The International Polar Foundation is saddened to hear about the passing of its longtime friend Philippe Bodson on 4 April 2020 due to complications related to COVID-19.
Always passionate about discovering the world, Philippe Bodson travelled extensively during his lifetime, most notably with Alain Hubert, with whom Philippe shared many expeditions and a steadfast friendship.
Engaged in exploring the most cutting-edge innovation through the many companies he developed, and convinced of the importance of polar science in better understanding our climate, Philippe got involved in the International Polar Foundation right from its establishment in 2002.
He joined the Strategic Council of the Polar Secretariat upon its creation in 2009, and was its vice-president for five years.
He became an administrator for the International Polar Foundation in 2010 and had since been one of the Foundation's pillars.
An unwavering supporter of the Foundation during its most difficult years (2015-2017), Philippe personally invested himself in all mediation meetings with the Belgian Government. This allowed for a new agreement to be established to ensure that the Princess Elisabeth Station could continue to help broaden the influence of Belgian polar science.
In spite of his many commitments, Philippe was always there for the Foundation to share his vision, his enthusiasm, and his advice.
His passing leaves a large void in the Foundation. However his energy, his vision, and his sense of duty remain the basis upon which the Foundation shall continue its mission, in particular to achieve excellence in its mission as Operator of the Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica.
About Philippe Bodson
Baron Philippe André Eugène Bodson was a Belgian businessman and politician who had a long career, which included positions such as CEO of Glaverbel and Director of Fortis Bank. He also served in the Belgian Senate from 1999 to 2003 as a member of the Movement reformateur party. In addition, he served on the Board of many organisations, including the Board of the International Polar Foundation.
He held a degree in civil engineering from the University of Liège (ULg) and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France.
The 2018 Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship Laureate, Dr. Kate Winter of Northumbria University in the UK, spent nearly a month based at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica in January and February 2020 to complete the second of two seasons of research for the BioFe project.
The BioFe project seeks to understand how biologically available iron is transported via glacial flow from the interior of Antarctica to the Southern Ocean, where the iron serves as a key nutrient to primary producers in the ocean food chain such as phytoplankton.
Since primary producers like phytoplankton take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere when they grow and multiply, the work she is doing in the BioFe project is essential for ultimately understanding how the iron nutrient cycle in Antarctica influences the rate at which primary producers absorb carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas driving climate change.
What did you do during the recently completed season in Antarctica compared with last season?
We started the season by scanning the mountains as we did last year. This allowed us to compare movements in the mountains that took place over the last year, such as falling rocks, simply by comparing visual images from last year to those taken this year.
While in the field, we noticed that some movement had happened – we could visually see new rock falls, but we will only be able to quantify change when we run computer-based analysis at Northumbria University.
This year we flew the drone, and we had a laser scanner with us to accurately record the surface of the mountains. The scanner could function well even in the cold of Antarctica.
What else did you manage to accomplish?
We also collected more sediment samples to test how much bioavailable iron was in them. I had already processed all the samples I took last year in the lab at the university but I wanted to get some extra samples from a couple of new locations.
This year we also took with us a new ice-penetrating radar system to look deeper in the ice than we did last year. Last year we wanted to look at sediments near the surface of the ice, so we scanned down to 200 metres. This year, we were able to scan down nearly 2,000 metres to look at sediments near the base of the ice. It was great! We did quite a few transects by pulling the radar system on a sled behind the snowmobile.
Where exactly did you take the samples? At the base of the rocky outcrops?
Yes! We took samples in the mountains. We took some from the base of the mountain where they accumulate and then some from the ice to see how they are being transported to the coast. We have some wind-blown samples as well because the wind picks up and transports very light sand-sized sediment particles. I collected them last year.
Did you also take radar transects like you did last season?
We were able to get useful data from the radar this season, and we were happy with the results. It was helpful to test out the new radar system.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t too many transects in the direction of the plateau this season because there were a lot of crevasses this year. But that’s Antarctic fieldwork!
What about the Raspberry Shake seismometers you put in place last year?
Last year we installed Raspberry Shake seismometers on a mountain not too far from the PEA Station. Unfortunately, during the last austral winter, the solar panel that was replenishing the battery of the seismometer was knocked down by the wind, possibly during a storm. However, we know that it was running quite well until mid-August, and I was able to get a lot of good data during the several months that it was running.
While I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to get an entire year’s worth of data, we know that the solar panel was recharging the battery, and I am delighted that the system ran for as long as it did. However, now we know, if I were to do this kind of research again, I would need to either change the location of the solar panel (perhaps find a less windy place) or try to attach the solar panel to the surface more securely (although it was attached pretty strongly last year).
Were you happy with the work you did and the amount of data that you were able to collect?
We managed to get all three elements of the project completed and we collected lots of really great data. The weather was really good this season, which helped. It’s going to take us a couple of years before we can process all of the data we’ve collected, though.
But we have a long-term plan for this project. The work we did over the last two seasons is a great proof of concept. We plan to do something similar on a bigger scale over a larger part of Antarctica to compare what’s happening with bioavailable iron in different parts of the continent that have different geologies.
