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The Antarctic Ice Sheet is contributing approximately 0.5 mm of sea level rise per year. The timing and magnitude of the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s contribution is difficult to assess, partly due to the variability of its surface mass balance and its future evolution. Surface mass balance is the net addition or removal of mass at the surface of the ice sheet.

The BELSPO- funded Mass2Ant research project aims to better understand the processes controlling the surface mass balance in East Antarctica, its variability over the last three centuries and, ultimately, improve model projections of surface mass balance changes of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

This 2021-2022 fieldwork season is the fourth and last one of the Mass2Ant project. This year the work was accomplished in three weeks at the remote location of Lokeryggen Ice Rise, which is located near the coast, about 160 km from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) station.

How do aerosol-CLoud Interactions influence surface Mass Balance in East Antarctica?

Find out more with the BELSPO-financed CLIMB project at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA), with Andy Delcloo (RMI) and Preben Van Overmeiren (UGent)!

Our team and scientists at the station have been celebrating the Holidays in Antarctica, while continuing their important work to support scientific missions.

As we mentioned in our previous news, the first scientists have finally arrived at the station. Thanks to our professional team at PEA, everything has gone well and the scientists have now headed out into the field to start their research.

Since December 10th, the BELARE team at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica - the world’s first zero-emission polar research station - has been hosting a team from the Monegasque company Venturi, which manufactures high-performance electric vehicles, to test the world’s first electric polar exploration vehicle, the Venturi Antarctica.

The first teams of scientist arrived at Perseus Airstrip last Thursday after a transcontinental flight from Cape Town, South Africa to Antarctica, and they’re already preparing for their first field campaigns.

This year symposium's successful hybrid format allowed many people from around the world to engage in interesting discussions both online and in-person.

The gorgeous weather we had these past few weeks finally came to an end. For two days we we visited by a mighty snowstorm. The storm left us with a lot of work to remove snow from the terrace and grooming it. In addition to dealing with routine things like snow removal, we've been up to much more exciting things.

We’re delighted to announce that following last year’s online event, this year’s symposium will be held as a hybrid event that will allow us to meet both digitally and in person in Brussels on December 6th and 7th!

We are all settling in nicely to life at the station as we work hard to make sure everything is in order for the arrival of the first group of scientists in a few weeks’ time. We’ve been lucky to have gorgeous weather these last few weeks. It has allowed us to make a lot of progress.