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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!

A diverse collection of more than 180 Arctic residents and stakeholders gathered for the 9th annual Arctic Futures Symposium at the Residence Palace in Brussels on Wednesday 28 November.

The all-day event, organised annually by the International Polar Foundation in conjunction with a large network of Arctic stakeholders, serves as a public venue to discuss key Arctic issues in Brussels.

Topics of conversation

After a brief welcome from Member of the Belgian Polar Secretariat Piet Steel, the symposium began with opening keynote speeches from the EU’s Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Marie-Anne Coninsx, the Sámi Council’s EU Coordinator Elle Merete Omma, and several other prominent Arctic figures.

Followoing the keyntoe session, former US Ambassador to the Arctic Council and Current Wilson Center Polar Institute Fellow David Balton, along with Arctic Institute and Nord University Senior Researcher Andreas Raspotnik led a panel discussion focusing on how well Arctic Institutions are meeting the needs of Arctic residents. Participants in the panel incuded Senior Arctic Officials from the Arctic Council nations, represntatives from the Arctic Council Permanent Participant Organisations, and the Eureopean External Action Service.

In the afternoon, following a delicious lunch of fish sponsored by Iceland Responsible Fisheries, a panel led by Senior Adviser for Northern Policies at Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Harri Mäki-Reinikka, looked at current and proposed Arctic transport projects in the context of climate change and sustainable development, both within the Arctic and from the Arctic to the rest of the world.

This was followed by a session moderated by Arctic Economic Council Director Anu Fredrikson, which explored barriers entrepreneurs encounter, ways to overcome them, how to create an entrepreneurial culture, and how to facilitate culture as a business in the Arctic. Of particular interest to conference-goers were representatives who could speak about indigenous culture as a source of entrepreneurial activity in the Arctic, including Anne Lajla Utsi CEO of the International Sámi Film Institute, and Sandra Márjá West, Director of the annual Riddu Riđđu Festival in northern Norway.

The final session of the day, led by Andreas Østhagen, also from the Arctic Institute and Nord University, discussed the challenges we face when exploring the blue economy’s potential, not only in the Arctic, but also more generally, and how to go about governing blue economy activities. Following a raffle drawn by speaker Hayley Henning from Greenland Ruby A/S and Ambassador Marie-Anne Coninsx in which a free Greenland Ruby broach was given away,  the symposium closed with remarks from the City of Tromsø’s Arctic Ambassador, Kirsti Methi, and Deputy Secretary General for Economic and Global Issues at the European External Action Service, Christian Leffler.

Bringing the Arctic to Brussels

The International Polar Foundation would like to thank its sponsors, the Brussels Capital Region and the Pink Polar Bear Foundation, for helping to support the symposium.

We would also like to give thanks to the symposium’s network of partners, which includes the many Nordic regional offices and embassies of many Arctic states in Brussels. As representatives of the Arctic in Brussels, they play a major role in forming the symposium’s programme each year.

A report highlighting salient points discussed during the symposium will be published in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on the Arctic Futures Symposium website for updates!

On Tuesday 27 November, the International Polar Foundation and its many Arctic Futures Symposium partners held the first ever Arctic Shorts film evening at BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in the Centre of Brussels.

As part of the Arctic Futures Symposium, the programme for the evening featured nine short films focusing on Arctic youth from a variety of different perspectives. The films were made and produced by filmmakers from all across the Arctic region.

Following introductory remarks from Olivier Malvoisin from the International Polar Foundation, the Deputy Head of the Mission of Canada to the EU Alan Bowman, and the EU’s Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Marie-Anne Coninsx, the Arctic short films were projected to a sold-out crowd of more than 350 people.

After the films were projected, the audience was treated to a 20-minute discussion with two of the filmmakers: Asinnajaq, a young Canadian Inuk artist who presented her film “Three Thousand”, and Sakaris Stórá, a young filmmaker from the Faroe Islands who presented his film “Summer Night”. The discussion was led by Anne-Lajla Utsi, CEO of the International Sámi Film Institute, and Martha Otte, Director of the Tromsø International Film Festival.

The International Polar Foundation would like to thank all of its sponsors and partners, without whose support this event would not have been possible.

All partners and the filmmakers were very happy to see the strong interest from the general public in Brussels in Arctic films! Arctic Shorts will certainly return!

A packed crowd welcomed speakers and moderators from across all eight Arctic states and then some at the 10th annual Arctic Futures Symposium organized by the International Polar Foundation and its many Arctic stakeholder partners.

