Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Antarctica: Italian research winter mission kicks off
While the Concordia base welcomes the winter expedition personnel the Zucchelli station closes, but the summer campaign will continue until March on the icebreaker Laura Bassi
The 21st winter mission of the National Research Program in Antarctica (PNRA), funded by the Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) and implemented by the National Research Council (CNR) for scientific coordination, ENEA for logistical planning and organization of activities at the Antarctic bases and the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) for technical and scientific management of its icebreaker Laura Bassi, has begun at the Italian-French base in Concordia.
At Concordia, the station leader of the summer campaign Riccardo Scipinotti (ENEA) handed over management of the station to glaciologist Simona Grimaldi (University of Catania), who will be in charge of leading the new group of 13 winterovers comprising 6 Italians from the PNRA, 6 French from the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) and a British physician from the European Space Agency (ESA).
At more than 3,000 meters above sea level and 1,200 kilometers from the coast, the 13 winterovers will spend the long Antarctic winter, during which temperatures can reach as low as -80 degrees Celsius, at the French-Italian base. In complete isolation for nine months and with three months of polar night, that is in complete darkness, the team will ensure maintenance of the station and conduct 14 scientific activities which include research projects and permanent observatories, on different disciplines.
Ice thickness greater than 3 kilometers, low humidity, high visibility and sharpness, high altitude, and low pollution make Concordia an extraordinary laboratory for studies on: cryosphere; climatology; atmospheric chemistry and physics; geomagnetism and seismology; astrophysics and space meteorology. The extreme conditions also make Concordia an ideal stand-in for studies and simulations of challenges faced by astronauts in outer space. To this aim, ESA will carry out 7 biomedical projects which provide for continuous monitoring by the physician regarding their physical, psychological and social adaptation in extreme, space-like living conditions.
At Concordia, the 4th drilling campaign of the European project Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice, coordinated by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the CNR, took place during the summer campaign, reaching the depth of 2,800 meters, where the Antarctic ice sheet meets the bedrock. The extracted ice offers an unparalleled record of Earth's climate history, providing direct information on atmospheric temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations over 1.2 million years and beyond. Ca' Foscari University Venice and ENEA, which is managing the logistical activities together with the IPEV, also participate for Italy.
As the winter campaign begins at Concordia, the Italian Mario Zucchelli station closes on the coast of Baia Terra Nova, marking the end of the 40th summer mission of the PNRA at the Antarctic bases, where 14 research projects involving 140 researchers, researchers and technical personnel, including 17 military experts from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Carabinieri and Fire Department were conducted and coordinated by expedition leader Rocco Ascione (ENEA).
The scientific activities at the Mario Zucchelli station were coordinated in the first period by Gaetano Giudice, a researcher at the Ingv, followed by Nicoletta Ademollo, a researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences of the CNR. The activities involved nine permanent observatories, crucial for continuous monitoring of phenomena related to climatology, seismology, geomagnetism, upper atmosphere and space weather. Other observatories will continue to acquire data essential for volcanological monitoring to analyse changes in microbial communities, permafrost and vegetation. The research teams have also acquired data and samples to analyse the seasonal evolution of surfaces and supraglacial hydrography on the Nansen Ice Shelf, the role of sea ice in the mercury cycle, biodiversity, evolution, adaptation and immune mechanisms of Antarctic organisms and adaptation of the human microbiome.
"All the operations envisaged by the research projects, many of which in the first year of the campaign, have been successfully completed. Multidisciplinary research teams from different scientific institutions have analysed and investigated different aspects of the fragile Antarctic ecosystem, and the excellent progress of the activities confirms the value and importance of research in Antarctica, a key territory for understanding climate change and global environmental dynamics," said CNR Polar Science Institute Director Giuliana Panieri.
The activities of the 40th summer campaign will continue through March on the icebreaker Laura Bassi, which is conducting six research projects in the Ross Sea.
During the 40th expedition, under the leadership of base chief Francesco Pellegrino (ENEA), extraordinary maintenance and rehabilitation works were conducted on the science platforms at the Zucchelli Station, including the OASI telescope dome. In addition, the installed power of the photovoltaic system was doubled (from 62 kWp to 113 kWp) to produce up to 25 percent of the station's electricity needs. "Thanks to the extraordinary funding made available by the MUR, the efficiency and modernization works of the bases will continue. In addition, the Boulder Clay airfield built near the Mario Zucchelli station will be brought to full operation, thus enabling it to become a key asset in the Ross Sea area," explained Elena Campana, head of the ENEA Antarctica Technical Unit.
