Antarctica is probably the best place in the world to study space travel
Background
Life in Antarctica is similar to that which astronauts face in outer space. In both cases, you have people in good physical condition of a comparable age range who live together under a challenging situation: extreme isolation and confinement, interactions with the same people day in and day out and very little fresh food.
The IMAGE project
These are the main motives behind Belgian Professor Sarah Baatout’s IMAGE project at Princess Elisabeth this season.
Back in Belgium, Sarah and her SCK•CEN group at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre have been following astronauts who spend 6 months or more at the International Space Station. Immunity becomes weaker in extreme environments and is therefore one of the main obstacles to overcome during space travel. As part of its research on immunity, SCK•CEN takes blood and other samples from astronauts before, during and after their space flights.
As with the astronauts she follows, Sarah is now collecting samples from the scientists and crew at Princess Elisabeth to study immune responses to extreme conditions in Antarctica. She’s also testing the stability of 20 different medicines inside and outside the station to be potentially used in the medical kits of the astronauts of tomorrow.
Part of Sarah’s curiosity is finding out how spirulina may affect health by feeding it to the scientists and crew at the station. Spirulina is a bacterium used as an antioxidant and vitamin rich nutritional supplement. It’s a good candidate for long-term space flight because it can be easily grown in outer space and so could be used to enhance and sustain the immunity of astronauts.
Never sitting still at Princess Elisabeth, Sarah is also regularly in touch with schools in Belgium and abroad via internet to share her energy and enthusiasm for science. This is completely in harmony with IPF’s motto of bridging science and society.
Meet Dr. Sarah Baatout
Sarah is the Head of the Radiobiology Unit at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN) and Guest Professor in bio-engineering at Gent University. SCK•CEN is one of the largest research centers in Belgium. They specialize in peaceful applications of radioactivity, including safety of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste, but also the safety of astronauts during space travel. She not only loves to inspire students to become excited about science, but is also involved in numerous non-profit organisations, namely in the European Radiation Research Society, the Belgian Space Science Society and Youspace.
Keep on top of Sarah's scientific mission to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica here: Facebook / Blog
Interview with Sarah just before her journey
Author: Lisa Benedetti
There are a lot of things that can happen in Antarctica, but when it comes to medical emergencies, it can mean the difference between life and death
Like everywhere in Antarctica, there are many risks to manage for the scientists and crew who stay at and near Princess Elisabeth. The station is on a glacier, there are hidden crevasses, there is always the risk of accident when driving or even sitting on snowmobiles and whenever the station is under maintenance or construction
That’s why it’s so important to have someone like Jacques Richon at Princess Elisabeth. Jacques is a veteran Swiss doctor who ensures the good health of everyone who stays at the station. He’s ready on standby to provide medical aid whenever it’s needed. But he also avoids problems by giving the stations residents safety training and briefings.
Luckily, there have never been any serious injuries so far, but Jacques is the kind of doctor you want if something goes really wrong. Because if serious medical aid is needed, it’s only available in Cape Town, about 5000 km away.
Not just any doctor can treat frostbite induced gangrene, which is no problem for Jacques because he has the know how, Zen like mental control and strong stomach needed to treat extreme injuries in extreme locations.
And if he needs assistance, it’s no problem because Jacques has ringed himself with expert advice through a network of colleagues from different disciplines who are a mere satellite phone call away.
This is already Jacques 8th time at Princess Elisabeth, but one of his goals this season is to develop and test a tele-medicine procedure with a hospital in Switzerland (Hôpital du Valais) and GRIMM (Groupe d’Intervention Médicale en Montagne). This will not only be useful in Antarctica, but for anyone needing medical assistance in remote locations.
Jacques also trains the stations residents learning crevasse rescue and rescue in challenging environments.
And just in case, he can even fly a helicopter.
Is Antarctica as pristine and untouched as we think? A group of scientists have been collecting snow and dust near Princess Elisabeth to find out
Background
Tiny particles like dust which become airborne and trapped in the atmosphere interact with each other through scattering and absorption with the sun’s radiation. These particles play a crucial role in the formation of clouds because they affect both the radiative properties of clouds and precipitation like rain and snow.
