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The new year signals the halfway point during the season. While the only scientists present at the station this season wind up their work before heading home next week, the BELARE team prepares for the arrival of another flight at Perseus Intercontinental Runway and the arrival of the supply ship at the Queen Maud Land coast.
A calm yet festive New Year’s
With a few members of the team still performing the usual reconnaissance of the coastline to find the most suitable ship unloading site, the rest of the team had a calm yet festive New Year’s Eve.
Assisted by station doctor Jeanne Picard and engineer Nicolas Herinckx, the cook Thomas Duconseil prepared a festive and elaborated meal, which the team enjoyed while socializing and talking about the various projects they’ve been working on until midnight arrived.
Work continues
New Year’s Day was back to work for everyone!
Meteorite hunters from the BAMM project have been using the international team in hopes to able to find even more micrometeorites to analyze when they return home.
Meanwhile, IPF engineers have continued maintenance of scientific instruments of the various projects collecting data at or near the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. And the engineers from Venturi have been busy testing the upgrades they’ve been making to the Venturi Antarctica, the world’s first fully electric polar exploration vehicle.
After returning from Perseus, where the team has been working on installing an office, living facilities, and solar panel energy supply at the hangar next to the runway, Alain and colleagues then headed out to the coast to complete reconnaissance to find the best offloading site for the ship, which is scheduled to arrive in mid-January. Fog and white-out conditions have made the reconnaissance task challenging. In spite of fast-changing conditions, the team managed to find a safe place to offload cargo from the ship.
The reconnaissance team has brought several containers of waste to be evacuated from the station to the coast. The remainder of the load will be transported to the coast when the ship arrives. The ship will bring the components of the long-awaited new water treatment system.
The station will have a second cook, David Rigotti, a veteran of several seasons with BELARE, and Johan Demuylder, who will help with cabling the garage in the annex and installing the new water treatment system.
After enjoying a pleasant and cheerful Christmas celebration, the PEA crew is already back at work!
Updating Perseus
This week, eight members of the BELARE team including engineers, mechanics, a Prinoth driver, and carpenters led by expedition leader Alain Hubert travelled to the Perseus runway 60 km from PEA to groom the landing strip.
In addition to preparing the runway, which is now managed entirely by IPF, the team is also in the process of renovating the hangar where snow-clearing vehicles and safety equipment are stored. The team is constructing an office for communications, a kitchen, a mess area, and a dormitory with several bunk beds in case travellers need to stay overnight while travelling to their final destination.
Reconnaissance mission to the coast
After the new year, Alain and a small team will make their way to the coast of Queen Maud Land to do reconnaissance in preparation for the arrival of a boat bringing food, supplies, and most importantly a new water treatment system for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. This task is necessary to assess where the team can safely unload cargo from the boat, as the ice moves constantly, the ice edge height varies from place to place and crevasses may form.
In addition to bringing supplies, the boat will also bring back to South Africa 22 containers of waste that cannot be treated or recycled for other use at the station. These containers are currently being placed on sledges that will be brought to the coast by Prinoth tractor when it’s time to do the 200 km traverse in mid-January. Once in South Africa, the waste will be treated and recycled appropriately.
A new water treatment system for PE
In order to handle the increased number of occupants at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, it was decided to replace the station’s water treatment unit, which was designed to handle the waste treatment needs of a station occupied by about 20 people, with a much larger water treatment system that can handle the waste treatment needs of up to 50 people.
During the summer and autumn, the IPF engineering team assembled and tested the new water treatment system in Belgium before it was disassembled, packed up, and shipped from the Port of Antwerp to Antarctica via Cape Town. As the boat makes its way across the Southern Ocean, a team of carpenters at PEA is modifying the station’s south annex in order to accommodate the much larger water treatment system equipped with a voluminous bioreactor and other water tanks.
