The last 2020-2021 BELARE crew left Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on Tuesday 16 February after securing everything and putting the station into winter mode. The station is now running on its own and will do so for the next eight months. It will continue to provide energy for the scientific equipment gathering data for various meteorological and geophysical projects running all year long.
After a short flight in a Basler (DC-3), the ten last members of the BELARE team for the season reached the Russian Novolazarevskaia Station, where they had a six-hour layover before boarding a Russian (IL-76) Ilyushin to continue their trip to Cape Town.
As this was the last flight of the season out of Antarctica from the Dronning Maud Land to Cape Town, the last crew members for the 2020-2021 austral summer season leaving from various stations in the vicinity, including six from the Indian Maitri Station and several non-overwintering crew from Novolazarevskaia Station, accompanied the remaining BELARE crew members on the flight.
Once everything was prepared, the plane took off in the dusk of the waning austral summer, destination Cape Town. After an uneventful six-hour flight, everyone arrived safe and sound in Cape Town in the early morning the following day.
A touch of summer before heading home
The warmth of the South African summer was a welcome change from the bitter cold of Utsteinen, which is experiencing longer and longer nights now that the austral autumn is approaching quickly. Most members of the team spent a day or two recovering from the long journey from PEA at a hotel, where they quarantined as a group.
At the hotel, they held debrief meetings for the season and completed the necessary COVID-related paperwork to be able to travel back to Europe, facilitated as always by IPF South Africa Director Michel De Wouters.
Unfortunately, the pandemic forced the usual post-season decompression ritual in Cape Town to be more restricted. Although every member of the team was living in an isolated and completely COVID-free environment at PEA for the last several months, the whole team stayed together as a group at the same hotel in Cape Town, observing local safety guidelines, before those in the team who were travelling back to Europe did so.
Once all team members observe the local COVID quarantine guidelines for their respective countries of residence, many of them will return to their lives as doctors, engineers, mechanics and technicians, with the happy memory of having contributed to the exciting improvement projects that were undertaken at the world’s first zero-emission polar research station this past season.
As February progresses and the sun dips below the horizon for longer and longer periods of time each night, it’s a reminder that the 2020 - 2021 season is drawing to a close. Preparations are already underway to prepare the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica for overwintering.
Packing up
With a scheduled departure date of 16 February, the entrance hallway is already starting to fill up with boxes and bags. Some are filled with scientific equipment, while others are being prepared to transport frozen atmospheric particle samples taken this season to Cape Town for the CHASE project. In South Africa, they will be stored in a freezer before being sent to Europe for analysis. Certain scientific instruments must also be removed from the roof during the winter and stored in safe locations of the station.
Anything that must stay at PEA, such as the containers the team and scientists uses during field expeditions along with other heavy machinery must also be properly stored. One by one the team is putting the Prinoth tractors, cranes and other vehicles away in the Winter Park hangar that was built two seasons ago on a patch of blue ice where snow accumulation is very limited.
Meanwhile, the carpenters have been placing wooden boards over the solar panels. This is to protect them from the ice and snow that will inevitably accumulate around the station during the austral winter.
Shutting down
Bernard Polet, the station’s plumber, has been busy for the past few days to shut down and drain the station’s water treatment system. The entire network of pipes needs to be drained to avoid any pipes bursting in case the station experiences freezing conditions over the winter. The bacteria used to treat wastewater must also be removed from the station’s bioreactor and stored for the winter in the core of the station. Most of these bacteria will survive and be used to regenerate the system during the opening of the station’s sewage system on the next BELARE expedition.
With the water production and treatment system shutting down, no new snow is being melted and put into the system. Water use is now rationed to make sure the team has enough to survive on until they leave for Cape Town.
The station’s technicians are also starting to program the station’s winter mode to kick in once the BELARE team leaves on 16 February. Winter mode must be engaged so the station continues to run autonomously until the next team arrives in November. A multitude of scientific instruments rely on the station’s winter mode to continue to collect data while the Princess Elisabeth remains unoccupied.
Soon everyone will have head back to rejoin the rest of the world, after nearly tree months of a successful expedition away from home.
Over the past few years, Science Liaison Officer and Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert has been giving online classes to students in Belgium and around the world from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. This season, his lessons have been more popular than ever.