In this regard, I think the Ballet Latour Antarctica Fellowship was extremely helpful, as it allowed me to try out new techniques and collect some really interesting data. Thanks to the Fellowship, now we have something to build upon to upscale the project.
As far as you know, are you one of the first researchers who has ever looked specifically at the transport of bioavailable iron from the continent to the coast of Antarctica?
As far as I know, yes. Researchers interested in bioavailable iron for primary producers usually go to the coast of Antarctica or Greenland where they collect sediment from icebergs or deep ocean cores. But as far as I’m aware, there aren’t many well-established techniques looking at how this bioavailable iron gets to the mountains to the coast.
Why has this been the case?
I think it’s mainly because Antarctic science is still quite young. We haven’t been sampling in Antarctica for that long, and a lot of research stations in Antarctica are on the coast and not near the mountains. So, in-land mountains in Antarctica are generally one of the hardest places to get to. That’s why the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station is a great place for this kind of research since it’s so close to the mountains.
You also took your husband, Ross, on your expedition this year. Was this the first time that you’ve taken him along?
We actually spent six weeks in a tent together in the European Alps a few years ago, collecting data for one of my other research projects, so we knew it could work. In the end, it worked really well because we are a great team, and he knows me and how I work.
He’s always been involved in my research, and he’s an engineer, so he’s good at solving problems. By the time we returned from Antarctica, he was already analysing some of the data that we’d collected!
Ross also helped some of the other scientists at the station when I didn’t need his help for some parts of the project. So he got to go to the polar plateau with the meteorology team. It was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience for him.
How did you find the technical support you received in the field and at the station?
We were supported this year by Jacques Richon, the station’s doctor, as well as Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert. Night Amin, the Station Manager, also came out on one of my field expeditions.
Roch, one of the carpenters, came with us to dismantle the seismic monitoring station we set up last year. It was great to have him again since he helped me to set up the station last year, so he already knew which tools we needed. However, this year I was much more independent in the rest of my work because I knew where everything was, and what I wanted to do.
I found that the station’s scientific programs were very well coordinated this year. Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert held science planning meetings before dinner every evening to coordinate all scientific activities and find synergies wherever possible. This allowed our team to go with the Japanese team on one of their expeditions since they were going to a place that we needed to go. They did their biological work while I took my sediment samples. It made a lot of sense, and you can learn a lot from the other research projects if you go out into the field together. I now know lots more about bacteria and algae!
It sounds like you've had a very successful season.
Yes, it was wonderful! I feel very at home in Antarctica, and I never want to leave! Since I’ve been back, I’ve had the opportunity to do more outreach. I visited school children to talk through experiment results, and they designed and tested wind turbine blades for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station.
The article that I wrote for The Conversation just before my second field season has had more than 250,000 reads, So, that was incredible! It was really well received by the public. I’m pleased that it has allowed others to read about the work we do in Antarctica, and how wonderful the zero-emission credentials of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica are.
In May, I plan to take part in the European Geophysical Union “Sharing Geoscience Online” event to present some of the results from the work that I’ve done at PEA. It will be a great opportunity to talk to other academics about what I’ve been doing.
Will we see you in October 2020 in Brussels for the next Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship Award Ceremony?
Yes. Although I teach in October, I’m sure I will be able to re-arrange my classes to attend the Ceremony.
I would love to come to Brussels to meet the new Laureate and find out about the next research project that will be pursued in Antarctica thanks to the Fellowship!
Every year the members of the BELARE team working at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) Station must undertake several traverses to assist with the unloading of materials and supplies arriving by ship and bring them back to the station, which is located more than 200 kilometres inland from the coast.
What’s different about this season
Compared to previous seasons - when only one cargo ship would drop off supplies for the PEA Station at the Dronning Maud Land Coast in East Antarctica - this year, logistical constraints made it necessary to have two cargo ships to deliver supplies which represent a logistical challenge on its own.
The first ship to arrive was the M.V. Vasily Golovnin (a Russian ice-breaking cargo vessel), which unloaded its cargo on January 5th. The second was the S.A. Agulhas II (a South African ice-breaking scientific and supply ship), which dropped off its load on January 20th.
Each unloading event requires usually one to three traverses to transport the delivered cargo back to the PEA Station. This year, a total of three heavily loaded traverses took place.
Diverse cargo
A sizable part of the cargo collected this season included wooden construction materials for the new annex of the PEA Station.
Other cargo transported included food, as well as materials for the kitchen, including a new oven and air filters.
The first traverse of the season transported about 85 tonnes of provision, materials and supplies. The second traverse transported around 150 tonnes of construction materials for the new building. The third traverse transported about 80 tonnes and was composed mainly of three containers loaded with construction materials and fuel for the planes and tractors. This represents a total of nearly 315 tonnes of materials and supplies.
Careful planning
Considering the limited amount of time available during the summer season at PEA, the BELARE team had to plan the traverses weeks in advance in order to schedule them at the right moment for the ship and to not interfere with the many scientific research projects happening during the season. The team must always take into account the time needed to reach the coast as well as the weight and size of the materials to be transported.
The BELARE team usually uses Prinoth tractors and Lehman sledges to transport the supplies and materials from the coast to the PEA Station. This year we had the opportunity to also use a CASE Quadtrack 600 belonging to the Perseus Airfield, allowing us to carry a heavier load at once.
