Marie Minary, an artist working in several different media currently based in Besançon, France, has been working with a team of artists to produce an artistic project inspired by the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica and the majestic landscapes surrounding it. Known as the Penelope Project, the multi-media art installation draws inspiration from the relationship between Penelope and Ulysses in the Odyssey and encourages the viewer to reflect on themes such as climate change and their everyday lives.
Initially planned to open in April 2020, the Penelope Project exhibition was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However the City of Besançon has decided to show part of the Penelope Project in an exhibition entitled "Le Bureau des expositions potentielles - Fonds de diffusion d'art contemporain de la ville de Besançon" at the city’s Museum of Fine Art and Archaeology starting on February 24th.
In this interview, Marie discusses the inspiration behind the art installation, which she hopes will encourage people to think about climate change and the actions they can take to combat climate change.
What does the Penelope Project consist of?
rm:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"> The Penelope Project consists of a multi-media art installation that draws inspiration from the relationship between Penelope and Ulysses in the Odyssey and seeks to foster reflection on key themes such as climate change and current political issues. The project took place over a period of two years and was done through the realisation of time lapse footage of ice dolls that were made with latex and plaster moulds produced in France.
What was your source of inspiration for the Penelope project?
When I was doing a residence in France in 2017, my partner Benoît Verdin, who is now a technician at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, told me he was offered a job there and had to leave on a months-long mission.
At first, I had trouble accepting my partner’s impending departure. It would mean delaying the projects we had planned at that time. I quickly realized that Benoît’s trip to Antarctica was a unique opportunity for both of us, for him to grow professionally, and for me to find inspiration as an artist.
The relationship between Penelope and her husband Ulysses in the Odyssey was my primary source of inspiration for the project, which is where the project got its name. The project is the metaphor of Penelope waiting for her husband Ulysses to return from his expedition in the Odyssey. Like Penelope, I waited for Benoît to return from his mission in Antarctica.
Benoît’s experiences in Antarctica were also a source of inspiration. As I couldn’t travel with him to Antarctica physically, he agreed to be my eyes and ears while he was there. The continent’s icy, inaccessible desert expanses stimulate one’s imagination.
Could you expand on the symbolism the Penelope project uses?
For both Penelope and me, waiting for our significant other is sublimated by an act of creation that transforms nostalgia into promise, daydreams into action, powerlessness into control, and absence in presence. For example, the immobile ice sculptures we made in the project are a physical representation of frozen expectations.
The Penelope Project is inspired not only by Greek mythology, but also by current political issues and climate change, making the project both pluralistic and evolutionary. The project isn’t one work of art, but rather a set of works that address central themes such as adventure - adventure that is clearly anchored in Antarctica's grandiose landscapes.
While he was in Antarctica, I asked Benoît to make some ice sculptures using the latex and plaster moulds produced in France before he left and to shoot time-lapse videos for my artistic project in his spare time. The ice sculptures he filmed reflect the climate and social concerns important to everyone involved in the project (me, other artists who contributed to the project, Benoît, IPF…) The ice is a fragile and ephemeral material in the mid-latitudes where we live, but it happens to be one of the strongest, enduring substances in Antarctica.
Each still frame in the video represents a moment frozen time since the sun never actually sets during the austral summer at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, giving the illusion that time is frozen. In one stop-motion film, you can see a shadow that revolves around a sundial. The ice dolls mark time, which is meant to symbolize the eternity Penelope felt as she was waiting for Ulysses' return.
But with climate change and the passage of time, one can only wonder how long the ice will last. Erosion, sublimation, and warming temperatures are hostile to ice in Antarctica, just as they are to the ice dolls in the time-lapse videos.
Other videos in the installation show people merging with the landscape around them yet not disappearing. They also represent the climate migration crisis that will happen in the future if not enough is done about climate change.
What were the major milestones in the project?
We accomplished my initial vision for the project in several discontinuous phases over two years. However, I wouldn’t consider the project to be over. It’s a constantly evolving project.
