On Wednesday 15 May, the Second Arctic Professionals Network Event (and the first such event to be held in Brussels), welcomed nearly 20 professionals working in the political sector as well as natural and social scientists working in polar research.

Representatives from the International Polar Foundation joined members of the Arctic Institute and APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) Belgium in hosting the event. The goal was to create a bridge between early-career polar professionals and more experienced polar stakeholders from different disciplines and backgrounds in an informal and relaxed atmosphere, outside of the hustle and bustle of a formal meeting or conference.

"Over the last few years there has been an increase in formal networking events for decision-makers and politicians about Arctic and polar issues in Brussels, yet there is a lack of informal gatherings where one can engage with key stakeholders," according to Liubov Timonina from the Arctic Institute, one of the co-initiators of the event who reached out to the International Polar Foundation and APECS Belgium to help organise the evening.

"Informal networking events where people can gather and chat are still one of the most productive ways to create healthy and robust cross-sector and multidisciplinary relations," added Romain Chuffart, also one of the co- initiators of the event from the Arctic Institute.

Those who turned up to the networking evening included a diverse group of polar professionals, such as scientists who have done research at the "zero-emission" Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica, academics specialised in Arctic policy issues, and representatives from the European Institutions and European Member State regional offices. One academic even travelled all the way from Amsterdam to join in.

Due to the interest shown by those who attended the event on 15 May to attend similar informal gatherings in the future, the organising partners are considering holding another networking event before too long. Keep following the International Polar Foundation's website and social media accounts for information about the next networking event!

On Wednesday 15 May, the International Polar Foundation and APECS Belgium will co-host the Second Arctic Professionals Network Event, organised by the Arctic Institute at the Sister Café in the centre of Brussels.

The purpose of the event is to allow professionals and early-career experts from all disciplines working on Arctic and polar issues to get together in a relaxed atmosphere.

Following the highly successful First Arctic Professionals Network Event, which took place in Oslo in November 2018,  the Arctic Institute sought partners in Belgium to help them organise and host a second edition of the event in Brussels. The International Polar Foundation is proud to be be a part of this important initiative to help all interested individuals gather in an informal environment.

As space is limited, we kindly ask those who  would like to come to register on the Arctic Institute’s website.

The Sister Café is committed to reducing its impact on the environment. It has a zero-waste philosophy and serves locally sourced organic fresh food and drinks, including vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free options.

A young Belgian bioengineer, Aymar de Lichtervelde, stepped up to the challenge of spending a season at the Princess Elisabeth Station Antarctica. He was given the daunting task of improving both the efficiency and the capacity of the station's water treatment system.

At the end of the season, Aymar's work surpassed everyone's expectations, reducing even further the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica's environmental footprint while providing an incredible experience to a young professional.

What was your main job at the station during this past season?

I took care of the water systems of the station, especially the water treatment system. My main goal was to increase the water treatment system’s capacity to be able to handle wastewater from a larger volume of people, increase its efficiency and level of automation.

I also monitored the quality of the drinking water at the station for potential contamination from harmful bacteria. People arriving from Cape Town might have bacteria foreign to the station and can contaminate the user points (faucets, etc.). When you have 30 people using the same facilities, contamination is a potential problem.

How is drinking water produced at the station?

Water is produced at the station by melting snow. From the snow we get very pure water.

But the water is too pure, and this can be problematic.

Why is it a problem to drink water that’s “too pure” ?

Because it contains no minerals.

If you drink only chemically pure water, then your body doesn’t get essential minerals that it needs. This can result in fatigue, problems with concentration, and a sensation of being thirsty all of the time, even if you constantly drink water. Long-term effects can even lead to reduced bone density. The World Health Organisation has even done research on the problems that can result form drinking demineralised water.

When I first arrived at the station in November 2018, several people in the station’s team had the symptoms I described. We then started adding minerals to the drinking water and provided mineral powder to the staff. Lack of minerals is a rather subtle health issue, but an issue that must be taken seriously.

And what about your work on the water treatment system at the station?

The water treatment system was first installed in 2008, when the station was being built. The system wasn’t originally designed to handle the number of people who go to the station now, so it’s become necessary to increase its capacity and improve its functionality.

One of the challenges of the Princess Elisabeth Station is that it’s a victim of its own success. It was originally designed to welcome 18 people, but during a normal season, there can be as many as 30 or 40 people on-site at peak times.

Did you find it easy to increase the water treatment system's capacity?

It was not easy, no. In practice, wastewater treatment is quite a complex process that demands a multidisciplinary approach. A background in process engineering, physics, microbiology and biochemistry is essential to understand and optimise such a living process.

On top of that, we face major space and energy constraints at the station, making the  treatment process much more challenging than in a building in Europe, for example.