Two drivers are assigned to each tractor and they alternate, allowing one to rest. The tractors can only go 10-12 km/h.
The station’s cook prepares ready-made meals they can easily heat up and eat during their time in the field. The traverse team usually spends the night at the coast.
The team takes advantage of a cargo ship’s arrival to send off waste from the station. The Madrid Protocol to the Antarctica Treaty requires all research stations to properly dispose of its waste by shipping it places where it can be properly recycled or disposed of. Any waste from the PEA Station is sent to South Africa to be handled.
As one traverse usually takes between 22 and 25 hours one way, some materials brought by the vessel can be left at a safe storage area near the coast to be picked up at a later time when it is more convenient to bring it back to the station.
Taking precautions against risks
Drivers make sure to watch out for crevasses along the route. Although they are monitored year after year and clearly marked along the way, their size can change over time as the ice moves. They can range from a few centimetres to as much as several metres in width.
The capricious weather in Antarctica is also a major hazard to look out for. It’s possible for the weather to quickly turn from a calm and clear day to blizzard conditions - which can severely reduce visibility - in a matter of hours. One potentially dangerous weather phenomenon is the so called “white-out”. It occurs when the wind blows snow particles several meters into the air, creating a situation where it’s not possible to see more than a few meters in front of you and everything around you becomes white!
As a precaution, all drivers follow the leading Prinoth tractor and maintain a distance of around 100 meters between each tractor and sledge train. All tractors follow exactly the same path clearly marked out on GPS, and communicate via VHF radio with the lead driver to know if there are any hazards ahead and determine how to best handle them. If conditions become too dangerous, the team will temporarily stop the traverse until conditions improve enough to continue safely.
An incredible adventure
“Overall, a traverse to the coast remains an incredible adventure!” reported IPF Science Liaison Office Henri Robert, who took part in the last traverse of the season. “Besides the need to bring supplies and cargo to the station, going on a traverse allows you to experience the remoteness, the solitude, and the extreme beauty of the Antarctic. Whether it’s drifting snow on the ice on a dark day, or whether the sun is shining, it’s a beautiful spectacle to behold!”
“After a long day of driving, when you finally arrive at the unloading site along the ice shelf’s edge, with a little bit of luck you might spot some seals resting on the remaining fast ice, emperor penguins, or even seabirds such as Antarctic petrels, snow petrels, Wilson’s storm petrels, or the south polar skua,” Henri explained. “Some colleagues were even privileged enough to spot a pack of orcas near the unloading ship earlier in the season!”
“As was probably the case for the early explorers of this continent, every time you go to a new place - maybe you see a different part of the coast, another side of a nunatak, or how the wildlife is so well adapted to their environment and so beautiful - each sight makes you feel privileged to be able to admire the beauty in front of you.”
The International Polar Foundation’s outreach activities towards young students through educational Skype classes have always been welcomed with enthusiasm since they were started more than 10 years ago, soon after the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was built.
Over the past couple of months, Science Liaison Officer and Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert has given Skype classes via satellite to classes in England, Belgium and Spain about the scientific research being done around the Sør Rondane Mountains (which are not far from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica), the functioning of the station, and the risks posed by climate change.
Having engaging talks with students
In December, Henri spoke with a very passionate class at the Royal Hospital School in Ipswich, England. Henri spent a lot of time talking to them about the station. The students were so curious they asked him about a hundred questions!
The English school was very grateful for the time Henri spent speaking to them. They made a video summarising the experience and uploaded it to the school's Trilby TV platform.
Then in January, students at the Institut Montjoie High School in Brussels, Belgium were treated to lecture from Henri, which focused on numerous subjects related to the functioning of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, including the station’s “zero emission” approach to renewable energy production and management, the station’s water treatment system, and the concept of passive construction, which allows one to save an enormous amount of energy through sound design and insulation techniques.
Valentina Zvallia, a scientist who is part of the BELSPO-sponsored MICROBIAN project, and doing microbiological research in Antarctica, joined Henri in the lecture so the students could learn more about the research she and her colleagues are conducting. The students asked both of them about climate change and the effects of global warming not just around the world, but especially in Antarctica. During the conversation, the students came up with many ways they could adopt new habits to reduce their carbon and climate footprint.
Claire Gillet, the teachers in Belgium who organised the Skype class said the following about the experience for the students: “It was a very positive exchange of ideas that proposed new ways of thinking for the future. What a gift for a teacher! The students also loved your answer about the beauty of the surroundings of the station, the nature in the area and the quick look Henri and Valentina gave through the station’s window with the webcam. Thank you both for this communication and exchange that gives sense to what teachers are doing.”
Encouraging the next generation of scientists
Around twenty twelve-year-old children from the Escola Reina Elisenda Virolai primary school in Barcelona, Spain, participated in another Skype class in January with Henri Robert and Beatriz Roncero Ramos, a scientist also working on the MICROBIAN project. The discussion covered many topics, including the different scientific projects being done at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, as well as the work and daily life of scientists working there.
