official one (in the UK, post boxes have a royal cypher and they’re often accepted as PoIs!)
You appeal from your wayfarer account. 2 appeals are available every 15 days.
I think this is an excellent and highly eligible nomination, I had a look at Rothera Research Station (a UK antarctic base) and it has several wayspots (according to the Ingress intel map which is a little out of date)
There are six wayspots at this location - the main ops building, accommodation block, a sign with the research station name, a climbing frame, a time capsule plaque and a framed survey note from the 1957 survey expedition. So if you have different buildings of different functions then all could possibly be eligible.
There’s a lack of satellite imagery confirming the location of the base. If you can find any such imagery you can include a link in the supporting text. A photosphere would be terrific. The base is listed on Wikipedia which should help - Wasa Research Station - Wikipedia . The base also isn’t marked on OpenStreetMap where some other bases are, you can add that yourself - PoGo syncs with OSM on a sporadic basis, that will make the base show in-game and is also a great thing to have in any case.
Remember, you can use any online supporting resource you like in the Supplemental information section, or when you appeal. I really do think this is a good candidate for one or more wayspots so I would definitely encourage trying again.
This is such an interesting case! I really hope you’ll be able to get a wayspot up (or I guess down) there. Is there anything like a notice board, a gym, or anything similar? Wikipedia says there is a sauna, I wonder if that might be eligible. Any art, plaques, communal areas etc?
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(in the UK, post boxes have a royal cypher and they’re often accepted as PoIs!)