Before leaving for Antarctica, I did an audit of the entire system with Dries Demey, the engineer who designed the station's water treatment system 10 years ago. We had to first discuss modifications to the system that would allow for an increase in its capacity, and how to implement these changes.

Then, when I arrived in Antarctica, I had to do a lot of learning about the system on-site. To implement hardware modifications, one of the station’s two plumbers, Bernard Polet, gave me a hand. We established a very fruitful collaboration, and thanks to him, I learned a lot about plumbing!

It was a challenging three months with lots to do, but I was happy to have experienced this challenge.

Were you happy with the result of your efforts?

This the first year that the water treatment system at the station has been able to treat wastewater more quickly than it is produced, which is a key goal. The system is now working better than it ever has. The water leaving the system is clean enough to drink!

Compared to other research stations in Antarctica, the Princess Elisabeth is far ahead in terms of meeting its environmental obligations under the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty System (Under the Madrid Protocol of the Antarctic Treaty System, station operators are required to do as much as they can to have as little impact on the Antarctic environment and report any environmentally damaging incidents). I know another station in Antarctica that treats and recycles grey water. But Princess Elisabeth is the only station in Antarctica I know of that can treat black water to such standards.

Being able to treat both grey and black water in situ is a major help to the environment and reduces operating costs of the station. Not being able to do so means that one is left with two options: discharging untreated wastewater into the environment (into the ocean if the station is at the coast, for example), or shipping it to South Africa or South America, which costs a lot.

The point of our water treatment system is to avoid doing either of these things to save both money and the environment. So we evacuate the purified water to the environment
without harmful effects, and it doesn’t cost us money to ship organic waste to Cape Town at the end of the season. In addition, purified water can be recycled for non-drinking use, such as showers and toilets, which can help a lot when there is a high demand for water at the station but little energy to produce it.

We also managed to automate the system even further, so that it can function better on its own. The long-term goal is not to have to send an engineer to the station every season specifically to handle the water treatment system.

How did you enjoy your time living at the station?

It was great, especially because I got to learn new things on the job and experience Antarctica for the first time!

The cooks at the station were amazing. They made some really great meals. The Princess Elisabeth station is know for having some of the best food in Antarctica.

We also had time for extracurricular activities. On Sundays, we were able to do cross-country skiing, and hiking on the “windscoop trail” around the small mountain near the station. We could also play games, watch movies, or even play the guitar!

The main challenge, though, is living in the same place where you work for several months. For those of us who had to work on the station’s systems, we had to be on call at pretty much any time, ready to go to work in case there might be a problem. You have to to find a way to make a good work-life balance, as much as that’s possible.

We usually worked six, sometimes seven days a week, 11-14 hours a day. It’s a good thing that the season is only three months long. Otherwise, you might get tired of working like this without any vacation.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica very much, and working at the station was very enriching and rewarding. It was great to be part of a team with so much motivation and good spirit!

The International Polar Foundation would like to publicly affirm its full support for the student climate protests taking place around the globe. We’re heartened by the fact that so many young people have chosen to make their voices heard on a crucial issue that affects all of humanity.

Our children are the future of Planet Earth, and we believe they have every right to demand action from their political leaders against the global threat of climate change - a threat that will have far-reaching consequences for them and their children, more so than the politicians in power today.

Since 2002, the International Polar Foundation has drawn attention to the need to take action to reduce carbon emissions and live in a more sustainable manner for the sake of our planet and future generations. Our foundation has met words with actions as we designed and built the first ever zero-emission polar research station in East Antarctica, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, proving that it’s possible to live more sustainably even in some of the harshest environments on Earth. We inform the general public about the important scientific research happening in the Polar Regions, which allows humanity to know more about how Earth’s climate system works, and how it will be affected by climate change. Through our educational projects and materials, we’ve taught young people about the need to live a more sustainable lifestyle, and have inspired them to become tomorrow's innovators who will create sustainable solutions for themselves and for future generations.

We encourage more young people to make their voices heard on the issue of climate change. We also urge all people, young and old, to take concrete actions to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Climate action starts with each individual. We must all change how we live and consume in order to guarantee a healthy planet for future generations, and to help prevent the worst-case climate change scenarios that climate scientists have predicted from ever coming to pass.

Alain Hubert

President, International Polar Foundation

After another very successful season, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica is now in overwintering mode. The last eight members of the BELARE team left the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on February 27th.

Following a transit via the Russian Novolazarevskaya Station, the Belgian Antarctica Research Expedition (BELARE) team reached Cape Town, South Africa on Friday, March 1st. Here, members of the team usually spend a short time re-adjusting to hearing noise and seeing lots of colour again before heading back home.