The participation of Beatriz in the discussion was especially significant for many of the young girls, who were encouraged to consider future careers in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
As Philippe Guisset, one of the organisers of the talks reported to Henri Robert afterwards: “It was a great present for these kids. It’s an experience they will remember forever. Did you see how many girls want to become a scientist? And when you said that they can maybe become scientists and come to the station they all screamed ‘I want to go!’”
The class invited Henri and Beatriz to Barcelona to recover from the cold of Antarctica. The students were thrilled at the idea of meeting them in person to learn more about their work and the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
Teaching young people climate awareness
Since the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was constructed in 2007 - 2009, the International Polar Foundation has been keen to have educational lectures and discussions with the younger generations to raise awareness about climate change and introduce them to everyday initiatives to reduce humanity's impact on the planet’s ecosystems.
Using the example of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica - the first ever zero-emission research station in Antarctica - provides insights into the numerous opportunities at our disposal to tackle climate change and reduce energy consumption around the world. Young children will likely witness in their lifetimes significant impacts of climate change. Hence, giving them the possibility to talk with scientists actively conducting research on relevant topics encourages them to become even more passionate about science, nature conservation, and to become climate activists.
If your school would like to organise a Skype class with some of the scientists and engineers working with the International Polar Foundation, please feel free to contact Henri Robert at science@polarfoundaiton.org .
We look forward to hearing from you!
The Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was recently featured on the Croatian TV show, "Dobro jutro, Hrvatska (Good Morning, Croatia)". A live studio audience listened intently to two members of the International Polar Foundation staff working at the research station.
The first was native Croatian engineer Damir Simpović, who had been on a mission to the station earlier this year as part of the IT/technical system team. He was interviewed live in the TV studio in Zagreb. Joining him live via satellite video connection form the station itself was IPF Science Liaison Officer and Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert.
The studio audience was awestruck to learn more about the first zero-emission polar research station ever built, how it was able to function year round on renewable wind and solar energy, and how the station was used to welcome researchers during the austral summer research season from November until mid-February.
Remote control
Damir explained to the studio audience about the very important job he is doing: managing a setup that can remotely control the Princess Elizabeth Antarctica throughout the year from anywhere in the world, thanks to a satellite link. He highlighted the importance of being able to have remote access to the station in order to maintain its systems, especially to monitor energy production and use (primarily from wind during the austral winter, as there is little or no sun for many months).
The expert engineer also stressed the importance of being able to retrieve scientific data being collected by instruments and sensors scientists have set up at the station throughout the year - especially when the station is unoccupied during the austral winter. It is vital for scientists to be able to have uninterrupted data sets for the various scientific research projects they are working on.
Live from the station - an engineering marvel!
Thanks to a live video connection with Princess Elisabeth Station, Henri Robert was able to talk to the audience and answer several questions from the speakers.
Henri gave a bit of history about the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, recounting that is was constructed between 2007 and 2009 (as part of the legacy of the last International Polar Year) by the International Polar Foundation and its many partners.
He explained the objective was to build a "zero emission" scientific research station that could run sustainably, meaning it would run entirely on renewable energy and create little to no carbon emissions.
"The idea is to show the world that such a station can be built in the harshest conditions, and that it can be efficient and viable with a high degree of comfort,” Henri explained. “If it can be done in Antarctica, then it can be done anywhere in the world, and we can all limit our negative contribution to climate change. The station has been running for a decade already and will continue to do so for many more to come.”
He also described how the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica was built using a passive design and powered by wind turbines as well as solar photovoltaic and solar thermal panels. Energy storage and use is managed thanks to a smart micro grid that allows the free use of energy when it is available, but restricts specific uses when power is running low, which can happen from time to time during calm and cloudy “nights”.
The show was broadcast live on Wednesday, January 29th at 9:00 am, Central European Time, on the Croatian television station HRT. You can find a video of the segment on HRT's website.
The scientific teams scheduled to conduct research during the second half of the 2019-2020 season arrived at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on January 13th, and were welcomed to a station in full swing. After following the usually necessary first aid and safety training required of all newcomers to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, researchers from the BioFe, BELAM, and MICROBIAN projects got to work on their respective research objectives for the season.
BioFe
Dr. Kate Winter from Northumbria University in the UK has returned to Antarctica for the second of two seasons of the BioFe project, which is currently being funded thanks to the generosity of the Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship.
Kate is studying how iron-rich nutrients are transported via glacial debris as glaciers flow towards the coasts of Antarctica. Once the glacial debris arrives in the Southern Ocean, the iron in the debris nourishes phytoplankton, tiny organisms alled primary producers that form the base of the ocean food chain. While they grow, these phytoplankton also take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, and sequester the carbon at the bottom of the ocean when they die and fall to the sea floor.
Last season, with the help of the IPF team, Kate was able to take ice radar images to see the topography of the glacier-bedrock interface along transects of interest in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. Knowing the topography of the bedrock can indicate how the debris carrying the iron-rich nutrients flows towards the coast. This season, Kate is taking more ice-radar transects to compliment the ones she’s already taken.