Although Antarctica is considered one of the most pristine places on Earth when it comes to anthropogenic emissions, these miniscule particles can trap and bind pollutants and carry them over great distances. This means the Antarctic may not be as pristine as we once believed.
The CHASE project
This is one of the reasons Dr. Christophe Walgraeve, Dr. Nadine Mattielli and Dr. Alexander Mangold have just collected samples near Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. They will compare dust which arrives on the coast to that which travels towards the center of Antarctica, closer to the plateau.
They will try to discover which types and what are the sources of the dust that arrives in eastern Antarctica. But equally, they would like to find out more about the atmospheric transport pathways that occur between the atmosphere and snow, and possibly in the nearby Southern Ocean.
Such knowledge will give us important insight concerning biogeochemical cycles and the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic compounds found in Antarctica. This will also improve our understanding of climate data extracted from ice cores and the transport and deposition processes of not only mineral nutrients, but also organic micro-pollutants in polar regions.
This type of work has never been done in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, where Princess Elisabeth station is found, so we are looking forward to finding out what new science the CHASE team uncovers.
Watch video of Dr. Nadine Mattielli talking about CHASE
Meet the CHASE team
Dr. Christophe Walgraeve is a Belgian scientist. He did his PhD research at the University of Ghent with the EnVOC research group under the PARHEALTH project (supported by the federal government). Christophe’s research focuses on the detection and quantification of atmospheric organic micro pollutants, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organics sorbed onto particulate matter. He uses advanced sampling (through active and passive sampling methodologies) and analytical methods requiring the use of various techniques like gas chromatography (GC) hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and high resolution proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-Qi-TOFMS).
Dr. Nadine Mattielli is a geologist and geochemist. She is currently a full Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Head of the Geology teaching program in the Faculty of Sciences and Secretary of the Master Jury. She is co-director of the Laboratoire G-Time (Geochemistry - Isotope, Mineral and Element Tracing), from the DGES (Department of Geosciences, Environment and Society) and PI or co-PI of several research programs (Belspo, FNRS, ARC, PAI, EU) and the BIGE analytical platform, a joint venture between AMGC (VUB) and G-Time (ULB). Nadine’s main field of expertise is isotope geochemistry (radiogenic and heavy stable isotopes), in particular, the sources and clouding processes which affect airborne particles collected in Antarctica.
Dr. Alexander Mangold has been working with the Observations Department at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium since 2005. He manages the institute’s research on aerosols, UV and ozone at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. So far, Alexander has participated in six expeditions to the station where he not only built an observatory to monitor aerosol, ozone and UV, but also carries out radio soundings using weather balloons. During the 2017-2018 scientific expedition to Princess Elisabeth, he will focus most of his time conducting project AEROCLOUD but will also be busy with the CHASE project, in partnership with the University of Ghent and Université Libre de Bruxelles.
A team of glaciologists are drilling deep near Princess Elisabeth to discover more about Antarctica’s role in future sea level rise
Background
The Southern Hemisphere’s climate at high latitudes has changed dramatically over the last decades, but these changes and their global implications are not well known because existing short term records provide a limited picture. The Antarctic’s climate system itself is very complex with strong interactions between the continents ice sheet, atmosphere, ocean and sea ice. Within this system even small scale variations often have large scale consequences.
To make any progress in our understanding of the Antarctic’s influence on future sea level rise, it is crucial we link the dynamics that affect Antarctica at different spatial and temporal scales. Such knowledge is not only a high priority for the scientific community, but will also help inform policies which help us tackle and respond to the effects of climate change.
MASS2ANT Project
Dr. Jean-Louis Tison, from the University of Brussels, and a group of glaciologists from Belgium and Canada are now stationed at Princess Elisabeth to solve some of these riddles through the MASS2ANT project. This new project will examine the amount of snow falling each year in Antarctica, which is key to understanding the global implications of Antarctica’s influence on future sea level rise.
Two Canadian core experts are helping Tison and his team drill into a so-called "ice rise", a kind of ice hill about 500 m thick, that occurs along the coast near the station. Meteorological towers will also be set up on both sides of the ice hill on which they are working. Over the next three weeks, the team will crisscross the coast near the station to collect ice and snow samples.