Fostering dialogue and raising climate awareness
Ever since the IPF has been offering online classes in 2009, soon after the inauguration of the the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, teachers and professors have enthusiastically welcomed the International Polar Foundation's STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) outreach activities to primary and secondary schools in the form of online classes.
Over the years, staff and scientists at the world’s first zero emission polar research station have taken time from their busy schedules to present to classes the groundbreaking design on the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA), the world-class science taking place at the station, daily life in Antarctica and what can be done to reduce one’s environmental impact and combat against climate change.
Part of Henri's role at IPF is to increase outreach activities and popularise PEA and the scientific projects taking place there. As a biologist who has had experience in the field over many years, Henri had a number of contacts in schools in Belgium and other countries, even before his first mission to PEA in 2017. So it was logical for him to be in charge of educational outreach activities.
A typical lesson
During the 2020-21 season, Henri has been speaking to university, high school and grammar school classes in Belgium, Canada, Spain, Croatia and the UK.
At the beginning of each class, Henri usually gives a PowerPoint presentation about the design and function of PEA. He presents the different areas of the station to give his audience an idea about everyday life at the station and how it optimally uses renewable energy to power everything.
He then gives a historical timeline of Belgium’s involvement in Antarctica, staring with Adrien de Gerlache’s first scientific voyage and overwintering in 1898 aboard the Belgica research vessel. He then moves to subsequent Belgian Antarctic missions starting during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957-58, and finally how the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was conceived and constructed as part of Belgium’s legacy for the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08.
Henri discusses in detail the station’s zero-emission concept, focusing on renewable energy production and managing energy use with a smart microgrid system, the station's water treatment system and passive construction methods. He also highlights that due to its extreme environment, PEA is a great platform for testing out new renewable technologies, showing that the station is as good as anywhere else in the world to put them to good use.
A biologist by training, Henri also fascinates students by telling them about Antarctica’s unique biodiversity, from megafauna such as penguins, whales and seals found along the coast of Antarctica, to snow petrels and microbes that live on the rocks close to PEA. He also explains concepts such as the aquatic food web in the Southern Ocean.
Most importantly, Henri introduces his audience to everyday initiatives they can take to reduce humanity's impact on the planet's ecosystems. Even the smallest gesture done on a large scale can have a significant impact on reducing humanity’s environmental footprint.
“A popular question students often ask is whether scientists in Antarctica witness firsthand the effects of global warming,” Henri explained. “Unfortunately, the symptoms of global warming are becoming more and more obvious.”
“An island just off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula witnessed a never before seen high temperature of 20.75°C in February 2020. Warming ocean currents are melting glaciers and ice shelves in West Antarctica; about 60% of ice shelves may be at risk of collapsing in the coming decades according to recent research. And a warming climate is already having a significant impact on indigenous species in Antarctica.”
Ideal for all ages
Henri has received quite a lot of positive feedback from teachers about his online lessons this season.
Claire Gillet, a biologist and teacher from the Montjoie Institute in Brussels, with whom Henri has been doing seminars for two years, is always happy with the outcome of Henri’s virtual visit with her high school students:
“I think it’s great that the students get a little bit into the reality of daily life in Antarctica. It breaks down some barriers, which is important at the beginning of the exchange,” said Ms. Gillet. “The students also answered a number of technical questions about the station, which gave them the opportunity to learn about more topics in the follow-up.
Teachers AmandaTulli and Nadia Lakhdari, teachers from Lasalle Elementary Senior in Montreal, Quebec, were grateful for Henri’s ability to communicate with their fourth graders in an understandable way.
“Thank you for using language that was easy for the kids to understand,” they wrote. “They loved how you were able to show them the view from your window! Thank you again for answering all their questions in a child-friendly way!”
Judith Moreno, a teacher from the Montserrat Institute in Barcelona applauded Henri for making such a big impact on her young students and for giving them advice on how to make a difference.
"They appreciated a lot the practical advice on how they can make a difference in the climate crisis,” she commented.
Henri also gives talks to university students. This season, he’s spoken with geology students at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) a number of times, a special treat for university students who are often taking online course these days anyway.
Get in touch!
Both children and young adults will likely witness significant impacts of climate change during their lifetimes. Giving them the possibility to talk with scientists actively conducting research in Antarctica encourages them to become even more passionate about STEM subjects, nature conservation and taking an active role in combatting climate change.