In order to study how debris falls off of rocky outcrops in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, last season Kate took aerial drone footage of these rocky outcrops and installed Raspberry Shake seismographs around them to detect when debris falls off and reach the rock-ice interface at the edges of the outcrops. This season, Kate will take new drone footage of the same rocky outcrops to see how much debris they may have lost over the last year. She’ll also collect data from the Raspberry Shake seismographs to see how much seismic activity caused by falling debris was registered over one year.
While Kate was able to bring one of her students to assist her in the field last season, this year, due to students’ unavailability, Kate decided to bring her husband, Ross Winter, to give her a hand. A trip to Antarctica is certainly a once in a lifetime experience for any couple!
BELAM
Speaking of Baillet-Latour Antarctica Fellowship Laureates, one of the Fellowships’ previous laureates from 2010, Steven Goderis from the Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB), has returned to Antarctica after many years under the BELAM project to work on a similar project to the one that won him the 2010 Fellowship: hunting for micrometeorites that can give clues to the origins of our Solar System.
As in his previous expeditions to Antarctica, Steven and the BELAM team is spending several weeks out on the Nansen Blue Ice Field on the Antarctic Plateau 120 kilometers from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. Accompanying Steven are Naoki Shirai, a colleague from Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan, as well as Hamed Pourkhorsandi an Iranian post-doctoral researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Mehmet Yesiltas from Kirkareli University in Turkey.
Meteorites - which are defined as extraterrestrial bodies that fall through the Earth’s atmosphere (as meteors) and make it to the ground - fall all over the surface of the planet. Smaller meteorites, called micrometeorites, are rather common. However, due to their dark colour, micrometeorites can be difficult to distinguish from normal rocks or soil in most parts of the world.
However, in Antarctica, micrometeorites are much easier to find. Areas where blue ice is abundant, such as the Nansen Blue Ice Field where the BELAM team is collecting meteorite samples, are particularly good places to find them, as they stand out against the clear, blueish-tinged ice around them. Becoming trapped in the blue ice also preserves the micrometeorites against erosion.
The micrometeorites can have multiple origins. Some can even come from the same rocks that eventually formed the Moon or Mars.
This season, the group of scientists will stay in the Nansen Ice Field for three weeks before returning to the station, after which they will all fly home with the meteorites they collect. The meteorites will be shared between the research institutions. In Belgium, the micrometeorites will be added to the existing collection at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
Financing for BELAM is made possible by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO).
MICROBIAN
The MICROBIAN project is returning to Antarctica for its third consecutive season to continue analyzing the microbiological communities living at and around the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. While there are a great number of microbiological sampling activities taking place all along the coasts of Antarctica, there aren’t so many being done in the interior of the continent.
This unique environment at the station - which, being 200 km inland from the coast, tends to have a much harsher climate than the coastal regions - is why the Princess Elisabeth and its vicinity is an ideal place for the MICROBIAN project to spend a few seasons taking samples of microbial life. It will be interesting to see if there are any significant differences between microbial life at a small scale on different nunataks near the station, or compared to the coastal regions of Antarctica.
The project is a collaboration between Ghent University and the University of Liège, two universities in Belgium specialised in microbiological research. This season, Valentina Savaglia, Quinten Vanhellemont, Beatrice Ronsero, and Juri Kusak are spending four weeks around the station taking samples, which will be brought back to Belgium at the end of the season.
MICROBIAN is also a research project financed by the Belgian Federal Science Policy (BELSPO).
Japanese research projects
A few days after the arrival of the first teams doing work at the station during the second half of the 2019-2020 season, a group of Japanese researchers from the Japanese National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) arrived to use the Princess Elisabeth as a base from which to conduct their research expeditions in the area.
Auroral Observations
The first project the Japanese team of researchers are working on is building an aurora observation network along the coast of the Dronning Maud Land in East Antarctica. Two scientists, Akira Kadokura and Yoshimasa Tanaka, are installing at and around the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica an unmanned Auroral Observation system (UAO-2), which is composed of a Fluxgate Magnetometer, an aurora camera and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) antenna. The magnetometer is being installed on Utsteinen Ridge, while the camera and GNSS antenna are installed on the roof of the station.
The goal of their research is to study on the onset mechanisms of auroral substorms (which produce mild aurora), the temporal and spatial variation of the auroral phenomena, but also the wave-particle interaction process during an auroral substorm and a full on auroral storm (which produce vivid auroras).
Biological research
A second team of NIPR researchers, Kensuke Tadome and Shohei Hayashi, will study the origin and transition between different biological ecosystems in Antarctica. The team will not only look at current ecosystems, but also try to reconstruct ecosystems from the regions recent past to see if there have been any significant changes in ecosystem boundaries.
The team of researchers plans to compare the biodiversity of the Enderby Land near the coast of the Dronning Maud Land and the Sør Rondane Mountains. They plan to sample two kinds of life in ice-free areas in these two locations during their research expedition:
Actinomyces: These are a particular kind of bacteria that exist in soils, and can be useful for developing new drugs. The team plans to see which groups of bacteria are present, and what specific characteristics they may have.
Lichens: The team plans to investigate how many species of lichens existing the project study areas, in particular if there are any differences depending on varying geological and geographical conditions. They also hope to gain insight into the origins of the different lichens, as there is a very high diversity in varieties of lichens in Antarctica.