Gathered snow samples will allow for reconstruction of the history of snow accumulation as well as the climate in Eastern Antarctica over the last two centuries. Tison and his team will also take a look at the internal structure of the ice they collect to see how snow is redistributed over Antarctica's surface.
MASS2ANT will give us an exciting glimpse into how man has influenced the evolution of the accumulation of snow through global warming.
Meet the MASS2ANT Team
Dr. Hugues Goosse is a Research Director at the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique and a Professor at the Université de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium. He is also Head of the Earth and Climate Division of the Earth and Life Institute and the Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM). The UCL-CLIM group has well respected expertise in climate modelling and they are actively engaged in studies of: (1) past climate change, (2) present state of the Earth system, (3) human-environment interactions and (4) modelling tools. Hugues recent work is mostly focused on sea-ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Southern Ocean, decadal to centennial climate variations over the past millennium and data assimilations using ensemble methods in climate models.
Dr. Jean-Louis Tison is the Co-Director of the Laboratoire de Glaciologie at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Head of the PROPICE (Properties of Ice) Unit within that laboratory. For more than 35 years, the PROPICE Unit has built its expertise in field sampling and multi-parametric analyses of natural and artificial ice samples. Specialized in the analyses of ice at interfaces, this unit is fully equipped for the preparation and treatment of “sensitive” samples such as basal ice from ice sheets, sea ice, marine ice and lake ice. Jean-Louis has participated in 19 Antarctic, 6 Arctic and 16 Alpine expeditions and has contributed to several major publications on the unique paleoclimatic records of deep ice cores from the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets (GRIP, North-GRIP, NEEM, Vostok, EPICA Dome C).
Dr. Stéphane Vannitsem is Head of Unit at the Dynamical Meteorology and Climatology of the Meteorological and Climatological Research Service of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium. His main research activities are oriented towards applying techniques in nonlinear dynamics and stochastic processes for the study of atmospheric and climate related challenges with particular emphasis on variability and predictability. Characteristic contributions include the development of techniques for post-processing weather, hydrological and climate forecasts and projections, and the development of coupled ocean-atmosphere models and their use to understand the development of the low-frequency variability within the atmosphere.
Dr. Jan Lenaerts is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. He is an expert in ice sheets and climate, but has a specific interest in polar climates, snow-atmosphere and ice-ocean interactions on meso- to global scales. The main tools he uses in his research are climate models evaluated with remote sensing and in-situ climate observations. He received his PhD cum laude in Polar Meteorology at Utrecht University in February 2013. His PhD research focused on blowing snow processes in Greenland and Antarctica. Since then, Jan has steered his research on improving snow and ice sheet processes in a global climate model (CESM). He received a NWO Veni Grant and InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctic Fellowship (both in 2014) to perform fieldwork in East Antarctica, and the AGU Cryosphere Early Career Award in 2017. He has led field expeditions to Greenland (2012) and East Antarctica (2014).
Dr. Stef Lhermitte has been working as an Assistant Professor in the Department Geoscience and Remote Sensing at the Delft University of Technology since 2016. Stef is an expert in multi-source remote sensing and snow modeling, but has a specific interest in assessing land-atmosphere interactions. He received his PhD at KULeuven in 2008 and subsequently worked at CEAZA (Chile), the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). In 2013, Stef received the prestigious FWO post-doctoral fellowship. During this period he studied the importance of atmosphere-snow interactions in polar regions. He coordinated and participated in the 2016 Benemelt field campaign beginning from the Princess Elizabeth station in East-Antarctica.
Henri Robert is busy in Antarctica conducting the first ever bird population assessment in the Sor Rondane Mountains near Princess Elisabeth research station
Background
Current global changes are quickly affecting our planet, and parts of Antarctica are among the fastest warming regions of the world while the Southern Ocean is also further endangered by ocean acidification. Having undergone historic climatic changes, the Snow Petrel is a circumpolar Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic seabird which serves as a perfect model organism to predict future global change scenarios. However, the evolutionary history and taxonomic status of this seabird is the subject of considerable controversy. The current consensus is that there are two distinct subspecies, the lesser and the greater Snow Petrel (respectively P. nivea nivea and P. n. major) which could be the result of different glacial refugia and the establishment of post glacial hybridization zones.