If your school or university would like to organise an online class with some of the scientists and engineers working for the International Polar Foundation, please feel free to contact Henri Robert at science@polarfoundaiton.org.
Preben Van Overmeiren, a PhD candidate from Ghent University working for the EnVOC research group, conducted field work collecting organic and inorganic atmospheric particles for the CHASE project, which seeks to learn more about atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere and how atmospheric particles and gas phase compounds are transported to Antarctica. He also did field work for the CLIMB project, which is investigating how such particles influence cloud formation and precipitation in Antarctica.
What are the objectives of both CHASE and CLIMB projects?
CHASE is a project that started in 2017 with funding from the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO). It has four main partners: the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), Ghent University and the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI/IRM).
The project has two goals. Firstly, we’ve sampled the air in Antarctica to learn details about the chemical characteristics of atmospheric particles and gaseous compounds. Secondly, we’re investigating the atmospheric transport pathways, a task the Royal Meteorological Institute oversees. This year the project is coming to an end, but we’ve still got work to do to analyze the samples we’ve collected.
The CLIMB project continues on some of the discoveries made in previous projects such as CHASE as well as AEROCLOUD. CLIMB is coordinated by the Royal Meteorological Institute with partners Ghent University, KU Leuven and the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (IASB-BIRA). It focuses on taking measurements of meteorological, aerosol, cloud, and precipitation characteristics at the Princess Elisabeth Station and directly at the cloud level, on the edge on the Antarctic Plateau south of the Sør Rondane Mountains.
For both projects, we’ve been tracing different sources of both natural and anthropogenic aerosols and gases in Antarctica, how abundant pollutants are, and how they reach Antarctica. Yet while the CHASE project investigated a broad range of organic and inorganic species in the Antarctic atmosphere, the CLIMB project is investigating the role of atmospheric ice nuclei particles and organic compounds on cloud formation and precipitation. This information will be used in a regional climate model for the Dronning Maud Land area.
What methodologies did you use in each project?
Within CHASE, we used a few well-established methods such as using high volume samplers to sample particles and gases from the atmosphere. As the project was coming to an end this year, we had to collect all the passive samplers, which were installed on remote sites in the field four years ago, and bring them back to Belgium.
For CLIMB, a big challenge was to design and install active sampling equipment at high altitude (2350 m) and have it work with some batteries and a wind turbine year-round. We’ve managed the challenge quite well but installations like this are only possible due to IPF’s thorough support! At the station, we use small instruments such as the ice nuclei particle (INP) sampler to take samples of these important cloud-forming particles and remote sensing equipment like a CIMEL sunphotometer and a MAXDOAS (multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy) instrument. On both sites, a unique VOC sampler is installed which monitors organic gases during the year.
Collecting atmospheric samples along a 250 km transect from the high plateaus to the coast has helped us compare the transport and composition of aerosols in inland highland regions to their transport and composition in lowland coastal regions.
For example, in the interior highlands, atmospheric circulation transports fine particles produced through mountain erosion. At the coast, atmospheric circulation brings in compounds from different landmasses surrounding Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere: South America, Africa and Australia. At the coast, you tend to see more anthropogenic influence showing up in our samples.
Why are aerosols so important to the cloud formation process?
Various primary and secondary aerosols affect the microphysics of clouds. They act as nuclei for the formation of cloud droplets or small ice crystals. Clouds are an important factor in the earth’s albedo. They reflect a fraction of the sun’s radiation back into space, but they also reflect thermal radiation of the earth itself back towards the ground. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defined the effect of clouds on climate change as one of the biggest uncertainties. There is also a lot of indirect effects of aerosols on clouds which can have a positive or negative effect on the radiative energy budget.
Within CLIMB, we’re measuring ice-nuclei particles (INP), aerosol size and number concentration, volatile organic compounds (which can form secondary organic aerosols and precipitation) and cloud characteristics at PEA. At the aforementioned high-altitude site, we also try to measure aerosol size, precipitation and chemistry inside clouds. The location of PEA is interesting for such studies because you have easy access to higher altitude regions, it is influenced both by synoptic (large-scale) and katabatic (from the higher interior of the continent) meteorological regimes, and historically there aren’t a lot of similar studies done in this part of Antarctica.
