it's an American research station, hence the flag. Post offices's don't usally have signs about the south pole, I don't know how you asumed that, Alaska is cold, but not that cold. parking lot? Lol a parking lot without cars and anything but ice and snow, in other words: a parking lot without a parking lot and the things you would see in a parking lot

you can tell it's true, there are barely any clouds

you do at least believe in gravity, right?

first image of earth, (the editing software wasn't that good in ww2 https://mashable.com/article/earth-first-images-space-history

the money is used for research, which is useful, for example: it's easy to find meteorites(black on white snow)