IPF’s team of engineers, plumbers, carpenters, and technicians will then assemble the water treatment system (WTS) during the months of January and February. As the expedition is scheduled to end mid-February, this will be a challenge, but a challenge our team is more than capable of handling.
The old water treatment unit will still be working in parallel while the new water treatment system is being installed. Some parts will continue their life as buffers to enhance the capacities of the new WTS.
The new WTS will go online at the end of this season for testing and be fully operational at the start of the 2023-24 BELARE season.
Scientific work continues
The scientists stationed at PEA continued their work.
For about a week, scientists from the BAMM project led by Vinciane Debaille (ULB) were camped out at the south-western edge of the Sør Rondane Mountains looking for micrometeorites on ice, nunataks, and moraines. Having found four meteorites - including one larger than a tennis ball - their field campaign can so far be considered a success. With bad weather approaching, the team of meteorite hunters returned to PEA this week. They’ll spend the rest of their time in Antarctica making day trips to target locations closer to the station.
Last week, Quinten Vanhellemont from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) deployed HYPSTAR® (HYperspectral Pointable System for Terrestrial and Aquatic Radiometry) equipment in the field for the Horizon 2020-funded HYPERNETS project. Using one of the mobile power container units covered in solar panels that IPF engineers Guus Luppens and Johan Demuylder built a few seasons ago, Quentin is using 100% renewable energy to power the project’s instruments. Quentin is already receiving data and is happy with the results.
Finally, PEA Science Liaison Officer and biologist Henri Robert has been following up on the work of the ANTSIE project managed by Durham University in the UK. You may recall that last season, two researchers placed GPS and global localization sensors (GLS) on the legs of snow petrels nesting on Utsteinen Nunatak close to the station. Their aim is to study the birds' foraging range and feeding habits, as well as to reconstruct histories of snow petrel diet and the sea-ice environment. Henri has been finding back the snow petrels that were tagged last year and collecting the GLS units. The data collected will allow them to see not only where and how often the snow petrels have flown to the coast to get food for themselves and their chicks but also to monitor where the birds spend their time during the winter months.
Everyone is looking forward to celebrating New Year’s eve with the rest of the team. It’s been a lot of work so far but the entire team is looking forward to new challenges in 2023!
Image: 3D drawing of the new water treatment system that will be installed at PEA in January and February 2023.
Over the years, a plethora of scientific equipment has been set up at and in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica for scientists to collect data on nearly any parameter you can imagine, including temperature, wind speed, atmospheric particles, cloud, temperature, ozone, albedo, seismic activity, Earth’s geomagnetic field, and many more.
Some instruments have been fastened to the roof of the station. Others are housed in shelters not far from the station. Many others are situated tens of kilometers away in the middle of nowhere, on the Antarctic Plateau, at the Queen Maud Land coast, and in between.
Regardless of where they are situated, as time passes, these instruments - along with the small solar panels and wind turbines that power them - are subjected to punishing conditions including extreme cold, hard wind, and drifting snow. Just a few months in the Antarctic winter can be brutal for instruments.
This is where the IPF teams of engineers and technicians come in. At the beginning of each season, they survey the state of each of the instruments, make repairs, update software, and replace data cards so that the instruments can continue collecting continuous data series for scientists back in Europe (or wherever they may be based).
IPF engineers to the rescue
IPF Chief Technical Officer Johnny Gaelens has been working on fixing one of the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) collecting data for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). It was set up on the edge of the Antarctic Plateau a few years ago. However, too much snow accumulation made it impossible to keep it in this location. The team has brought it back to the station for a full check and maintenance. Ultimately, this AWS is going to find a new location with less snow accumulation.
Closer to home on the roof of the station, Johnny has also been fixing the CIMEL, MaxDoas and Brewer Ozone Spectrophotometer, which the CLIMB project is using to study the formation of clouds and precipitation in Antarctica, as well as the ozone layer and the amount of UV radiation in the vicinity of the station.