I did a lot of the initial preparatory work in the two weeks when I was waiting for Benoît to leave for Antarctica the first time in 2017. I started reading as much as I could about the continent and the polar regions in general. I read some polar research, but I was especially interested in learning more about explorers who travelled to Antarctica such as Dumont d’Urville, Paul Emile Victor, and, of course, Alain Hubert.
Plastic artist Maxime Vernier involved in the project helped me to create latex and plaster moulds for the ice sculptures Benoît made for the time lapse videos. For that, we worked with Olivier Testault from the local FabLab in Besancon <link>. We used their 3-D printer to create the characters and produce some of the plastic pieces used in the short film. Stephan Angelier helped to handle post-production of the photographs. It was a long creative process before the latest and plaster moulds were ready for Benoît to take to PEA.
The first year we didn't know what Benoît might be able to do there in terms of his availability to work on the project, or if weather conditions would allow him to film outside. We made improvements and alterations throughout the project. The second year Benoît went to Antarctica we focused on enhancing the system for filming the time-lapse videos. Increasing the battery life of the camera was important, as we needed to shoot over 36 hours to have enough time-lapse footage for one video.
Benoît recorded more material than we needed, so we had to edit out a few parts of the project that didn’t work until we had a solid final product that I could be proud to show.
And now after two years of waiting the public finally gets to see some of the work?
The Penelope Project was originally supposed to be shown at the Besançon Museum of Fine Art and Archaeology in April 2020. After COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of art galleries and museums, the exhibition was initially postponed until 2021, and then, unfortunately, cancelled.
Now the city of Besançon has acquired part of the Penelope Project to put on display in a public exhibition at the Besançon Fine Arts and Archeology Museum called "Le Bureau des expositions potentielles - Fonds de diffusion d'art contemporain de la ville de Besançon”.
The exposition opens on February 24th and will remain open until April 24th. If you happen to be in Besançon, I suggest that you check it out.
In the meantime, we're still looking for other exhibition venues and additional funding.
The 2021-2022 BELARE season seems to have passed very quickly! After the departure of the last teams of scientists on February 4th, the rest of the IPF team has been doing everything necessary to prepare the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica for overwintering.
As the last thirteen members of the team left at the station for the last weeks of the season, we’ve been so busy! Before leaving the IPF team needs to do maintenance on the different systems of the station and ensuring the continuation of data collection for scientific projects until the last flight back to Cape Town at the beginning of next week.
During these last few days, one of the most important tasks has been preparing the electrical systems of the station to switch to winter mode. In this mode, the station’s energy use priorities are adapted for the austral winter months when the station will run autonomously. Engineers and technicians are busy preparing and testing the station’s energy production systems, as well as making all necessary adjustments on the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC, the station's electronic “brain”), which runs all the equipment in the station and makes sure everything goes smoothly during the eight months that the station is unoccupied.
Some scientific equipment only collects data during the austral summer research season, so we must dismantle and carefully pack it away to be shipped back to scientists in Europe. However, many instruments will continue to collect data during the austral winter. Making sure power continues to feed this equipment is essential for the scientific projects that collect data all year round.
Draining and cleaning the water treatment system is another ritual we need to do at the end of the season. First, all the toilets will be closed (leaving the dry toilets as the last option). Then the washing machine and dryer will be shut off. Finally, on the last day of the season, we’ll close the showers and the water distribution to the kitchen.
As the station’s annexes sit on top of a slowly moving glacier, the team needs to lift and adjust the level of the building twice a year to compensate for the glacier’s natural retreat. One side of the construction is attached to the granite ridge the station states upon with hinges, while the other can be lifted upwards thanks to a series of hydraulic pumps. This allows us to install an additional layer of about 6 cm between the annexes’ beams and the thirteen supports on which they sit.
Finally all the vehicles, storage containers and field equipment (cabooses and mobile laboratories) need to be properly stored. This means moving them from the flat “terrace” on front of the station to the Winter Park blue ice field and hangar located about 3.5 km away from the station.