As part of your fieldwork, you went on a field expedition to the coast for a few days. How did you like this experience?
We went to the coast driving in the Toyota Hilux, following in the path of two big Prinoth tractors. We could only travel at 15 – 20 km/h, so it took quite a while, but it was a great way to experience a different part of Antarctica.
At one point, the tractors left us to take care of some other business, and I was left alone to work with Henri Robert, the Deputy Station Manager. It was such an unforgettable experience to be doing fieldwork far away from civilization.
How was it travelling to Antarctica under COVID-19 restrictions?
The journey was hectic, but very well managed by the first crew. Poor weather conditions delayed our departure for Antarctica, so instead of spending two weeks in Cape Town, we spent three before we were able to start our mission.
It wasn’t all bad. The location where we were staying was delightful. I roomed together in a house with Alexis Merlaud (BIRA), who also contributed to the CLIMB project this season. I had never met him before, so it was a great opportunity to bond with a fellow scientist and share some ideas before the start of the season.
You stayed longer than expected this season. Why?
Normally I should have arrived at PEA mid-November and left mid-December before Christmas, which would have given me four or five weeks to conduct fieldwork. But as I said, our scheduled flight to Antarctica from Cape Town was delayed for more than a week due to poor weather conditions in Antarctica. After we arrived on the continent, I was part of the team that was stuck at Novo for 72 hours before being able to travel on to PEA, again due to poor weather conditions.
Since my mission this year included work for both the CHASE and CLIMB projects and I was already more than a week behind schedule when I finally arrived at PEA, I decided to stay longer and postpone my return flight until mid-January to make sure I could accomplish everything I was sent to do.
On the bright side, I got to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s in Antarctica for the first time at PEA with the crew. This was special for me! If there ever were one time in your life to spend Christmas and New Year’s in Antarctica, this was the year. COVID-19 has made it impossible to have large gatherings in Belgium. But in Antarctica, as we were all together isolated from the world in a COVID-free environment, it was more enjoyable.
As the team has been putting the finishing touches on the station’s new annexes, this past week they also got a lift thanks to a new system they installed last season that can help keep the two annexes level.
Adjusting to glacier movement
The station’s new annexes underwent a vertical lift this past week thanks to a new system the BELARE team installed over the last few seasons, which allows the two annexes to be lifted as the glacier beneath them recedes and moves over time.
While the main part of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was constructed 2007-09 on a solid and unmoving granite ridge, the two new annexes have been built at a level below the ridge on top of a slowly-moving glacier.
All ice-covered areas in Antarctica are constantly moving by a few centimetres a year. Due to gravity, glaciers and ice streams that are part of the massive ice sheet covering Antarctica slowly flow towards the coasts all the time. The ice is actually not entirely solid, but rather behaves like an incredibly slow-moving stream.
As a consequence, any construction done on top of ice-covered areas in Antarctica (or on top of any ice-covered area in the world for that matter) must take into account the constant movement of this ice, as well as additional snow that gets deposited on top of the ice. Adequate engineering solutions are necessary to compensate for the ice movement.
The system used at the station consists of 13 pistons placed under the 13 beams that support the floor in each of the new annexes from below, as well as a series of hinges fastened to the granite ridge in both annexes that can compensate for vertical movement. The pistons can be raised gradually as the ice moves. Each piston can be raised individually to allow precise adjustments to be made to the level of the annexes.
In anticipation of the average 8 cm retreat the glacier below the annexes experiences between seasons, the BELARE team has raised the annexes slightly above normal for the final weeks of the season. When the team returns in November for the next season, the annexes will not need as much adjustment as they needed at the beginning of this season.
Finishing up the garage
With the walls of the new garage are covered in solar panels installed by engineers Guus and Johan earlier this season, it was decided to put windows in the doors of the garage. This past week the team has been putting the finishing touches on the windows and moving equipment and mechanical parts (temporarily stored in containers outside) in their definitive storage area inside the new building.
Although the garage has been hooked up to the station's smart grid to receive power and can be fully lit, it’s both pleasant and useful to be able to have some natural light in the garage.
With a few more finishing touches, the three-season construction project of the new north and south annexes is finally coming to an end.
Aymar de Lichtervelde, a Belgian process engineer in charge of the water treatment systems at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) Station, recently took part in an international project bringing together amateur musicians from all seven continents of the world in order to raise money to help support COVID-19 relief efforts.