RECTO Project (BELSPO)
As one of the target species of the BELSPO-RECTO project, the beautiful and graceful Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea s.l.) is now capturing all of Henri Robert’s attention during the 2017-2018 BELARE campaign. The Snow Petrel is the most common species of the inland Queen Maud Land (the station and colonies are located nearly 200 km from the coast). Henri is not only doing a population assessment, but also a genetic assessment of the species in an attempt to reconstruct its evolutionary history and phylogeography. He will predict future distributions of the Snow Petrel and its prey under different scenarios by integrating spatial and trait distribution models with state-of-the art models for ocean dynamics, prey availability and sea ice.
The RECTO project will link the Snow Petrel's population history and refugia to past climate changes events. Biometrical variation (bill, tarsus, wing and tail length) will be measured and used to assess morphological variance among populations located around the Antarctic continent and Sub-Antarctic islands. Molecular techniques will be used to untangle the complex genetic structures of these birds, reveal population expansions, bottlenecks and population connectivity. Other studies will also allow for reconstruction of the phylogeography of the two “subspecies” occurring today.
In Action at Princess Elisabeth
Soon after arriving at Princess Elisabeth research station, Henri began work at the different study sites. The planning is ambicious: during one short season the objective is to monitor all breeding sites of Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea s.l.) of the Eastern Sor Rondane, perform a primary population estimate of the area and collect DNA samples.
Every day with his guide, equipped with polar clothes, shoes studs and ice axe, Henri is systematically surveying the rocky slopes of each nunatak where Petrels are known to breed. Each nest will be geo-referenced and local population estimated based on the number of occupied cavities.
Working conditions have been favourable so far, only two days of storm and poor visibility in late November. Most of the time, however, the sun is shining through clear blue skies and the wind is relatively calm. Temperature varies between -5°C and -20°C (with some season's unusual peak of 0°C on the brightest sunny days).
Stay tuned for more news on Henri's Snow Petrel work at Princess Elisabeth.
Henri Robert
Henri Robert is a biologist with the Conservation Biology Unit (OD Nature) of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). Henri began his career as a field assistant for several conservation and research programmes across the world, focusing mainly on birds. For twelve years, he worked in the Carcinology Laboratory of RBINS on taxonomy of Southern Ocean amphipods. It was during this period where he took part in several missions on research vessels that he developed a passion for polar environments. As a keen ornithologist with an equal passion for marine mammals he then joined the Conservation Biology Unit with an insatiable curiosity for the Southern Ocean and its wildlife. In collaboration with the Laboratory of Polar Ecology (PolE) he participated in several missions along the Scotia Arc, the Antarctic Peninsula, the Weddell Sea and the high Arctic Ocean to perform long term “top predators” (marine mammal and seabird) monitoring. Other research and wildlife conservation programs has led Henri to work in the remotest tropical forests of the Congo basin (Central Africa) as well as Pacific Ocean to explore the invertebrate communities. While gathering data for the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) he had the opportunity to take part in the 2008-2009 BELARE campaign where local bird populations (Snow Petrel mainly) caught his attention and persuaded him to return to Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station nearly a decade later to further investigate these emblematic and little known birds.
A series of short reports will soon be available on: www.naturalsciences.be/en/news and www.instagram.com/rbinsmuseum/
We are very sad to say goodbye to one of our dearest friends, Philippe Maystadt
Au revoir, cher ami
Nous apprenons avec une grande tristesse l’annonce du décès de Philippe Maystadt, un ami de La Fondation Polaire Internationale dont il était par ailleurs un administrateur actif.
Alain Hubert, actuellement en mission à 200 km de la base Princess Elisabeth a immédiatement été averti par téléphone.
Il présente, avec l’ensemble des administrateurs et de l'équipe de la Fondation, ses sincères condoléances à la famille et aux proches.
Goodbye, dearest friend
It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Philippe Maystadt.
He was a friend of the International Polar Foundation as well as an active administrator.
He, as well as the IPF administrators and team, would like to send his family and relatives their deepest condolences.
Tot ziens, beste vriend
Met grote droefheid hebben we gehoord van de dood van wijlen Philippe Maystadt.