In the coming weeks, operations team heads will work on preparing reports of the 2018-2019 season, while some team members will return to their regular jobs almost immediately.  Some of the team planned a weekend reunion in Chamonix last week to carry out an unofficial de-briefing of the season.

"We just completed the tenth summer season of operations at the Princess Elisabeth. What amazes me the most is that this season was different from any other," said expedition leader and International Polar Foundation President Alain Hubert upon his return. "Conditions are unpredictable in Antarctica, and the team had to face new challenges in order to be able to support the various scientific projects which took place over these last four months. The enthusiasm and energy of the fantastic team was the secret to our success!"

The station has grown

During this past season, the Work Programme was completed ahead of schedule. During the first team rotation, the South Annex Phase II fit-out was virtually completed, after its construction last season.

The newly completed annex has 16 bedrooms that can sleep two persons each, which restores the 32-berth capacity to the annex to the station. If you add this to the original 16-bed capacity of the upper part of the station, it’s now possible for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica to host 48 people in the Station buildings, not counting the mobile units.  However, some hardy individuals still choose to spend their season sleeping in tents, pitched to the West of the Station in an area protected from the wind.

The new annex also includes an additional toilet and bathroom, as well as a storage area on the lower level of the annex. The snow melter - which provides the station with fresh drinking water - was also moved from the outside the station to inside the South Annex Phase II, which has drastically reduced heat losses and has improved the water production capacity. This capacity was tested this season when occupancy climbed over 50 on certain days this season.

Accommodating so many people sustainably

The zero-emission concept was originally designed for 16 people, and so some upgrades to the station’s systems have become necessary in order to accommodate additional guests.

Systems engineer Aymar de Lichtervelde spent three months at the station this past season working on doubling the capacity of the station’s water treatment system so it can handle as many as 50 occupants.  While it took some time for Aymar to become familiar with the station’s water treatment system, he was able to improve its functionality and significantly increase the amount of grey water (from showers and laundry) and black water (from toilets) that can be treated.

Meanwhile, electromechanical engineer Guus Luppens - who built the first off-grid house in Belgium, (which he proudly lives in) - spent some time working at the station this season. In addition to replacing the station’s battery systems and doing other maintenance tasks on the station’s renewable energy systems, he began devising a plan to increase the renewable energy production at the station. Over the coming seasons, this plan of action will be implemented.

The BELARE team is once again rising to the challenge of increasing the capacity of a station located in one of the harshest environments on the planet and doing so in a sustainable manner.

New and improved Winter Park

Before the team leaves each season, they must take time to prepare the station, the vehicles, and the equipment to spend a harsh austral winter in Antarctica.

Thanks to a new hangar that the BELARE team constructed this season at the Winter Park, located 2 km from the station, vehicles and equipment will have some protection from the elements. This will also save several days of work next season, as the team will not need to dig the vehicles and equipment out from beneath huge piles of snow that accumulate in front of the station garages over the winter.

Staying connected

Although the station is now in winter mode, it can be monitored from Belgium thanks to the satellite link that was established with the station ten years ago.

During the 2018-2019 season, the station’s satellite system received some significant improvements to make the link with the outside world faster. The team installed two new block up converters for the main SES satellite link. These modems consume less power and provide higher stability. The antenna was also repositioned in order to lock on to the new SES-5 satellite.

During the season, the satellite system allows scientists to send data from their installed instruments back to their research institutions, and for team members to communicate with their families and friends back home. Although the station is in winter mode, it is designed to monitor the station’s renewable energy systems from a distance, as well as transmit data from weather monitoring and other scientific instruments at the station to researchers in Belgium and elsewhere.

Still more to come

While preparations are already underway for the 2019-2020 season, we will continue to post information about the various scientific research projects that took place during the 2018-2019 season and to get some feedback from other members of the team.

Guus Luppens is an electromechanical engineer who travelled to Antarctica for the first time during the 2018-2019 research season. He was tasked with taking care of a number of maintenance tasks for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica's renewable energy production systems. We asked him about his work in Antarctica this past season.

How did you get the job with IPF to do work at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica?

I answered a job advertisement a few months before the start of the 2018-2019 season. The Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station is powered by exactly the same battery system that powers my house, which I built in the last few years.

My house is the first in Belgium to be completely off-grid, meaning that it's not connected to public electrical grid at all. It runs just on solar power and batteries that store energy for times when there isn't enough sun to produce energy.

Therefore the International Polar Foundation was excited to have me be a part of their team in Antarctica this season.

Did you have to hit the ground running when you arrived?

There was not a lot of time between when I first answered the job advertisement to starting to work for IPF at the station in Antarctica. So I had a lot to learn in a short amount of time. But the challenge was definitely worth it for the experience!