A bold idea
The Intercontinen7al initiative is the brainchild of amateur musician Matt Smith from Columbia, Maryland in the United States. After COVID-19 restrictions made it difficult for him to play with his bandmates in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area band Toast, he started using the BandLab online platform to compose and record songs with fellow local musicians.
Not long after he started this collaboration, he realised the potential for the platform and set his sights on a much larger ambition: record an album with contributions from musicians from all seven continents.
“If I could collaborate online with local musicians using BandLab,” Matt explained. “I thought ‘Why not try it with musicians from all over the world?’”. Matt was inspired by the rock band Foo Fighters and their album Sonic Highways, which includes songs that were recorded in various cities across the United States.
Responding to the call
In hopes of finding someone who could contribute to the Intercontinen7al initiative from Antarctica, Matt contacted the International Polar Foundation in September 2020, two months before the start of the 2020 - 2021 Antarctic research season. Luckily for him, Aymar de Lichtervelde, who was scheduled to go to Antarctica during the 2020-2021 austral summer research season to work on the station’s water production and treatment systems, agreed to take part in the initiative.
An amateur classical guitarist who keeps a guitar at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, Aymar contributed to the album in his spare time during his scheduled work this season.
"He asked me if I could play the intro to one of the songs he was composing,” Aymar recalled. "He told me the key to play it in: A minor. When I found some time, I recorded the intro on my phone and I sent it to him. Eventually, he was able to integrate my recording into one of the songs on the album.”
Aymar’s recording ended up becoming the introduction to the song "Manor Hill" on the Intercontinen7al album.
A truly international project
Ultimately, Matt managed to get 22 musicians spanning all seven continents to take part in the project, including a drummer working in Antarctica at the French-Italian Concordia Station.
One by one, the musicians recorded their assigned parts, and Matt put everything together into complete songs. In total, he and the other musicians were able to put together 12 songs for the Intercontinen7al album. Each song has contributions from musicians from at least two different continents. The song Aymar contributed to, Manor Hill, features artists from all seven continents.
“We’re looking into whether 'Manor Hill' might be the first-ever recording to feature musicians from all seven continents,” Matt explained. “If we were the first group of musicians to try to do this kind of recording from all seven continents, we might even be recognised by Guinness World Records.”
All for a good cause
Sales from the album will go towards supporting COVID-19 relief efforts. Matt and his team wanted to give any proceeds from the COVID-19 Relief Fund, which provides financial assistance to individuals impacted by the pandemic and organisations coordinating relief efforts.
Anyone can purchase the album on the Intercontinen7al website or listen to it on platforms such as Spotify, Amazon, or iTunes and make a contribution.
Matt Smith was grateful to everyone who contributed to the project and found it extremely rewarding. Connecting people that have never met one another and uniting them for a good cause shows the power of modern technological solutions.
“I never thought in a million years that the project would grow exponentially the way it did,” Matt explained. “I can’t thank Aymar enough for his contribution. This project is a good example of what can be accomplished when we put our heads together for a good cause.”
In a decision handed down on the 5th of January 2021, the Chambre du Conseil of Brussels definitively dismissed all charges of conflict of interest against Alain Hubert and the International Polar Foundation.
The charges were lodged in December 2013 by the former Director of the Belgian Science Policy Office, who challenged the appointment of Alain Hubert as President of the Polar Secretariat, and contested the participation of the International Polar Foundation in the Public-Private Partnership embodied by the Polar Secretariat.
The Court held that neither the Polar Foundation nor Alain Hubert could be considered as having profited personally from these appointments.
In its judgment, the Court upheld the conformity with the law of the partnership agreements signed between the Belgian State and the International Polar Foundation in 2007 and 2009. This finding is in line with the decision of the Council of State (the highest administrative Court in Belgium), handed down in June 2017.
The Court found that due to the various checks and balances exercised by the public administration, Alain Hubert would have at no time been able to promote his private interests as President and member of the Polar Secretariat. At no point was the public interest harmed, and the Court maintained that there is no evidence of a conflict of interest. In reality, the Foundation has carried on with the tasks entrusted to it by the State since 2009, demonstrating the working collaboration between the parties.
