The Australian Antarctic Medal (AAM) is awarded for outstanding service in scientific research or exploration in connection with an Australian Antarctic expedition

Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions

The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions is the historical name for the Australian Antarctic Program administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic Division .-The ANARE Name:...

 or for support of such work. The service or support would normally be for a period of at least 12 months.

The AAM was introduced in 1987, and replaced the Imperial award of the Polar Medal

Polar Medal

The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.-History:...

 of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Announcements of the award are made on 21 June in a special Midwinter’s Day honours list.

Recipients of the Australian Antarctic Medal are entitled to use the post-nominal letters

Post-nominal letters

Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles or designatory letters, are letters placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, or honour. An individual may use several different sets of...

 "AAM".

Description

• The AAM is an octagonal nickel-silver
  Nickel silver
  Nickel silver, also known as German silver, Argentann, new silver, nickel brass, albata,, or alpacca, is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver is named for its silvery appearance, but it contains no elemental silver...
  
   medal ensigned with a hexagonal ice-crystal device which links the medal to the suspension bar. The obverse depicts the Southern Hemisphere
  Southern Hemisphere
  The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
  
   showing Australia and the Antarctic enclosed by the inscription "For Outstanding Service in the Antarctic".
• The reverse of the medal shows an Antarctic expeditioner leaning into a blizzard to use an ice axe
  Ice axe
  An ice axe, is a multi-purpose ice and snow tool used by mountaineers both in the ascent and descent of routes which involve frozen conditions. It can be held and employed in a number of different ways, depending on the terrain encountered...
  
   outside Mawson's Huts
  Mawson's Huts
  "Mawson's Huts" are the collection of buildings located at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, in the far eastern sector of the Australian Antarctic Territory, some 3000 km south of Hobart...
  
  . The ice-crystal device is repeated on the reverse of the medal.
• The 32 millimetre-wide ribbon is snow-white moiré
  Moiré pattern
  In physics, a moiré pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes.- Etymology :...
  
  . At the edges three shades of blue merge into the white.