What were your tasks at the station this past season?

When I arrived at the beginning of the season in November 2018, I spent a lot of time getting to know the station systems. The last few engineers had been there for a long time, so they knew the station systems very well. But I found that there wasn’t much information about the station’s renewable energy systems.

I spent the first few weeks mapping photovoltaic circuits and checking to see if they were functioning. Together with some team members, we replaced any modules that were broken. I also checked the inverters and the circuits and made a complete inventory of all the circuits of the renewable energy systems of the station.

Did you also handle the solar thermal energy systems?

Afterwards, I got to know the solar thermal systems, which are used to melt snow and produce hot water for the station. We added some modules and changed any that were damaged. Now entire façade of the south annex is now full of solar thermal panels being used to produce hot water for the station.

We needed to be able to produce more hot water for the snow melter as well. Since this season saw the construction of extra 16 rooms so that more people will be able to stay at the station next season, the station has to be able to produce a much higher volume of drinkable water. Therefore, we needed a lot more solar thermal energy capacity in order to make more drinking water.

We also use solar thermal energy in the waste water treatment process. If we have more people staying at the station, more wastewater will be produced, as more energy will be needed. This was important as my colleague Aymar de Lichtervelde was tasked with doubling the volume capacity of the waste water treatment system.

You also had to change the batteries that store energy produced by renewable sources. Why was this needed?

The next main task I had was to change the batteries that store the energy produced by the solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. They’d already been there for six years, so it was time to change them. They'd reached the end of their functional life.

This was a big task. We had to change 192 batteries that weighed 80 kg each. This meant 15 tonnes of batteries going out of the station and 15 tonnes of batteries going into the station.

We noticed that there were a few problems with the batteries’ circuits. We performed some tests to determine which batteries in the setup were not performing as well.

This allowed us to learn that we don’t need to change as many batteries in the system as often. Now we’ve learned how we can keep the batteries for a longer time without having to change them all at the same time like we’ve done this season. In case any batteries go out, we'll be able to shift to using only batteries that are working. This means less waste.

Is it possible to make the station’s energy systems work for higher occupancy?

The station was originally designed to house 18 people. But this past season, we had as many as 40 people at the station at one time. So the station needs to be able to produce more energy to welcome more people in the coming years. I'm in the process of designing a roadmap for how to increase renewable energy production and energy storage at the station.

In order to do this, we’re looking at using the latest technologies. In the last few years, battery storage technologies have improved dramatically, which means we'll be able to store more renewable energy for longer periods of time. We plan to install these over the coming years.

So we looking at how we’re going to approach this. Already next season (2019-2020) we plan to add a significant amount of solar power.

However, as there’s no more room to install solar panels on the station building and its annexes, we’re thinking about installing more solar panels on a ridge not far from the station. We'll start working on this from next year.

Did you lend a hand to any of the scientists during your time at the station?

I went with many scientists into the field to install small, mobile solar and battery-powered systems to power scientists' instruments. I helped Dr. Kate Winter install a power supply system for the Raspberry Shake seismometer she's using in her field research there. I also went with my colleagues further into the field to install or maintain solar power systems for weather stations.

You managed to build a house in Belgium that's completely off-grid. Do you think it's possible for people in Europe and elsewhere to do this?

It's always possible, if the house is designed not to be connected to the power grid form the start. If you have devices in your home such as a heat pump that consume a lot of energy in winter, when there's not a lot of solar energy production, then it can be hard. But you have to engineer the house to get around the need for high energy-consumption situations when there is less renewable energy available.

I've already lived two winters in my house without any energy shortage problems. This is pretty impressive since I live in a country that's known for not getting a lot of sun!

Did you need to get a special permit to build a house that's completely off-grid?

There's no law in Belgium that says you need to get a special permit to build a house that's completely off-grid. You can also have a connection to the public electricity grid in Belgium and not use it. It's completely up to you.

I know that there are some countries, or certain municipalities in certain countries, that don't allow you to build a house that's completely off-grid, due to specific zoning laws. Belgium is ahead of the curve in this regard.

But as you can see, Belgium is also ahead of the curve in Antarctica. It's already been ten years that the Princess Elisabeth station has been running on renewable energy, while all the other stations are still running on diesel-powered generators!

Was it expensive to design and build an off-grid house?

You have the initial investment to install the renewable energy producing systems. But these costs are made back over time as you don't pay any electricity bills.

The main goal for me was to have a self-sustaining house that runs on energy produced by the sun 24 hours a day, even in winter. I've managed to construct a self-sustaining house myself.

In the coming years, I'll be happy to continue lending my know-how to upgrading the Princess Elisabeth station's renewable energy systems.