The International Polar Foundation and Alain Hubert have welcomed the decision of the Courts, bringing as it does to a close a long period of unfounded attacks on the honesty and integrity of the Foundation.
The Foundation wishes to thank all those in both the private and public sector who have shown their confidence and offered support to the IPF during all these years.
The IPF is a public utility foundation created in 2002 by Alain Hubert in conjunction with renowned academic scientists, with the intention of advancing the cause of polar sciences internationally. The Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, the first “zero emission” research station in Antarctica, is a flagship project of the IPF. The reinforcing of the Belgian presence in Antarctica and the support for research that ensued are key objectives of the IPF in promoting sustainable development through showcasing Belgian and European engineering and scientific excellence as well as being at the service of citizens.
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This past week has been quite busy at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica for the team, with a trip to the coast and the last change of a few of the team members for the season.
A trip to the coast!
Last week, Preben Van Overmeiren from Ghent University travelled to the coast for a few days with BELARE Expedition Leader Alain Hubert and Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert to remove sampling stations for the CHASE project, which is coming to an end this season.
The atmospheric particle samplers, which members of the CHASE project had set up in strategic locations along a 240 km transect from the Antarctic Plateau to the coast, had been taking samples of organic and inorganic particles in the atmosphere for the last three years. The project’s goal has been to track where these particles are coming from, whether they are of natural origin or anthropogenic, and to get a better understanding of atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere.
As a lot of snow had fallen in the Dronning Maud Land in East Antarctica this past year, the poles supporting the sampling instruments for the CHASE project were buried deep in the snow. It took almost six hours to dig out the supports at several stations and pack them up safely for the trip home.
While at the coast, Alain took a detour to collect containers of waste prepared during the previous season nearby for further evacuation. Depending on the ice conditions, which often makes the loading and offloading of the ship at the coast a tricky operation, they will need to be relocated to be shipped back to South Africa when the next scheduled ship comes to pick them up.
Alain and his mechanics drove a Prinoth tractor with a residential container, while Henri and Preben travelled via modified Toyota Hilux to the coast and camped on-site. Overall, the 200 km trip to the coast took about 14 hours each way, with stops along the way to collect the scientific samples and equipment for the CHASEproject.
Rotating team members
Not long after their return from the coast, it was time to say goodbye to seven members of the expedition who had finished their rotation, including Preben, who was returning home after finishing his tasks for the CHASE project, as well as Guus Luppens and Johan Demuylder, who had done an excellent job of adding to the station’s renewable energy capacity during their stay.
While it was sad to see our friends go, we welcomed veteran cook of 11 seasons at PEA David Rigotti, as well as carpenter / electrician Paul Dudas, who is joining the team for the second season in a row and will help to finish work on the new north annex.
There are no more flights in and out until the last plane of the season, which is scheduled for 16 February. For the next month, the BELARE team plans to concentrate on assisting scientists who are collecting data remotely, preparing the station for the coming winter, and completing the construction work that must be done before the end of the season.
The 2020-2021 season at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica has been progressing smoothly for the BELARE team, despite the challenges the team has faced due to the COVID-19 situation. After completing 24 days of quarantine near Cape Town before leaving for Antarctica and a weather delay, the BELARE team has overcome a few initial challenges they’ve encountered at the start of the season to have a quieter yet very productive season.
Scientific research projects
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for a large number of scientists to travel to the station this year. Ultimately only three scientists representing three different scientific research projects spent time at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica this season, including two Belgian projects, CLIMB and CHASE, and a Swiss project from the EPFL-CRYOS laboratory, From Clouds to Ground: Snow Accumulation in Extreme Environments.
Alexis Merlaud, an atmospheric scientist from the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), spent several weeks at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica installing and maintaining instruments to observe the atmosphere above PEA. With the help of the station team, he installed two instruments to measure atmospheric ozone concentration: a Brewer Spectrophotometer from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, and a MAX-DOAS instrument from the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy BIRA-IASB. The data Alexis and his team (working remotely) collected contributes to the global scientific effort to monitor the ozone hole, which was unusually large over Antarctica during the austral spring this year.