Nearly 200 politicians, civil servants, academics, representatives of Arctic Indigenous groups, entrepreneurs, and business leaders came together in Brussels on Monday 25 November at the Residence Palace in Brussels’ EU Quarter to discuss topics important to Arctic stakeholders, including the Arcitc Council in a changing Arctic, the ovelap between safety and security in the region, gender considerations, Arctic labour force and demographics, and sustainable and innovative uses of Arctic biological resources.

A great start

Opening keynote speeches were delivered by a series of very distinguished speakers, including Member of the Belgian Polar Secretariat Piet Steel, Director for International Ocean Governance and Sustainable Fisheries at DG MARE Veronica Veits, The EU's new Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, and EU Coordinator of the Sámi Council Elle Merete Omma. 

They keynote speeches ended with an informative and highly appreciated presentation of former IPCC Vice-Chair and co-author of the UN Global Sustainable Development Report 2019, Climatologist Prof. Jean-Pascale van Ypersele from UCLouvain. Prof. Van Ypersele stressed the urgency of climate emergency for the Arctic region and embraced the successful trend #WarmingStripes, wearing a colourful tie illustrating the annual global temperature increase over time.

Following the keynote session, Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland researcher Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek led a panel discussion focused on the Arctic Council in a Changing Arctic. The panel included Senior Arctic Officials representatives from Arctic indigenous groups the EU, and a French senator. The panel discussed new challenges of the Arctic Council and paid special attention to communication, engagement with local communities and engagement within the international arena. Tove Søvndahl Gant, Policy Officer and Expert member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (as from January 2020) and Elle Merete Omma highlighted the necessity to keep indigenous voices strong in the Arctic and to invest in education about Arctic-related matters, especially in this time of renewed interest in the region. Other high-profile participants in the panel shared interesting new perspectives on the Arctic Council’s engagement and involvement in economic matters, in particular through the Arctic Economic Council.

A symposium of substance

After a marvelous lunch with seafood provided by Royal Greenland, the afternoon focused on more focused topics.

The first panel of the afternoon, moderated by Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Dr. Andreas Østhagen, focused on the overlap between safety and security in the Arctic. Three of the seven panelists were in positions created during 2019 – Kathleen Larkin (Arctic Security Officer, Office of Nordic, Baltic and Arctic Affairs, U.S. Department of State), Neil O’Rourke (Assistant Commissioner for the Arctic Region, Canadian Coast Guard) and Jari Vilén (Senior Advisor for Arctic Policy, at the European Political Strategy Centre), indicating an increased interest in the region on many fronts. The remaining four panelists represented, respectively, the Royal Norwegian Air Force and NATO, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and academia, including a representative from St. Petersburg State University to offer a Russian perspective on Arctic security. A question from Dr. Østhagen concerning the presence of China in the Arctic led to an engaging discussion which highlighted differing opinions from the panelists, and highlighted all the possible interests at stake.

The third and fourth all-women panels were a great success. The third session, Gender Considerations in the Arctic, led by Rósa Rut Þórisdóttir from the Steffansson Arctic Institute, was the first of its type at the Arctic Futures Symposium, and took place on the UN International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women, sending a strong message to the public. Ellen Marie Jensen, Guest Researcher at the Center for Women’s and Gender Research at the University of Tromsø, and Laura Churchill, Youth Board Member of Pauktuutit, gave powerful insights of the conditions of indigenous women in Sámi and Canadian Arctic indigenous communities respectively.

The fourth panel moderated by Federica Scarpa, Communications Manager at the Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network (IACN), investigated the situation of the labour force in the High North, and included Tonje Nermark, Vice-President Strategic Communications and Public Affairs at Mo Industrial Park in Norway, who called attention to having Arctic youth’s environmental values to be reflected in the region’s future. Odile Joanette, Executive Director of Wapikoni Mobile, brought the inspiring example of her non-profit organisation based in Québec, which works with indigenous youth to develop their own new narrative and identity, matching their indigenous values with the modern world.

The last panel focusing on sustainable uses of Arctic biological resources and moderated by  Dr. Christian Prip of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute brought attention to many innovative ideas, including the potential of using seaweed and fishery products in Nunavut through fruitful collaboration between scientists and the Indigenous Peoples of the Canadian Arctic, as described by Jean-Sébastien Moore, Professor at Université Laval. Perspectives from the fishing industry (Royal Greenland), biogas sector, and forestry industry in Finland were also included.