Prof. Jean-Louis Tison and a team of scientists from the Glaciology Laboratory at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) conducted field work in East Antarctica this past season for the Mass2Ant project, which hopes to contribute to our understanding of how much ice the Antarctic Ice Sheet has been gaining or losing over time. Prof. Tison was kind enough to answer questions about his team’s research.

What are the objectives of the Mass2Ant project?

In the Mass2Ant project, which stands for “East Antarctic surface mass balance in the Anthropocene: observations and multiscale modelling”, we’re trying to get a better understanding of the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over time in the region of the Princess Ragnhild Coast in East Antarctica, since the beginning of the Antropocene (the time in Earth’s geological history during which humans have started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate system).

We hope to document surface accumulation during the last four or five centuries by examining medium-depth ice cores taken from ice rises in the Princess Ragnhild Coast area. We hope to use these data to validate results from regional high-resolution atmospheric models and large scale global climate models.

What is mass balance and how is it linked to sea level rise?

The mass balance of an ice sheet, like the ones covering Antarctica and Greenland, is the balance between the amount of ice added to the ice sheet in the form of snowfall and the amount of ice taken away from the ice sheet through iceberg calving, ice melting (ice surface coming in contact with the atmosphere or the bottom of the ice coming in contact with the ocean), and ice sublimation (ice turning directly to water vapour).

sform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> When ice is added to the Antarctica Ice Sheet, it contributes to a net fall in average global sea level, as snowfall that falls on Antarctica comes from water that evaporates from the ocean to form clouds, and is deposited on the ice sheet as snow. Over time, the snow hardens and becomes the ice of the ice sheet, and is covered by more and more layers of snow over time. Ice taken away from the ice sheet contributes to a net increase in average global sea level, as ice that flows off of the ice sheet is added to the water in the oceans.

Predicting the future evolution of sea level from global warming requires a good knowledge of the Antarctic (and Greenland) ice sheet mass balance to reduce large present-day uncertainties.

Ice loss from the Antarctic is increasingly better documented, especially in West Antarctica, as a recent NASA study shows. Paradoxically, surface mass balance is less well known, especially in East Antarctica, where the Princess Elisabeth Station is located. An important issue is how snow deposition and redistribution varies over time and in different locations.

What was your mission in Antarctica during the 2018-2019 season?

Field activity during the 2018-2019 BELARE season focused on the recovery of a third ice core from ice rises at the Princess Ragnhild Coast, about 200 km from the Princess Elisabeth Station.

Ice rises are mounds of ice located above local bedrock elevations on the sea floor, which makes the ice stick up in these areas as it flows towards to ocean on an ice shelf. Ice rises have the peculiarity to develop their own simple ice flow, as the ice flows radially from the summit to the sides, mostly independent of how the ice in the surrounding ice shelf flows. This makes them an ideal tool for reconstructing past climates.

During this past season, we were able to recover a 260 metre-long ice core of excellent quality, which will give us more than four centuries of climate information of the area. We also took 360° videos of the walls of the borehole, its Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) position, radar images, snow properties, and meteorological measurements. All this information will be fed into models that describe local ice sheet dynamics and atmospheric processes.

We aim to reconstruct snow accumulation over the last four centuries, including changes in surface mass balance, to detect changes linked to global warming, and to compare it to the same data for the other two ice cores of 120 and 208 metres we took from different locations (other ice rises) along the coast during previous seasons, in order to look for any similarities or differences in past climate across the region.

We also hope to reconstruct sea ice extent by looking at ice chemistry, using satellite records from 1979 to the present day to calibrate our models, as well as all ice core data available. Radar data and ice core borehole images we collected will contribute to ice flow modelling to help decipher annual snow accumulation rates using “raw” annual layer thickness, taking into account firnification (transformation of snow to ice) processes and ice deformation.

What were some of the highlights and difficulties you encountered in the field ?

This year, the main challenge was to switch to “wet drilling” at depths below 90 metres.

Last year, the quality of the ice cores considerably degraded below 100 metres due to the large pressure difference between the drill hole at the surface (normal atmospheric pressure) and the surrounding ice (about 10 atmospheres at 100 metres). The pressure difference makes the ice very sensitive to the shocks of cutting, which resulted in a series of broken ice discs, making further analyses of the ice core extremely challenging.

The only solution was to fill the borehole with a drilling liquid that does not freeze and has a density close that of ice. From previous experiences with international deep drilling projects, the liquid to use is ESTISOL. It is the least problematic for the operators. The only issue is that it can dilate and eat up all rubber components (including shoes, gloves, etc.), and can irritate the skin and eyes.