One of the GPS equipped with a GNSS antenna that had been placed at the former Japanese Asuka Station for the GIANT project (which is measuring seismic activity in Antarctica) needed maintenance as well. The mini wind turbine that powered it had to be replaced following damage to it form severe weather during the winter months. Thanks to IPF engineer Nicolas Herinckx who went on-site to fix the problem, the GPS now has a brand new Superwind turbine powering it and is ready to gather data until next year’s BELARE expedition.
On December 17, Thomas Stocker, a Swiss climatologist, paleoclimatologist, and lead expert in polar sciences, received the Belgica prize.
Dr Stocker was awarded this prestigious prize for his commitment to scientific research in Antarctica. Among his many projects, he has used Antarctic ice cores to trace the evolution of climate change, demonstrating the relevance of Antarctic science to offer explanations on very contemporary and important issues.
Created in 1901 to recognize excellence in scientific research in Antarctica, the Belgica prize takes its name from the Belgica, the first polar research vessel to overwinter in Antarctica in 1898-99. The expedition, led by Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache, was the first of many Belgian expeditions to Antarctica.
The award was handed out during the “Séance publique de la Classe des Science”, which took place at Belgium’s Royal Academy in Brussels. Adrien’s great-grandson, Bernard De Gerlache, along with Nicolas van Hoeke (Managing Director, International Polar Foundation) and André Berger (Founder and Board Member, International Polar Foundation), was present at the award ceremony.
Monday 19/12/2022 - Today, exactly 5 years ago, I started working as a freelance systems technician at the Princess Elisabeth station on Antarctica. For two months the station was my new home.
My main tasks consisted out of building electrical switchboards for the new South Annex, but also carrying out preventive and corrective maintenance on various electrical and communications systems. Outside working hours and on Sundays, there was time for recreational activities or in my case, for some of my own personal experiments.
Under the motto "waste does not exist", I recovered some pieces of wood, some used copper wire and electrical PVC tube from the demolition of the old South Annex building. It took a Sunday afternoon and a little craftsmanship to give these materials a new life in the form of a Quadrifilar Helix antenna. It had a right hand circular polarization and it was tuned for the VHF band. This particular type of antenna was ideal to receive signals from all directions, even from above which was exactly the goal of the experiment: Receiving overpassing weather-satellites and converting the received data into raw infrared images.
The satellite of interest was NOAA-19, one of three "older" satellites from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which have now surpassed their life expectancy by many years already. This satellite sends its images continuously through a VHF downlink to earth.
The antenna was placed on the roof of the station and was connected through a simple USB SDR-receiver (Software Defined Radio) to a computer. The first few overpasses did not work out successfully because it took a few attempts to find the correct settings. For example, because of the Doppler effect the frequency increases continuously when the satellite approaches, so the receiver must compensate accordingly for this Doppler shift. It took many failed attempts until finally an unprocessed raw infrared image appeared on the computer screen!
This raw image was then post-processed with freeware software to convert it to more comprehensible images:
- Land temperatures: Each color represents a surface temperature, indicated on the scale in the upper left corner of the image
- Precipitation: The image shows precipitation density with color gradients between red (dense) and green
- Raw IR: This image is the original image from which the other images are derived
This experiment proves once more that with limited materials and a lot of passion, patience and determination, many beautiful things can be achieved.
Sources:
Software:
On Friday, December 16th, a new group arrived at PEA, including the first scientists of the season from the BAMM, HYPERNETS, and PEACE projects.
Following the mandatory two-day field safety training that all newcomers must go through, they’ll get to work on their respective research programs.
The BAMM project - an international team of Belgian, American, Swiss, and Japanese scientists led by Vinciane Debaille from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - will be hunting for micrometeorites in the moraines of the southern Sør Rondane Mountains (SRM), just a few hours from the station.
As the meteorite hunters will be camping on-site for a week while they scour the landscape for extraterrestrial rocks, this past week, the IPF team has already gone ahead to prepare their equipment and a campsite with a kitchen and tents so they can simply arrive and get to work looking for micrometeorites. This will allow the scientists to maximize the short time they have available to perform their research in the field. Veteran field guide Manu Poudelet will accompany them during their week of camping.