During his first ever trip to Antarctica, Armin Sigmund, a PhD student from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) spent several weeks in Antarctica doing fieldwork for a project the EPFL CRYOS lab calls From Clouds to Ground: Snow Accumulation in Extreme Environment. His objectives were to maintain and upgrade two automatic weather stations, which his colleagues had installed in 2016. These stations have been collecting data ever since. He also took photogrammetry measurement of the area around PEA using a professional mapping drone. The data he and his team are collecting will help determine net snow accumulation to better understand surface mass balance (SMB) of the ice sheet in East Antarctica.
Preben Van Overmeiren from Ghent University spent the longest time in Antarctica before returning to Belgium in mid-January. Working for both the CLIMB and the CHASE project, Preben spent his time in Antarctica collecting samples from devices his colleagues had installed at PEA and along a 250 km transect from the Antarctic Plateau to the coast to collect organic and inorganic atmospheric particles, hoping to learn about atmospheric currents and how much anthropogenic atmospheric pollution ends up in Antarctica. With the CHASE project in its final season, Preben had to collect passive sampling instruments that his colleagues had set up along this transect. For the rest of the expedition, a number of instruments will continue to collect samples with the assistance of IPF staff.
Works around the station
With an entire season to focus on the improvement of the facility, the BELARE team made a lot of progress to finish a number of construction projects at the station.
After its completion in February 2020, the team used a new system of hinges and pistons to adjust the level of the new station’s annexes. These adjustments compensate for the slow-moving glacier upon which they are built. These two new north and south annexes contain 16 comfortable bedrooms that can sleep up to 32 people, a scientific workplace, storage areas, freezers for provisions, a large snow melter for the station’s water production, carpentry and metal workshop, a space for the emergency generators, and a heated garage for large machinery maintenance and repair.
The team also constructed a brand new, well-equipped surgery room. They also improved several modified living containers to give scientists going on extended field campaigns a comfortable place to stay. The station’s mechanics also checked and maintained machinery and vehicles during the first part of this season.
As for the station’s renewable energy production, engineers Guus Luppens and Johan Demuylder increased the station's capacity significantly by installing on the ridge where the station sits a large number of latest-generation, double-sided solar panels, which are able to collect both incident light from the sun and light reflected off of the snow. They also covered the walls of the new north annex in solar panels, which greatly increases power production and the station’s energy resilience during calm weather, when wind turbines are less efficient.
Process engineer Aymar de Lichterverde, who is responsible for the station’s water treatment system and the drinking water mineralisation system, improved the station's water treatment capacity by installing an aeration system that enhances the efficacy of the bacteria used to treat wastewater in the large bioreactor. He also automated the mineralisation process for the station’s drinking water, which, until now, had to be done by hand.
Christmas and New Year's
After several weeks of intensive work, the BELARE team enjoyed celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Eve, despite being a smaller crew than usual, mostly due to COVID-19 restrictions. They even built an eco-friendly Christmas tree out of recycled wood!
For Christmas Eve, the station’s plumber Bernard Polet prepared a traditional three-course meal, and for New Year’s Eve, Expedition Leader Alain Hubert made a festive dinner, including roast duck and a traditional Belgian dish: stuffed tomatoes with shrimps, which was a taste of home for the Belgian crew.
Still much to do
Although the handful of scientists who have been at the station this season have already come and gone, a lot of work remains before the end of the season. The BELARE team will continue to gather and maintain data-collecting equipment for scientists making remote observations. Other tasks they must do include installing windows on the north annex’s wall and finishing all the partitions and insulation between the different workshops, storage areas, and the garage.
Later in February, the team will spend time to prepare the station for overwintering. They will drain all the water systems, store machines and containers in a place where snow accumulation is minimal, and last but not least, programme electronic modes for the autonomous functioning of the station while it is uninhabited for the next nine months.
Aymar de Lichtervelde, a process engineer who is in charge of the water treatment system of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) Research Station, spent 21 days in Antarctica with the BELARE team during the 2020 - 2021 season.
While only in Antarctica a short time, he was able to make a lot of progress in his continuing mission to improve the water production and treatment systems at the station.
What were your primary objectives at the Princess Elisabeth this year? Did you manage to accomplish them?
Due to a weather delay keeping us from arriving in Antarctica on schedule, it was not possible to do everything I had planned, but I was able to complete all of the essential tasks I needed to accomplish.
Firstly, we had to do maintenance and repair work on the station’s water treatment system. After more than ten years of operation, some sensors had started to malfunction or break down from natural wear and tear, and needed to be replaced.