More and more ESTISOL had to be added as we penetrated deeper and deeper in the ice rise. By the time we reached 260 metres, we had a 75 metre-high liquid column.

Switching to this new drilling method was totally new for us. We benefited from highly useful advice from our Canadian, Danish, and Australian colleagues, as well as the building skills of the IPF team. Still, many challenges were adequately solved, allowing us to work routinely until the end of our mission.

What were your living conditions in the field this season ?

Knowing how demanding these field expeditions are, IPF provided us with excellent logistical support and relative comfort, which makes all the difference! We cooked, ate, and worked in specially designed mobile container units. A solar-powered heating and hot water system, indoor toilets, and a small bathroom with a sink and shower really made life easier in the field, and outdoor scientific activity much more efficient.

We ate frozen meals cooked at the Princess Elisabeth Station, which considerably reduces the time invested in domestic tasks in the field, and also provides us with high quality, delicious and balanced nutrition.

We slept in individual tents, which are very comfortable, and surprisingly highly resistant to very strong winds. The tents were sometimes too warm in the morning and during the day with the constant sun streaming through the orange fabric, especially for the drilling team, who was working at “night” to keep the ice cores from melting.

We discussed the details of the mission with the IPF team several months in advance. IPF contributed at all levels, from making specific material for ice cores and handling drilling liquid in the drilling tent, to the return of the ice cores and cargo to our universities in Belgium. IPF also organised the training of the personnel at the Princess Elisabeth Station, supported the preparation of the field trip, and managed the convoy that transported the research team to and from the two working sites at the coast. We had continuous support from a field guide and mechanics during the whole field trip, and help from the base leader with setting up and dismantling the field camps.

A recent study published by NASA found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting six times faster today compared to 40 years ago. Is there any link between this study and the expected findings of your research?

As explained earlier, the mass balance of Antarctica includes both the net input of snow at the surface and the loss of ice from iceberg calving and ice melt at both the surface and at the base of floating ice shelves.

The NASA study focuses on ice loss, while our work focuses on potential gains from surface accumulation of snow, and its trends over the past several centuries. These two approaches are complementary and need to be combined to reduce uncertainties about future sea level rise.

How can your research help to understand past climates and how can we use the findings of your research to mitigate and adapt to current climate change?

Current IPCC model projections for average global sea level rise by 2100 still show a large range of possibilities: from 0.2 metres to more than 1 metre. What the actual number will be will depend on actions we, as a society and as individuals, take to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

However, having a better understanding of the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s response to climate warming can help reduce the uncertainty in projections.

You can follow the Mass2Ant team’s adventures in Antarctica on their blog!
 

In addition to providing researchers who go to Antarctica with on-site logistical support for their field research, the International Polar Foundation (IPF) staff from the BELARE team are able to give professional assistance to projects that don’t have researchers on-site during every season. Experts such as IPF’s Science Technical Liaison Officer Benoît Verdin are assisting these projects in a number of different ways.

Some research projects have had equipment on-site for many seasons, which Benoît and his colleagues have been asked to maintain. Other research projects ask Benoît and his colleagues to install or switch on instruments at the beginning of the research season to collect data during the three to four months that the Princess Elisabeth Station is occupied. At the end of the seaosn, many of these instruments are brought back to their home institutions. In one project, data is even collected on an instrument sent into the atmosphere via weather balloon!

The following project summaries can give you an idea of the kinds of projects that IPF help can help with when scientists can't be on-site in Antarctica:

• ACME
  One such project, ACME, is a collaboration between the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute (KMI / IMR), the International Polar Foundation (IPF), and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), involves taking daily radio soundings. Instruments on a weather balloon released every day take meteorological measurements such as temperature, wind speed, humidity, precipitation, and air pressure as the balloon ascends up into the atmosphere after being released. Measurements taken will contribute to the ongoing Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) organised by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
   
• Maintaining equipment to measure cloud temperature and aerosols used in the AEROCLOUD project is also a task the team is undertaking this season. A collaboration between KU Leuven, the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute (KMI / IMR), and the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), the project seeks to build a database on cloud, precipitation, and aerosol properties in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth station.
   
• AWDA
  Assistance is also being provided to the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) with its AWDA project, which aims to record natural very low frequency (VLF) electromagnetic waves (0 - 10 kHz) in order to pick up “whistler waves” (pulses of low frequency waves in the atmosphere generated by phenomena such as lightning which propagate around Earth’s ionosphere along the planet’s magnetic field lines).
   
• GIANT
  Now going for 10 years at the Princess Elisabeth station, the GIANT project continues to collect GPS, gravimetry and seismology data to track the horizontal and vertical deformation of Earth's surface and how variation in ice mass in the Polar Regions contributes to this. Although no representatives from the project’s research team at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the University of Luxembourg and the Royal Military Academy of Belgium are on-site in Antarctica this season, BELARE team members will do maintenance on some of the instruments on behalf of the project.
   