Hij was een vriend van de International Polar Foundation en een actieve beheerder.
Alain Hubert, die momenteel op expeditie is op 200 km van de basis van Prinses Elisabeth, werd onmiddellijk op de hoogte gebracht via de telefoon.
Hij, evenals de IPF-beheerders en het team, willen zijn familie en familieleden hun diepste medeleven betuigen.
Dr. Alexander Mangold, from the Meteorological Institute of Belgium, is now at Princess Elisabeth station to try and uncover the mysteries of different cloud types and aerosols, and their effect on surface energy budgets in eastern Antarctica
AEROCLOUD
The role of clouds, and their interaction with radiation and aerosols, are well known to be key elements of the climate system. Surprisingly, although finding out more about this is high on the international research agenda, very little is known about these interactions in Antarctica.
Precipitation is the only source of mass to the Antarctic ice sheet, and precipitation and cloud processes are closely connected. Considering that the Antarctic ice sheet will become a dominant contributor to sea level rise in the 21st Century, it is important we learn as much as possible about these interactions.
Further, clouds exert a large influence on the temporal and spatial variability of Antarctic surface energy and mass balance. Aerosols, mostly carried to Antarctica via long-range atmospheric pathways, strongly affect cloud formation and their ability to produce precipitation. However, the exact role of cloud properties is largely unknown.
The AEROCLOUD project will help solve these mysteries by gathering the following insights concerning the East Antarctic climate system: What is the role of clouds and aerosols and what is the inter-relation between these aerosols and clouds?
The starting point for this research is the meteorological-cloud-precipitation-aerosol observatory that was established during 2009-2012 at Princess Elisabeth in the framework of two BELSPO projects (HYDRANT and BELATMOS). Detailed measurements from the observatory will be used to evaluate and improve the regional climate model CCLM. An important advantage of the CCLM is the inclusion of a detailed parametrization scheme that takes into account the effect of aerosols on cloud microphysics.
Dr. Alexander Mangold
Dr. Alexander Mangold is a German scientist who has been working with the Observations Department at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium since 2005. He manages the institute’s research on aerosols, UV and ozone at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. So far, Dr. Mangold has participated in six expeditions to the station where he not only built an observatory to monitor aerosol, ozone and UV, but also carries out radio soundings using weather balloons. During the 2017-2018 scientific expedition to Princess Elisabeth, he will focus most of his time conducting project AEROCLOUD but will also be busy with the CHASE project, in partnership with the University of Ghent and Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Video of Dr. Mangold talking about his research
AEROCLOUD is a collaborative project of KU Leuven, the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium and the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
After days of fierce windy weather, calm blue skies appeared in Cape Town and the Akademik Fedorov was finally able to set sail for its long 10 day journey to Breid Bay, Antarctica, the unloading site for the Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition (BELARE).
The Fedorov is an ice breaker belonging to the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute which is capable of travelling at about 15-20 knots per hour and can break ice up to 2m thick.
The vessel is heading to Antarctica to resupply various research stations including Princess Elisabeth. For BELARE it is carrying 15 containers destined for resupplying and maintaining Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station. The shipment includes building materials - wood, beams, doors etc - needed for the planned renovations and construction of a new two story accommodation annex to replace a temporary structure that was built 10 years ago. The new addition will improve the station's living and working space and will add extra stability to the building infrastructure.
Some of the other containers hold food provisions to keep the scientists and crew fed for the season, as well as equipment and tools. They also hold four smaller sledges that were built in Cape Town to carry loads over short distances.
There is also a new snow melter that was built in Cape Town. It's an improved system with better insulation and its own heating system to improve energy efficiency.
The cargo also includes a new fuel drum compacter. A normal container can only fit about 80 drums, and it is costly and inefficient to ship empty drums back to Cape Town. Now with the drum crusher, several thousand metal drums being stored at Princess Elisabeth can be compacted and sent back to Cape Town to be recycled over the coming years.
Alain Hubert and his team are already on the way to Breid Bay to meet the ship. Once the Fedorov arrives at the fast ice edge, they will have prepared a platform to unload the containers onto large sledges. A Prinoth snow tractor can pull 3 sledges with containers. The route back to the Station is about 20 hours of travel (220km uphill) to Princess Elisabeth.