Expert Field Support
As always, the team at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica will be providing field guides to ensure the safety of field expeditions and assist researchers with their fieldwork. The station’s cook prepares readymade meals that can be heated up and eaten whenever needed, and are packed to stay fresh even during weeks-long research expeditions in the field.
Science in Antarctica is a great adventure!
A long range wireless link has been established connecting the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station to the new Perseus Intercontinental Airstrip - and it runs on renewable solar power!
To improve communications, reduce costs, and ensure the safety of flights landing and departing from the Perseus Intercontinental Airstrip with the DROMLAN logistics network, members of the IPF team installed a communication relay atop Vesthaugen Nunatak, located about halfway in between the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station and the new airstrip.
This new relay creates a wireless extension of the network at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica out to Perseus Airstrip, making communication via Internet from the remote airstrip possible.
It sits on the summit of Vesthaugen Nunatak, 31.5 km north of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica and 27.5 km south of Perseus Airstrip. The top of the nunatak is at an altitude of 1200 metres above sea level, which allows it to have a clear line of sight between the station, which sits at a higher elevation of 1365 metres above sea level, and the airstrip, which is located at only 794 metres above sea level.
The communications relay consists of phased-array relay antennas (antennas that create a beam of radio waves that can be electronically pointed in specific directions without moving them) powered by four 130Wp solar photovoltaic panels and two 97Ah battery storage units. This makes it possible to have up to 10 days full speed wireless communication without sunlight and more than three months of autonomy when no data is transferred over the link.
The relay station is also equipped with a SEN-LINK modem (an ESA – SENHIVE product).
"SEN-LINK is the world’s first multi-carrier Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite modem," said Thomas Petracca, the Head of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Engineering Team and CEO of Senhive, a Belgian firm specialized in mission critical communication and sensors.
"By combining multiple future Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite providers such as Hiber, Astrocast, Irridium, etc., it's possible to have up to five years of autonomy and guarantee mission-critical redundant communication. SEN-LINK modems will also be deployed to provide data repatriation on remote science and mission-critical systems."
A unique challenge
"Building an autonomous communication relay on the top of the Vesthaugen Nunatak to deliver wireless Internet to the remote Perseus airstrip, 70km away from PEA, was an exciting challenge,” according to Benoît Verdin, an IPF technician working the station team. “We were asked to build the first long-range wireless network in Antarctica.”
It was not the easiest of tasks.
“We had to carry heavy batteries and bulky solar panels up the steep slopes of the nunatak in stormy winds and blowing snow. Luckily, we found a sheltered spot near the top of the nunatak where we could install all of the equipment. It took more than ten ascents over a period of two days bring all the materials to the top and install them.”
However, after hard work came the reward.
“While configuring the link on top of the nunatak, I took ten minutes to Skype my girlfriend in Belgium. It was a surreal moment, calling her from the middle of nowhere in Antarctica.”
After the setup was installed at Vesthaugen Nunatak, the team of technicians headed to Perseus Airstrip to finalize the connection and contact their family back home.
Proof of concept
The new wireless link between the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica and the Perseus Intercontinental Airstrip is a proof of concept that Thomas Petracca devised before going to Antarctica this season. He couldn’t be happier now that the system is up and running.
“This shows that it’s possible to reduce costs of communicating over longer distances in Antarctica for relatively little up-front cost,” Thomas explained. “What we’ve constructed at Vesthaugen could have applications elsewhere in Antarctica, at other research stations or logistical waypoints, for example.”
Thomas also sees unique possibilities for improving communications between Antarctic stations in the future.
“Combining renewable power, LEO satellites and phased-array antennas will allow us to have extremely long, high bandwidth (gigabit) connections between Antarctic stations. The possibilities are endless! These kinds of setups will have a significant impact on all kidns of future Antarctic operations."
New Year’s falls right in the middle of the austral summer season for the team at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. The passing from one year to the next serves as a divide between the first and second halves of the season.
Ever since the 2019-2020 season kicked off on November 5th when the first team left Cape Town for Antarctica, the BELARE team has been hard at work accomplishing a number of key goals for the 2019-2020 season and providing world-class assistance to scientists conducting research in East Antarctica.
A new airstrip
One of the first milestones the current season in Antarctica has been the arrival on November 21st of the first intercontinental flight from Cape Town to the newly constructed Perseus Airstrip. This airstrip is located just 60 km from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. The flight brought the first team of scientists of the 2019-2020 season from the CHASE, MASS2ANT, POPE, and LOSUMEA research projects, as well as a team of Japanese scientists.
Having an Intercontinental Airstrip so close to the station makes it possible for an Ilyushin cargo plane flying out of Cape Town, South Africa to land within a few hours' driving distance of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica by modified Toyota Hilux. This allows scientists traveling to the station to avoid the need to take a feeder flight from the Russian Novolazarevskaya base (as had been the case in previous seasons), which reduces the overall cost for scientists to conduct their field missions in Antarctica.
Updating the station
After ten years of service, the station’s garage is getting a complete overhaul. Over the last decade, the ice upon which the garage was originally constructed in 2008 has shifted and receded enough that it has started to warp the structure of the garage. So it was decided to build a completely new garage. Once completed, its position can be adjusted as the ice underneath it moves.