• SEISMO
  BELARE team members are also helping researchers from the Royal Observatory of Belgium with maintenance of seismometers at the Princess Elisabeth as part of the SEISMO project, which has also been going on at the station for a decade. The project seeks to gather unique information on the lithosphere and seismic activity in East Antarctica.

Staying connected

Thanks to the station’s satellite link, data collected from the instruments in the various projects is sent back to all of the relevant research institutions in Europe and elsewhere every evening. This link is a big help to scientists, as it allows them to get new data sets related to their project on a daily basis, and communicate with BELARE staff on-site.

It’s nice to be able to stay connected with your instruments even when they're on the other side of the globe!

For those interested in polar science, we’re providing a brief overview of the many scientific research projects taking place at or in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station during the 2018-2019 season.

This year, researchers from Belgium, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Turkey, and Japan are spending time at the station. Between all of them, they’re working on research projects in the fields of glaciology, atmospheric sciences, microbiology, geology, and geomagnetism.

As there are so many research projects taking place this season, we’ll first provide an overview of the ones in which scientists and those assisting them are actively taking samples or collecting data in the field this season. Of the 17 research projects happening this season at the station, 11 include active field research and data collection (with assistance from the professional team of field guides and mechanics from the International Polar Foundation).

• BioFe in Glacial Systems
  Since the first young resarcher was awarded the prize in 2008, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica has hosted the laureate of the Baillet-Latour Antarctica Fellowship every season. During this year’s research season as well as next year’s, the 2018-2020 laureate, Dr. Kate Winter from Northumbria University, will use the €150,000 in prize money to conduct research for the BioFe in Glacial Systems project. BioFe is looking at how nutrients in the detritus in ice flowing off the Antarctic Ice Sheet contributes to carbon dioxide uptake by phytoplankton and other primary producers (photosynthetic microscopic organisms) in the Southern Ocean. Dr. Winter and a colleague are spending six weeks at the station in December and January to conduct ground penetrating radar soundings and aerial drone scans to get a clear view of the ice and landmass in the area they area studying.
   
• CHASE
  A collaboration between researchers from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI/IRM), Ghent University (UGent), the Universtié Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the CHASE project aims to build a unique database of organic and inorganic particles in the atmosphere and on the surface of the snow in the region around the Princess Elisabeth station. Two researchers spent just over a month at the station in November and December taking atmospheric measurements. Station engineer Benoît Verdin will continue to perform maintenance on the instruments in the project that take measurements until the end of the season.
   
• Mass2Ant
  The MASS2ANT project continues the efforts of researchers from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) led by Prof. Jean-Louis Tison to better understand the variability in the surface mass balance of ice cover in East Antarctica. In order to do this, a team of seven researchers have been taking ice cores from a series of ice rises at or near the King Baudoin Ice Shelf at the coast, about 200 km from the station. The ice cores will be transported back to Brussels where they will be analysed and reveal clues about variation in ice mass balance in the region over time. You can relive their adventures on the project blog.
   
• Kirklareli University survey
  Kirklareli University in Turkey has sent a researcher for just over a month in December and January to survey the Sør Rondane Mountains (which are not far from the station) in preparation for a potential expedition to hunt for meteorites next year. Meteorites found in Antarctica are the best preserved in the world, and can give clues as to the origins and development of our solar system. Belgian geologists, who have hunted for meteorites with Japanese scientists during past BELARE missions, are also following the developments of the mission.
   
• DEAIS
  A researcher from the University of Bern in Switzerland will remain at the station for a month and a half (mid-December to the end of January) to do some work for the DEAIS project, which hopes to reconstruct past ice sheet coverage in Antarctica using a technique known as cosmogenic sampling. Understanding past ice sheet coverage can help scientists predict how the Antarctic Ice Sheet might react to climate change.
   
• MICROBIAN
  Three researchers from Ghent University and  Liège University Belgium will arrive at the station in late January to spend a month doing field work for the MICROBIAN project, which is mapping microbial life in the ice-free areas of the Sør Rondane Mountains near the station. During their visit to Antarctica, researchers will take some samples, do some maintenance of monitoring equipment that had been installed during previous field work, and use drones to make high-resolution maps of areas of interest in Sør Rondane Mountains.
   
• GEOMAG
  Two researchers from the Royal Observatory of Belgium (KMI / IRM) will take measurements and install a series of instruments at the King Baudoin Ice Shelf at the coast as part of the GEOMAG project. During their time at the station, the researchers will also do maintenance on the geomagnetic observatory that was set up in a shelter next to the Princess Elisabeth station.
   