They will need to do two traverses to get all the cargo back to PEA. The building crew has already demolished the old accommodation annex and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the building material, and the snow melter and work is going ahead at a brisk pace.
Several improvements to the systems management have already been rolled out and the team is full of energy and optimism.
There will be plenty more stories to tell in the coming weeks!
According to participants and members of the organising committee, the 8th Annual Arctic Futures Symposium held on Monday November 20th was a major success any way you measured it. The symposium provided a public platform to a very diverse group of Arctic stakeholoders to voice their conerns, identify challenges, debate solutions, and promote their initatives in the EU's capital. Nearly 200 participants turned up to the Residence Palace in Brussels’ EU Quarter to hear what more than 40 Arctic stakeholders had to say.
With a focus on smart and sustainable investment in the Arctic, the 2017 edition of the symposium saw strong participation from representatives from Arctic indigenous communities, the EU, local and regional governments in the Arctic, researchers and academics, industry representatives, and entrepreneurs.
Presided by Mikael Janson, Director of the North Sweden European Office in Brussels, the symposium opened with welcome remarks on behalf of the International Polar Foundation from former Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam and member of the Belgian Polar Secretariat, Piet Steel.
Following Ambassador Steel's welcome speech, the symposium saw speeches from three keynote speakers: Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries João Aguiar Machado, Advisor to the Inuit Circumpolar Council and former Premier of Greenland Kuupik Kleist, and the Government of Québec’s new Envoy for Climate Change, Northern and Arctic Affairs Jean Lemire. All three speakers offered unique and important perspectives on smart investment and development for a sustainable Arctic - investment and development that must respect the region’s indigenous traditions and avoid causing harm to the region's unique environment.
The remainder of the day included discussions focused on a wide range of issues, such as:
- The EU's engagement with the Arctic Council, which featured the EU’s new Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Marie-Anne Coninsx, Saami Council President Åsa Larsson Blind, and Senior Arctic Officials from Arctic Council nations
- The future of Arctic research cooperation, with International Arctic Science Committee President Susan Barr, World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, and other distinguished researchers
- Reducing the environmental impact of the extractive industries and measuring sustainability in Arctic communities, with contributions from the oil and gas industry, mining, and academics studying Arctic sustainability such as Katherine Weingartner from the George Washington University
- Meeting the educational needs of Arctic residents and fostering Arctic entrepreneurship, with representatives including Saami Council EU Coordinator Elle Merete Omma, the Mayor of Tromsø Kirstin Roymø, Former Assistant Governor of the Danish National Bank Anders Møller Christensen, and others
- The Arctic bioeconomy as a solution to sustainable development in the region, which featured presentations focusing on fisheries, forestry, innovation, and entrepreneurs such as Ulrik Lyberth, who started his own seaweed cultivation and production company in Greenland, and innovator Stephen Mooney from the Yukon Resaerch Centre.
The symposium closed with remarks from Deputy Secretary General for Economic and Global Issues at the European External Action Service Christian Leffler, who reflected on the salient points discussed during the day, and thanked the International Polar Foundation for its initiative in establishing the symposium as an annual event.
Some of the more salient points brought up at the 8th annual Arctc Futures Symposium inlcude:
- There has been a lot of talk about a taking a more holistic approach to Arctic research that integrates natural science, social science, and indigenous traditional knowledge, but it is necessary to find more ways to put this holistic approach into action
- Many industries operating in the Arctic are working on ways to reduce their environmental footprint; environmental protection and growth are not mutually exclusive ideas
- Education is key to improving the job prospects of Arctic residents, helping to ensure that Arctic residents have good jobs and want to stay in the Arctic to live and work
- Arctic indigenous peoples have great experience as entrepreurs of small and medium-sized enterprises, but many do not feel the need to grow their enterprises too large so that they are no longer sustainable
- The Arctic bioeconomy - which includes fishereis, forestry, biomass fuels, and agricultrue - provides important sustainable growth and job solutions for the Arctic
A partnership between the International Polar Foundation and the Nordic Regional Offices, Embassies and Missions in Brussels, and private organisations involved in Arctic issues, the Arctic Futures Symposium is held every autumn in Brussels order to Arctic voices to be heard in the capital of the EU.