Nils-Olov Lindfors, Councillor of the Region of Norrbotten and Chair of the Northern Sparsely Populated Areas (NSPA) network, closed this year’s symposium with the remark that nobody can undermine the close relationships that tie the Peoples of the Arctic together, making them all brothers and sisters.

A big thank you ot those who made it possible

The International Polar Foundation would like to thank all the speakers and moderators who accepted our invitation to participate in the symposium, sharing their knowledge to a Brussels audience. The Foundation would also like to thank the Brussels Capital Region for its financial support, and most importantly all its partners from Arctic Representations and Missions to the European Union in Brussels, Nordic Regional Offices, and private organizations which helped make the 10th edition of the Arctic Futures Symposium such a great success! And we shouldn't forget to thank all the participants who took part in the symposium and came with their challenging questions to help spark engaging conversations.

We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

The Arctic Futures Symposium - the longest-running public Arctic event in Brussels - returns to Brussels for the 9th time on Wednesday 28 November at the Residence Palace in Brussels' EU Quarter.

Organised by the International Polar Foundation and its many partners from the Arctic community in Brussels, the all-day event will examine issues of interest and concern to Arctic stakeholders.

All who are interested in Arctic issues are welcome to attend, be they politicians, diplomats, civil servants, academics, indigenous peoples, representatives from industries operating in the Arctic, reprsentatives of civil society, teachers, students, or members of the general public with an interest in what's happening in the Arctic.

Participation is free, but those who are interested in attending are asked to register to secure a spot at the event.

This year, the symposium - with a view to the future - will look at the following topics of interest to the Arctic community:

• Arctic institutions: How well are they serving the needs of Arctic peoples?
• Transport and logistics, both within the Arctic and from the Arctic to the rest of the world
• How Arctic culture and innovation can foster a sense of entrepreneurship in Arctic communities
• Blue growth potential in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions within the context of sound ocean governance

For more details about the symposium, a draft programme, speakers, and information on how to regsiter for the event, please consult the Arctic Futures Symposium website.

If you have any additional questions about the event, you are more than welcome to contact us at events@polarfoundation.org.

We look forward to seeing all of you again in Brussels in November!

Dr. Kate Winter of Northumbria University has been awarded the prestigious €150,000 Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship. This exceptional young British polar scientist will conduct research at Princess Elisabeth, the Belgian Zero Emissions Research station in East Antarctica.

Dr. Winter was selected after an independent peer review process, which recommended her proposed project “BioFe in Glacial Systems”. 

This project will involve undertaking cutting edge geomorphological research around the stations operational area and will contribute to advancing the diversity of the research being carried out in the region. Her proposal will contribute particularly to the understanding of the transport of nutrients in sediments from inland areas of the Antarctic to the Southern Ocean. This goal will fill a gap in scientific investigation of ice sheets, and ocean fertilisation processes.

‘I am delighted and honoured to win the Baillet Latour Antarctic Fellowship. The Fonds Baillet Latour and the International Polar Foundation are giving me a unique opportunity to establish myself in a highly competitive international field. The award will allow me to conduct research in East Antarctica, one of the worlds most remote and extreme environments. It will enable me to answer important science questions that early career researchers are often not given the chance to solve.’ Dr. Kate Winter, Northumbria University

In December 2018, Dr. Winter will travel to Princess Elisabeth to begin her fieldwork. Her research will focus on the contribution of ice flow to the uptake of carbon dioxide by the Southern Ocean. She will use recent advances in terrestrial laser scanning, structure-from-motion photogrammetry and ice penetrating radar to assess how sediment sources of iron are transferred through the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. She will examine the contribution of these sediments to marine productivity in the Southern Ocean, a process which can reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. Her research may provide important knowledge on how Antarctica is playing a role in future global climate change.

Stay tuned for more news about Dr. Winter's research

Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship

The Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship is a joint initiative between the International Polar Foundation and the Baillet Latour Fund. This award promotes science and scientific excellence in Antarctica through young research scientists. The fellowship, worth € 150 000, recognizes the importance of science carried out in Antarctica for improving the understanding of Earth, and encourages scientific research at, or close to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station.

Climate change may seem too big to tackle on a small scale, but people and cities can make a difference if they consider climate change when designing buildings and urban infrastructure.

Belgian based RenovaS has been doing this since 1996. They have acted as an interface between regional and municipal initiatives for revitalization of urban structures while embracing environmental considerations in design and renovation.
 
