41st Scientific Expedition to Antarctica

In News

• India has successfully launched the 41st scientific expedition to Antarctica with the arrival of the first batch of its contingent at southern Antarctica.

About

• 41st expedition has two major programmes:
  • The first encompasses geological exploration of the Amery ice shelf at the Bharati station. This will help explore the link between India and Antarctica in the past.
  • The second programme involves reconnaissance surveys and preparatory work for the drilling of 500 metres of ice core near Maitri. It will help improve the understanding of the Antarctic climate, westerly winds, sea-ice and greenhouse gases from a single climate archive for the last 10,000 years.
• Collaboration: The ice core drilling will be done in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey and the Norwegian Polar Institute.
• Additional supplies: In addition to accomplishing scientific programmes, it will replenish the annual supplies of food, fuel, provisions and spares for the operations and maintenance of life support systems at Maitri and Bharati.

Indian Antarctic Programme

• It began in 1981, has completed 40 scientific expeditions and built three permanent research base stations in Antarctica.
  • Dakshin Gangotri (1983),
  • Maitri (1988) and
  • Bharati (2012)
• Currently, Maitri and Bharati are fully operational.

National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research

• It is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences which manages the entire Indian Antarctic programme.
• It is based in Goa.

Source: TH