After the BAMM team returns to the station, they’ll focus on shorter day trips via Skidoo to look for micrometeorites in the vicinity of PEA.
Meanwhile, Quentin Vanhellemont from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) has returned to work on the Horizon 2020-funded HYPERNETS project. His project is looking at albedo at different points on the planet, including at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, using an instrument called HYPSTAR. The instrument is used to calibrate satellite measurements of light reflectance on diverse types of surfaces such as water, vegetation, sand, and in this case ice.
Simon Steffen, the son of deceased IPF Honorary Member Koni Steffen, is back to work on the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Climate Experiment (PEACE) project, which consists of a transect of automatic weather stations (AWS) from the coast to the Antarctic Plateau. Simon is in charge of maintaining and collecting data from all of the AWS. This season, with the help of IPF engineers Johnny Gaelens and Nicolas Herinckx, Simon will link up all four of the weather stations so they can communicate with one another and the station so that the data they collect can be shared online.
The scientists will spend Christmas and New Year’s at PEA. They’ll stay until January 9th, when the next departing flight is scheduled to leave.
Upgrading the Venturi Antarctica
Following the first successful test of the world’s first electric polar exploration vehicle, the Venturi Antarctica, two engineers from Venturi have arrived to do maintenance and software upgrades on the vehicle and make some improvements, mainly on the treads. an additional objective will be to increase the vehicle’s range to 100 km from the station by improving its battery capacity.
The vehicle has already been put to use transporting scientists and their equipment to remote locations in the field. Alternatively, the vehicle can transport up to eight people at a time and be used for scientific purposes with equipment attached to its frame, operating as the vehicle drives. The Venturi Antarctica can also be used as a rescue vehicle in case of emergency.
Offering a 360° view on the Arctic region, its society, its interests, and its challenges, the Arctic Futures Symposium provided more than 180 participants the opportunity to discuss matters of importance to all Arctic stakeholders with the participation of a number of high-level speakers from Arctic Countries and the EU Institutions.
Topics ranging from Arctic governance, Arctic stakeholders, research cooperation, innovation, and the Arctic as a great place to live and work were discussed at the annual event, which took place at the Residence Palace in Brussels’ EU Quarter.
In addition to two days of thought-provoking discussions, the symposium also featured some comfort food staples from the Arctic, including kleinur (Icelandic doughnuts) baked by the partner of Iceland’s Ambassador to Belgium, as well as reindeer meat from Arctic Norway.
The event was simultaneously streamed online, allowing hundreds to watch the event live. Recordings of the symposium panel discussions are available on the IPF YouTube Channel.
Wide press coverage:
Reporters from EU Today, EU Reporter, and EU Political Report took note of key points speakers brought up during the event, publishing several articles focusing on both environmental and political aspects discussed during the Symposium. The topics covered include the implications of Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine (on both academic research and political cooperation), the evolving role of the Arctic Council, the interests of non-Arctic stakeholders, the threats posed by climate change, and potential opportunities arising from the 2021 EU Arctic Strategy.
IPF appreciates in particular the coverage of the first Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award, which went to Containing Greens AB from northern Sweden. Thanks to the generosity of the Trân family, whose foundation funded the prize, the Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award helps young entrepreneurs in the Arctic to further develop their startups.
A sample of these articles include:
EU Political Report, “The Arctic Has Been a Black Hole for Belgium, but That Is Set to Change”
EU Reporter, “Arctic 'all the more important' in wake of Russia's invasion in Ukraine, conference told”
EU Reporter, “Climate change is 'real, rapid and relentless'”
EU Today, “Arctic cooperation hit by war in Ukraine - conference told”
EU Today, “Russian invasion makes Arctic preservation ‘all the more important’”
Arctic Business Journal, “Containing Greens AB from Northern Sweden Winner of First Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award”
Banks, Martin, Brussels Morning, “Innovative start-up scoops top Arctic award”
Banks, Martin, European Business Review, “Innovative start-up scoops top Arctic award”
Wenger, Michael, Polar Journal, “Innovative Cultivation Project from Northern Sweden Receives Award”
After the lead team’s successful preparations to start up all of the station’s systems, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica is now in full swing and ready to welcome more scientists in the coming week.