The new garage's structure will be anchored to the granite ridge that the main body of the Princess Elisabeth station is built upon. It will be able to swivel on a hinge so its position can be adjusted as the ice below it shifts and diminishes. The team is placing pistons on the western side of the garage so it to be lifted each season as the ice below it recedes, ensuring that the garage will remain level.
The majority of the old garage has already been torn down and the anchor point of the hinge put in place. During the second half of the season, the new garage will slowly be put together, recycling as much wood from the old garage as possible to reduce waste. We can't wait to see what the final product will look like.
Supporting science
Most of the scientists scheduled to conduct research during the first part of the season got straight to work soon after their arrival. At the beginning of the season, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica hosted scientists from the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) for a few days before they headed off to conduct a geological survey in the the northern part of the Sør Rondane Mountains. And then from the end of November until a few days before Christmas, scientists from the CHASE, MASS2ANT, POPE and LOSUMEA projects used the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica as a base for their field work.
The CHASE team collected atmospheric particle samples from their field instruments in their mission to determine what kind of organic and inorganic particles are found in the atmosphere there (and to what extent pollution from the rest of the world reaches Antarctica). With the help of the station's technical team, they performed maintenance on their instruments. Even after their departure, a member of the IPF station team, Benoît Verdin, will continue to take atmospheric particle samples until the end of the season.
Accompanied by profesisonal field guides from the IPF station team, the MASS2ANT scientists travelled to the coast to take certain snow and ice parameter measurements at the ice rises where they drilled ice cores during the last two field seasons in their quest to better understand ice mass balance in East Antarctica.
The station also team assisted scientists from the POPE project, which is looking at the interactions between clouds, precipitation and complex terrain in Antarctica, to collect data using a wide variety of instruments. Two engineers currently working at the station - Guus Luppens and Johan De Muylder - constructed mobile solar-powered units that allowed scientists from the Federal Polytechnic University of Lausanne (EPFL) working on the POPE project to run radar equipment they used to take field measurements on 100% renewable solar energy. This made it possible for them to forego using a diesel-powered generator and the 50 litres of fuel a day required to poser such instruments in the field.
Station team technicians also rebuilt and moved equipment to measure snow drift for the LOSUMEA project, which focuses on snow accumulation, transport and erosion processes to understand and quantify local changes in the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, A scientist for the project is at the station for the majority fo the 2019-2020 season.
Most scientists left Antarctica in time to be home for Christmas, although a few have stayed behind to continue taking measurements.
More to come
In January, the station crew will welcome a fresh batch of scientsits, including 2018-2020 Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship Laureate Dr. Kate Winter from the Univeristy of Northumbria to complete the second of two research seasons for her BioFe project. Everyone is excited to attack the second half of the season.
More detailed news and a number of photo galleries taken by scientsits and staiton crew alike can be found on the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica website. Make sure to have a look!
It’s the end of the year, and already the first teams of scientists for the 2019-2020 season have come and gone.
On December 21st, a plane bringing fresh food supplies and equipment from Cape Town arrived at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica and returned the first scientists to take part in the 2019 -2020 season to Cape Town, where they spent a few nights before returning home to Belgium in time for Christmas.
Having arrived on the first intercontinental flight from South Africa to Perseus Airstrip just 60 km north of the PEA station, the scientists at the Princess Elisabeth accomplished their respective missions for the season in a month’s time.
CHASE
Preben Van Overmeiren from Ghent University (UGent) and Stefania Gili from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) spent their month-long stay in Antarctica visiting seven sampling sites the project installed during previous field campaigns under the CHASE project, which is investigating the kinds of particles that are in the air in East Antarctica, and if pollution from the rest of the world reaches such a remote part of the world.
The sampling sites (which lie along a 250 km transect from the ice rises at the Princess Ragnhild Coast to the Antarctic Plateau) have instruments with special filters that collect samples of airborne particles over time. Each site has an instrument that samples organic compounds and an instrument that samples inorganic compounds from the air.
The special filters taken from the sampling sites have been collecting air particle samples since the last time members of the CHASE project visited the sampling sites during the 2018-2019 season. Preben and Stefania removed the filters and replaced them to continue collecting samples of organic and inorganic particles for another year.
During their time in Antarctica, the CHASE scientists also took samples of organic and inorganic atmospheric particles on a weekly basis near the PEA station using active sampling methods. Even though both CHASE scientists returned to Belgium in time for Christmas, Benoît Verdin from the International Polar Foundation team will continue to do active sampling of the atmosphere at the station until the end of the season.
All filters collected during the 2019-2020 season will be shipped out on the last cargo flight leaving from Perseus Airstrip in February. Once they arrive in Belgium, researchers from the many academic institutions participating in the CHASE project will analyse the compounds they collected in the filters.
MASS2ANT
After two successful seasons, including one in which ice cores drilled to a depth of 260 meters were extracted at an ice rise along the Princess Ragnhild Coast, the final season of field work for the MASS2ANT project involved returning to the boreholes that were drilled in two separate ice rises during the previous two seasons.