• From Clouds to Ground & LOSUMEA
  A joint effort undertaken under the leadership of Prof. Michael Lehning from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) and the CRYOS lab at the Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland are studying connections between snow deposition and surface mass balance of ice in East Antarctica. This season, one scientist at the Princess Elisabeth station and one at the Japan's Showa station nearby are tasked with maintainting monitoring equipment under the "From Clouds to Ground: Snow Deposition in Extreme Environment" and LOSUMEA projects. These connected projects have the ambitious goal to clarify the relationship between precipitation, drifting and blowing snow, and ice formation. Since 2016, the projects have been collecting data from a number of instruments set up in a few locations around the Princess Elisabeth station.
   
• LGGE Transect
  Before leaving Antarctica, IPF President and BELARE Team Leader Alain Hubert will continue his commitment for more than a decade to taking snow depth measurements for the Glaciology Laboratory at the University of Grenoble Alpes in France along the same transect between Crown Bay at the coast and Vesthaugen Nunatak. This year glaciologist Jean Rasson from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI / IRM) will accompany Alain on the 180-km trek.
   
• Beyond EPICA
  BELARE team members have also been assisting an international group of researchers taking part in the Beyond EPICA project on their way to and from Dome Fuji on the Antarctic Plateau.  This research project hopes to eventually drill an ice core at Dome Fuji, which many scientists believe might contain some ice that is 1.5 million years old and would contain clues to Antarctica’s climate at the time of its formation.
   
• POLAR 6 Surveys
  Every year since the 2011-2012 research season, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Germany have been using the Princess Elisabeth station as a base to conduct observation flights over East Antarctica in their Polar 6 aircraft to conduct aerial surveys. The team is in East Antarctica to take radar profiles of the ice along  transects at the coast and on the Antarctic plateau to study the thickness and density of both the land ice and the ice over water on the ice shelves at the coast. Monitoring changes in ice thickness is important to understanding how the continent’s ice mass balance is changing in light of climate change.

A closer look

In the coming weeks, we’ll look at some of the research projects in greater detail and learn how each of them is contributing to increasing humanity’s knowledge about climate change, Antarctica, and how the Earth System functions. So stay tuned!

Operated by a highly experienced team from the International Polar Foundation, the 2018-2019 BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition) season has been underway for more than two months at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station in East Antarctica.

Ever since the first plane arrived on 3 November 2018 with the first members of the BELARE crew and scientists, the station has been abuzz with activity. As is usually the case, everyone at the station is either working on a scientific research project, providing support to scientists conducting their research, building new facilities, doing maintenance on the station and equipment, or helping with the logistics of running a polar research station.

A variety of research projects

A total of 17 scientific research projects are taking place at the Princess Elisabeth station this season in the fields of glaciology, atmospheric sciences, microbiology, geology, and geomagnetism.

Some research projects have sent scientists to conduct field work in Antarctica, while others have asked skilled BELARE team members to collect data and maintain equipment on the project’s behalf.

As the list of projects is incredibly long, we’ll provide a brief overview of each in separate news items to be published in the coming days. We’ll also cover a few research projects in greater detail over the coming weeks and months.

Always aiming to improve

Ever since the station was completed 10 years ago, engineers and crew in the BELARE team have constantly been working to improve the infrastructure and make life easier for scientists and crew working at the station.

During the 2018-2019 season, an extension to the station is scheduled to be completed. The extension will have 16 new bedrooms, two toilets, an equipment storage area, and an indoor space to house the snow melter, which makes drinking water for the station.

Another important construction project that will take place this season is erecting a new hangar to shelter vehicles during the austral winter when the station isn’t occupied. Once completed, it will be a valuable asset to the team, as they won’t need to spend time clearing away accumulated snow from the parked vehicles at the start of each season.

We’ll learn more about the progress being made on these construction projects in the coming weeks.

Art meets history in Antarctica

The Princess Elisabeth Antarctica expects to welcome a unique visitor to the station towards the end of the season: playwright Emmanuel De Candido. He happens to be the son of Guido Derom, an aviator who lead the last Belgian Antarctic expedition in 1960 - 1961 to Belgium’s first Antarctic research station, the King Baudouin, right before it closed down.

Emmanuel is spending a few weeks at the Princess Elisabeth station in order to get the feel of what daily life in an Antarctic expedition is like. He plans to use his experiences in Antarctica to write a play about his father.

We expect to hear more from him about his experiecnes at the station.

More to come

In addition to covering many of the research projects happening at the station, we’ll also provide interesting insights into daily life at in Antarctica, as well as more information on some of the station improvement projects.

Watch this space for updates!