The next most important order of business was further automating both the drinking water production and wastewater treatment systems.
For the drinking water, we installed an automatic mineralisation system. During previous seasons, minerals had to be added by hand. We add essential minerals such as calcium and magnesium to the drinking water to make it healthy drinking water, like we have back home. The water we obtain from melting the Antarctic snow is too pure to drink. If you drink water without minerals, it can keep your body from getting the nutrients it needs and create health problems.
As for the bioreactor, which treats the station’s wastewater, we had planned to do some work to further improve its aeration system. Although we faced strict space constraints at the station, the system we designed works very well. I have already noticed an improvement in the water treatment process compared to the previous season.
However, starting up the bioreactor is the one thing that is still difficult to automate, and one of the reasons why my return to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was necessary. When starting up the system, someone must do chemical analyses in the lab to assess the viability and activity of the bacteria we use to treat the wastewater.
Why was it necessary to improve the aeration of the station’s bioreactor?
Managing wastewater at a polar research station is a challenge. The wastewater treatment system at PEA was originally designed over a decade ago to handle only about 15 people staying at the station.
But over the years, more and more people have been staying at the station at a time. So eventually it became necessary to find a way to increase the capacity of the water treatment system while respecting the space constraints we had at the station.
During last season, we learned that the oxygenation of the bioreactor could be a major bottleneck in the overall treatment process. Hence, improving aeration was thought to be an effective way to improve the system’s overall performance. More oxygen means the bacteria that treat the wastewater can do their job more effectively.
Before leaving for Antarctica, we built and tested a prototype of an external aeration column, based on the airlift principle. This was very useful as it allowed us to carefully select and pre-assemble the materials to bring to Antarctica, saving us time on-site.
Thanks to the help of the station’s two plumbers, Bernard Polet and Paul Herman, we were able to get the job done. I am really grateful for their technical support, which was a key ingredient in this mission’s success. We ended up installing the aeration column with a static mixer inside to efficiently mix air and water without taking up too much extra space in the core of the station, which is densely packed with the station’s systems.
Did you do anything besides work on the water treatment system while you were at PEA?
The Antarctic air is very dry. Any water quickly evaporates, which allows aerosols to disperse more easily in the air. Consequently, particles from coughing, sneezing, and even speaking can linger in the air for quite a long time, which can favour airborne virus transmission indoors.
Although we went through a very strict quarantine and submitted to several tests prior to leaving for Antarctica, as an extra preventive measure against COVID-19, we installed air purifiers that monitor the indoor air quality and filter fine particles and aerosols inside the station.
The system we installed is also very energy efficient, which is in line with the environmentally-friendly concept of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
Will you be heading back to the PEA Station next season?
At this point, I cannot give a clear answer. There are still decisions to be taken that will happen at the end of the 2020-2021 season vis-à-vis current projects. If any additional work is required, I will probably be asked to go on-site to carry out more work.
This year was my shortest mission of the three seasons I have been to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica so far. It was especially challenging this season, not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but because unfavourable weather postponed our departure by nine days. My time at the station ended up being reduced by a third, which is significant. It tightened our planning and required us to prioritise our objectives this season.
While I was a bit frustrated to have to leave the station with a few tasks remaining on my to-do list, I was able to hand over water treatment operations to the station’s two plumbers, Bernard and Paul, who are certainly the most experienced and polyvalent technicians in their field.
The most important objective of my mission was to leave the water treatment system in such a way that it can be operated without requiring an engineer to stay on-site each season, and this is an objective we reached. We want to reduce to a strict minimum the number of engineers and technical crew needed at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica each season, although, as an evolving prototype of sustainable living and a technical showcase, the presence of engineers will be required from time to time at the station.
What have you been doing since your return to Belgium?
Since my return, I have been monitoring and supporting operations remotely from Belgium. Bernard has been able to operate the water treatment system on his own in addition to other jobs he has at the station such as operating the snow melter, fixing any plumbing issues, performing general maintenance tasks, doing the laundry, etc. Being able to manage the water treatment system on his own was something he had wanted to do for a while, so now he has the chance to do it.
As my presence was not required for as long compared with previous seasons, I was able to come back to Belgium in time to celebrate Christmas with my family for the first time in three years. This was very important for me.