The field team measured snow and ice parameters around the boreholes such as temperature using an optical televiewer, surface strain around the borehole using GNSS and radar, and crystal orientation and fabric of the ice around the borehole using phase-sensitive radar.
The team - which consisted of Frank Pattyn from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Thore Kausch from the Technical University of Delft and Eric Keenan from the University of Colorado Boulder - also removed automatic weather stations that had been placed on the two ice rises sampled during the project to record weather data over the course of the project. The team also used a Snow Micro Pen developed at SLF in Switzerland to measure surface accumulation and variability (density and depth of snow) at 665 points around each of the ice rises.
The data collected from the MASS2ANT project will contribute to the ever-growing volume of data tracking the surface mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, or the amount of ice that the massive ice sheet covering the continent is gaining or losing.
Alain Hubert and Raphael Richard provided field guide support during the field campaign.
POPE
The POPE project, which aims to collect reference observations on the interactions between clouds, precipitation and complex terrain in Antarctica using a suite of remote sensing and in-situ instruments all based at ground level, had a highly productive first season at the Princess Elisabeth station.
The two scientists responsible for deploying the instruments this season, Alexis Berne and Alfonso Ferrone from the Federal Polytechnic Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland started installing their instruments on November 22nd, a day after their arrival at the PEA station. They put a number of instruments at or in the immediate vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth station, including Lidar (to measure atmospheric temperature and aerosols), MXPol radar (which tracks movement of clouds), and micro rain radars (which tracks fine precipitation).
Both Guus Luppens and Johan De Muylder (from SYSTECH) provided technical support to their work with the mobile solar-powered units they built to power the radar instruments with renewable energy. Emmanuel Poudelet provided field guide support.
Alexis and Alfonso stayed for one month to install everything. Alexis returned home on December 21st, but Alfonso is styaing behind to continue to collect data and dismantle all of the equipment at the end of the season (February 13th).
LOSUMEA
Another Swiss scientist who arrived on November 21st is staying until the end of the season. As in previous seasons, Hendrick Huwald, who is also working with the Federal Polytechnic Institute of Lausanne (EPFL), is staying behind to continue taking measurements for the LOSUMEA project.
The project is complimentary to the work of the POPE project in that it focuses on snow accumulation, transport and erosion processes to understand and quantify local changes in the mass balance of the ice sheet in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station.
Since the 2016-2017 season, two snow drift stations near the PEA station have been collecting data on snow particle transport, as well as related meteorological variables such as wind, snow depth, and surface temperature. Members of the station team maintained the instruments over the last few seasons, and have improved the instruments to also allow them to collect data on heat flux.
During the current season, one of the snow drift stations has been completely rebuilt on higher ground after snow accumulation was starting to bury its instruments. The second station has been dismantled, moved, and rebuilt on the Antarctic Plateau so it can be in a place where constant katabatic winds (which discourage snow deposition) are more dominant than close to PEA. A solar radiation sensor was added to both stations to measure surface energy balance.
Instead of doing terrestrial laser scans in previous seasons, the station staff have been using a surveying drone to conduct areal photogrammetry over selected areas of interest, including in the vicinity of the two snow drift stations, the area around the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, and around Utsteinen Nunatak.
Next, please!
The station team is eagerly looking forward to welcoming the scientists who will arrive during the second half of the season, including 2018-2020 Ballet Latour Antarctica Fellowship Laureate Dr. Kate Winter, who will compelte the second of her two seasons in Antarctica.
The two cooks whose job it is to feed the hungry BELARE team - Christine and Guillaume - offered a glimpse into Christmas traditions and preparations for Christmas Eve Dinner at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
It's December 24th, 2019, and it's that time in the afternoon for everyone to have a small snack: the fourth meal of the day! Most of the team comes inside to warm up and recharge their batteries with a snack in the dining room for a few minutes before finishing off the rest of the day's work. Dry fruits, peanut butter, hot bread from the oven and instant noodles are there to satiate their growing appetite.
But what are they waiting for? Christmas Eve Dinner, of course!
Since the beginning of the week, the kitchen team has been preparing for this festive meal with the help of volunteers, including carpenters, plumbers and mechanics working at the station.
In the kitchen, we already received our Christmas present on the plane that arrived at the station on December 21st: Many fresh fruits and vegetables from distant Africa add colour, flavour and vitamins to the dishes we will prepare. Fresh lettuce and fruit salad are appreciated by all the foodies at the station.
Even here in Antarctica, three days after the summer solstice, traditions are respected. Tonight, the menu will consist of cheese gougères (a French puff pastry dish), guacamole toasts, mini pizza bites, and bits of cake as appetisers accompanied by some white wine (even here, we can discover South-African oenological treasures!) Everyone will dress up tonight and will be seated around a table featuring duck à l’orange with carrot purée, mushrooms, and broccoli. The traditional Christmas log dessert cake will contain an apple filling and be topped with chocolate and nougatine.
On Christmas Day, the symbolic traditional Belgian brioche pastry representing Baby Jesus - the cognou - will of course be served!
We'll enjoy the Christmas celebrations, because very quickly, everyday life will resume for the whole team.
In the meantime, it's time to return to the kitchen and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