Projects:
Engineers who recently arrived at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica have already begun checking up on equipment left there during last season by scientists. Thanks to its satellite link, instruments running autonomously at the station collected data and sent it to scientists in Europe during the eight months the station was uninhabited but still operational.
Every season, instruments of the CLIMB project need to be reinstalled outside, on the station’s roof, or in a dedicated scientific shelter located nearby the station for a new summer of data collection. Although there are no scientists from the project at the station, IPF staff work in collaboration with engineers on site to install all necessary equipment to monitor clouds, precipitation, aerosol particles, and the thickness of the ozone layer.
Meanwhile, scientists from the Royal Meteorological institute (IRM/KMI) in Brussels rely on IPF staff to conduct radiosounding balloon launches in the framework of the ACME project. Each meteorological balloon launch allows the measurement of atmospheric parameters such as temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, pressure, etc. Data collected will be used for weather forecasting and the interpretation of larger-scale meteorological phenomena in Antarctica.
Other projects require human presence and activities on site such as the ANTSIE project from Durham University (UK). This project will benefit from the presence of a biologist in the IPF team to recover the GLS (global localization sensor) loggers that the ANTSIE team installed last year on the legs of some of the local snow petrels breeding on the nearby Utsteinen Nunatak. Other tracking devices such as GPS loggers were installed on their tails to learn more about their diet and foraging behaviour.
Buildings on the move:
The ice on which the annexes of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica are built moves at about 9 cm each year. While this is not an issue for the main station, which is built on a granite ridge, it is a challenge for the station’s annexes, which need to cope with this unstable reality.
A few seasons ago, during the construction of the new annexes, the IPF team installed a system of hinges that anchors one side of the building to the supporting granite while the other side of the building can follow the movement of the supporting ice. A series of powerful pistons are strategically installed under each wooden beam of the building to raise the annexes and compensate for the movement of the ice.
This past week, the lead team worked to lift up the building, countering the glacier's movement, and levelling all of the station’s annexes. This process took a few days to complete, as each beam needs to be raised centimetre by centimetre at the time to reach the right height, which is determined using a laser pointer. The team usually performs this task twice per season; once upon arrival at the station and once again at the end of the season before departing to compensate for the glacier’s movement during the winter months.
Running at full power:
Thanks to amazing meteorological conditions - strong wind and sun - the station is now producing enough energy to run at full power. This is just what the team needs to run all the vital systems for communication, electricity production, water production, water treatment, and scientific equipment, with some extra power to spare!
Following a smooth departure from Cape Town, the lead team for the 2022-23 austral summer research season arrived without incident at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on the evening of Thursday, November 24th.
The mission of the lead team is starting up all of the station’s systems, including its renewable energy production and water production systems, clearing snow that accumulated around the station during the austral winter, restarting the station's water treatment unit and setting up scientific equipment for scientists who are working remotely in their office in Belgium - with constant access to data being gathered at the station.
Science support from the start
Only three days after the start of the expedition, the station is already welcoming researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), who are measuring ice thickness and physics, in particular the number of ice platelets that are accumulating under the ice near polar ice shelves at the coast. The survey is taking place along the Queen Maud Land Coast on board the AWI Polar 5 aircraft. Alain and a small group of three scientists were set to provide logistical support to Dome Fuji (approximately 800 km away from PEA on the Antarctic Plateau) Japanese researchers looking to drill ice cores of some of the oldest ice in Antarctica, possibly going back as far as one million years. Unfortunately, due to logistical challenges, this support will be postponed to next year's expedition.