The International Polar Foundation would like to thank all of the speakers and moderators who took the time out of their busy schedules to offer their knowledge and expertise to the event, as well as all partner organisations, including:
- The Brussels Capital Region for its financial support
- The Permanent Representation of Finland to the European Union
- The Mission of Canada to the European Union
- The North Norway European Office
- The North Sweden European Office
- The East and North Finland EU Office
- The Greenland Representation to the European Union
- The Mission of Iceland to the European Union
- The Québec Government Office in Brussels
- The Mission of the Faroes to the European Union
- Arctic Consensus
- Sæmark and Iceland Responsible Fisheries for providing the delicious fresh Icelandic fish enjoyed at lunch!
We are also grateful to all participants who took part in the event and engaged all the speakers with their thoughtful questions.
We hope to see everyone agian next year!
The 2017-2018 scientific season at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station has begun. This is the 14th Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition since the project to build the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica began in 2004.
Getting the Princess Ready
Alain Hubert and his crew have been preparing the station for the first group of scientists who have just arrived in Antarctica, glaciologists and specialists in atmospheric sciences, some heading for the Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf. The Princess had been sleeping over winter, but everything was ticking-over and on-line, purring along on the energy harvested from the wind and the sun.
Mission one is snow clearance. The barricades erected by the wind around the Princess are removed. After a very long dark cold winter in Antarctica, the snow has accumulated and the entrance has to be cut free to allow the garage to be opened and snow tractors to come out and start the spring cleaning. The crew will clear the hard packed ice and snow using Prinoth and Komatsu vehicles stored at the station during the winter months.
Now the princess is ready for human occupation and is in full operational summer mode.
A Scientists Paradise
The expedition this year is truly international and nearly a dozen countries are represented, some for the very first time. The excitement and energy is palpable. Even seasoned researchers are apparently so excited that they cannot sleep. Antarctica beckons.
Princess Elisabeth is located in a pristine part of Eastern Antarctica. The Station is surrounded by a wide variety of research environments, from mountain ranges jutting out of the ice sheet, to wide dry valleys, huge ice fields and icy cold freshwater lakes that are almost always frozen. The research potential for this region is immense and new discoveries lie in wait for curious minds.
Princess Elisabeth offers scientists a wide range of technical and logistical services. The support they receive from the station crew is provided by numerous specialists on site to help with tasks ranging from field deployment, to communication and equipment electronics failures, or to help build impromptu set-ups or RE power supplies.
There are also some equipped laboratories at Princess Elisabeth for biologists. This range of support means that scientists can focus all their time and energy on research, rather than on the extreme challenge of survival, which they would face if they were working alone in Antarctica, one of the harshest and most remote environments on Earth.
Scientific Season
Over the 2017-2018 summer season, 24 scientists will be heading to Princess Elisabeth at different times to carry out research in and around the station. When they arrive in Cape Town, they must patiently await perfect weather conditions before making the long 6 hour journey over the Southern Ocean by Ilyushin 76 to land at the Russian air base Novolazarevskaya. They will then take a smaller plane (DC3 or Twin Otter) to reach Princess Elisabeth, nearly 200 km inland. Even before they arrive, the science has already begun, as some instruments are active throughout the winter. Others are reawakened and others are repaired.
The upcoming season is a full one, with 15 Belgian and international scientific projects planned across a range of disciplines. Dr. Henri Roberts from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences will carry out the first ever bird population assessment in the region, while Canadian scientist, Dr. Lori Ziolkowski is returning to the station to continue her research on microbial activity in Eastern Antarctica. This year there will be six Canadians at the Station, including two team members, two scientists and two technical consultants. We will also be welcoming scientists from Taiwan and Turkey for the first time.
This year will also see the deployment of the 8th AWS (automatic weather station built by the University of Wisconsin) and it is our intention to provide all the data from the station on-line, in the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty.
Keep on Top of the Science
Much more is planned, so please stay tuned over the next four months. We will keep you up to date on the scientists, their work and all the other excitement that will be surely happening at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica!
Author: Lisa Benedetti