One of the ways they promote this is by involving and educating schools, neighborhood associations and households in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels about the importance of climate change. And where is the best place to start? The north and south poles of course, the two coldest places on Earth. These regions not only affect the climate of the entire planet, but are also feeling the greatest impacts from climate change. This is why RenovaS has full support from the International Polar Foundation.
 
In fact, RenovaS recently brought together at the town hall of Schaerbeek a hundred people so that both adults and youth, and even technical staff from the town hall, could learn more about things like how daily energy consumption is linked to climate change and its likely consequences via the greenhouse effect. There were also entertaining experiments to discover more about ocean acidification and rising sea levels.
 
These interactive sessions are really important because just looking at a model of Antarctica sends a vivid eye opening message about the enormous quantity of ice there is in the south pole and how melting of this ice will heavily impact the world. And that we should all be doing whatever we can on any scale to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet.
 
More Info
info@renovas.be
www.renovas.be

About 40,000 tons of cosmic dust reaches the Earth’s surface every year. Antarctica is a goldmine for this interstellar treasure because of its cold and dry climate as well as exposed stable landscape which has been accumulating material falling from the heavens for millions of years.

Background

All meteorites originating from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter hold secrets that could unlock the mysteries of our solar system and birth and evolution of planets.

Since 2009, Belgian-Japanese scientific expeditions have stayed at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station in search of meteorites. This work has led to the collection of more than 1200 pristine specimens now conserved at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, making up one of the largest Antarctic meteorite collections in Europe today.

Although seemingly insignificant, the smaller tiny dust-sized meteorites (<2 mm) which fall on Earth provide us special insight into our solar system. Because of their small size, they contain information sometimes different and thus complementary to the classic larger meteorites one sees in museums.

The BELAM Project

These so called ‘micrometeorites’ are what scientists Steven Goderis and Matthias van Ginneken have been recently collecting near Princess Elisabeth under the BELAM project.

Using crampons, ice picks and snow poles, risking life and limb, they reached difficult ridges near the highest summit of the Sør Rondane Mountains and other challenging locations near the station in search of this cosmic dust. In places where the soil and underlying rock were frozen, they even had to use chisels and hammers to collect samples.

When back at Princess Elisabeth, with nothing more than a toothpick and an optical microscope, they begun the work of filtering out micrometeorites from kilos of sediment. This effort did not disappoint because they managed to find what may be in the order of 30,000 micrometeorites! Highly satisfying because to learn more about the planets, asteroids and comets, a considerable number of micrometeorites are required.

Now back at the laboratories of the VUB-ULB team in Brussels, Steven and Matthias will continue their research to help solve the mysteries of our solar system.

Why choose Princess Elisabeth?

‘We know the area very well and so we know the best places to search for micrometeorites. The location is extremely important, but of course the logistical support we receive at Princess Elisabeth is indispensable! This includes equipment (skidoo, climbing equipment, food, etc.) and top notch field assistance from Alain Hubert and our Swiss field guide Raphael Mayoraz.’  Dr. Steven Goderis, VUB

Meet the BELAM Team

Dr. Steven Goderis is a geoscientist working at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) where he develops and applies a toolbox of elemental and isotopic proxies to answer Earth science questions. Since completing his PhD on impact cratering and asteroid showers, his research has been oriented towards early Solar System evolution, meteorite parent body processes, and global changes throughout the Earth’s history. Since 2009, Steven has been involved in the recovery of meteorites from the blue ice fields surrounding the Sør Rondane Mountains of Eastern Antarctica. Thanks to the Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship and BELSPO funding numerous micrometeorites found concentrated at Antarctic mountain tops in 2012 and 2018 will be keeping him and his team busy for many years to come.

Dr. Matthias Van Ginneken is a scientist from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) who has expertise in the petrology and geochemistry of extraterrestrial material, but more precisely, that of micrometeorites (or cosmic dust). He identifies, classifies and analyzes micrometeorites using a wide range of analytical techniques. His main achievements include the study of “giant” unmelted chondritic micrometeorites. In parallel to this work on micrometeorites, he discovered and first described aggregates of meteoritic ablation spheres from Antarctica. His research led to the development of the first weathering scale for micrometeorites, which is useful to any micrometeorite researcher. His current work focuses on the study of a micrometeorite collection recently discovered in Wideroefjellet, Antarctica. 

Author: Lisa Benedetti