Later in the season, the station will also welcome meteorite hunters from the Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB) BAMM project, financed by BELSPO. And of course, Quinten Vanhellemont from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences will return to do more albedo measurements for the Horizon 2020-funded HYPERNETS project using the equipment he set up last year with the help of IPF’s team on-site. In addition to projects that require the presence of scientists on-site, IPF engineers will continue monitoring and maintaining scientific equipment collecting data year-round, including automatic weather stations for the PEACE project and follow-up work for the ANTSIE project, which is studying snow petrel feeding behaviour and location as well as their nesting habits.
Outreach
Besides this, several online educational lessons are planned with schools and universities during the season. The first one will already be held in the second week of December. And of course, we’ll be sharing lots of photos and videos of the activities of the team and the scientists as they settle into life at the station and go on their adventures in the field.
Stay tuned!
The 13th edition of the Arctic Futures Symposium is rapidly approaching!
Following two years of online and hybrid events, this year's Symposium will return in person at the Residence Palace in Brussels, Belgium.
Between November 29th and 30th, the Symposium will bring together experts from different disciplines and parts of the Arctic, offering a platform for lively discussions on key topics chosen by Arctic stakeholders.
The topics for this year's Symposium will focus on:
For more details about the symposium programme, speakers, and registration, please consult the Arctic Futures Symposium website.
Come join us!
This year registrations have been very successful, demonstrating people’s increasing interest in the Arctic region.
If you didn’t register to attend the symposium in person, you can still take part in these lively discussions by watching the event live on our youtube channel.
Please don't hesitate to contact us at events@polarfoundation.org if you have any questions about the event.
The first 14 members of the BELgian Antarctic Research Expedition (BELARE) are off to a strong start opening and preparing the station for the arrival of scientists in the coming days.
The MAS exhibition 'To the Antarctic' welcomed more than 45,00 visitors over the 4.5 months that it was open to the public.
The International Polar Foundation was again present and active at the annual Arctic Circle Assembly and accompanying Arctic Circle Business Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland from October 17th-19th.
The latest edition of the annual Arctic Futures Symposium organised by the International Polar Foundation and its many Arctic stakeholder partners will take place in early December. Register to secure your spot!
IPF is sad to learn of the passing of glaciologist Professor Roland Souchez, who made important contributions to the fields of glaciology and climate science during his decades-long career.
To celebrate the opening of the exhibit “To the Antarctic: Belgica’s Polar Pioneers”, Antwerp resident and LEGO enthusiast Daniel Vermeir built an amazing scale model of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, the world’s first and to date only zero-emission polar research station.
To celebrate the opening of the exhibit “To the Antarctic: Belgica’s Polar Pioneers”, Antwerp resident and LEGO enthusiast Daniel Vermeir built an amazing scale model of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, the world’s first and to date only zero-emission polar research station.
The International Polar Foundation has been part of creating a fascinating new exhibition on Belgium's contributions to Antarctic exploration and research, opening at the MAS Museum in Antwerp starting from Friday, June 21st.
After much anticipation, on Thursday, June 20th, the exhibition “To the Antarctic: Belgica’s Polar Pioneers” at Antwerp’s MAS Museum officially opened its doors.
On Tuesday, June 11th, IPF Founder and President Alain Hubert was invited to participate in the “Debate with Ambassadors” panel at European Sustainable Energy Week 2024 (EUSEW24).
At a ceremony held the afternoon of Monday, June 10th at The Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium, Alain Hubert, Founder and President of the International Polar Foundation, received the prestigious Belgica Prize alongside French glaciologist Professor Jérôme Chappellaz.
At a ceremony held the afternoon of Monday, June 10th at The Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium, Alain Hubert, Founder and President of the International Polar Foundation, received the prestigious Belgica Prize alongside French glaciologist Professor Jérôme Chappellaz.