For the team leaving to Cape Town early next week (the exact date will depend on weather conditions), it will of course be nice to return home to see our families and friends again after several months on the ice. But at the same time, many of us will miss the unique and spectacular environment that surrounds the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
After a fruitful season of scientific research, the last teams of scientists bid farewell to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on Friday, February 4th. All scientists have since returned to their home countries and are looking forward to studying the samples and data they collected during their time in Antarctica.
Now that we’re down to only 12 people, the station is now a lot quieter than it was before.
The rest of us continue to go about our business collecting data for scientific projects until we close down the station at the end of the season, preparing for next season, and starting to prepare the station for overwintering (which is especially important for the water and electrical systems). There’s still a lot to do before the reaming team members leave for the season, but we’ll talk about that in more detail in our next update!
In the meantime, Science Liaison Officer Henri Robert and Head Engineer Johnny Gaelens have been busy doing online lessons with classrooms in Belgium and around the world, including Croatia, France, the UK, and the US.
Demand for the online lessons has increased steadily over the last few years to the point that Henri’s and Johnny’s schedules until the end of the season are packed with online lessons with students of all ages and disciplines. These lessons are on top of the daily duties at the station!
Over the course of the 2021-22 season, Henri and Johnny have hosted numerous online lessons with schools, all of which have been greatly appreciated by both teachers and students, who are captivated by the Antarctic landscape that can be seen from the station’s windows, what they can learn about living at a zero emission research station, daily life in Antarctica, the scientific research being done at the station, the effects of climate change, Antarctica wildlife, and the erosion of biodiversity.
“Demand is so high that we don’t have enough time to get to all the requests we receive,” Henri said. “We have to schedule them for next season already!”
The outreach that BELARE team members do at the station perfectly complements the education and outreach activities being carried out by IPF staff in Belgian schools.
If you or someone you know would like to schedule an online lesson live from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica - the world’s first zero emission polar research station - please contact us at info@polarfoundation.org and we’ll work to find a time to schedule you in in the future!
The 2021-22 season witnessed a groundbreaking research project based out of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica that will pave the way for future marine biological research in the region.
Funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO), the RECTO project (Refugia and Ecosystem Tolerance the the Southern Ocean), aims to advance our understanding of the responses of Antarctic marine ecosystems to the strong environmental pressures they face. Even though the fieldwork of the RECTO project has mainly focused on the Antarctic Peninsula, the maritime area located in the area of the Princess Regnhild Coast in East Antartica close to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station is relatively unexplored from the point of view of its marine biodiversity.
It is in this area that the International Polar Foundation led an important expedition to allow Prof. Bruno Danis, who heads the Marine Biology Lab at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) to carry out preliminary work in the region of Breid Bay and Camp Derwael, nearly two hundred kilometres from PEA on the Princess Ragnhild Coast in East Antarctica.
The purpose of this preliminary work was to:
After several days of preparations and development of the equipment, including the design and assmbley of the sampling lander, a team made up of expedition leader Alain Hubert, Bruno Danis, Timothée Grosrenaud, and Thomas Naulin set off for the coast aboard a caravan made up of three large sledges, respectively serving as a living space, work space, and storage space, all towed by a Prinoth tractor.
After a day of driving, the team established a first base camp at Breid Bay, from which it was possible for them to do short reconnaissance missions on snowmobiles to find a launch site suitable for using the harvesting machinery that we had constructed. This allowed us to identify the best access points from which we could deploy our instruments from the ice shelf’s frozen cliffs.
While the launch of the lander and the traps went smoothly, an unexpected difficulty arose: the the underwater lighting and shooting equipment turned out to be less than reliable. After recovering the lander following a dive to 206 metres, the entire lighting system was irreparably damaged due to issues with the sealing around the lamps and the batteries. Despite these problems, we managed to take more than 1500 high-resolution photos, which will provide valuable insights for future work.
After staying longer in the water, we recovered the traps with their contents, thanks to Alain Hubert’s sustained effort. In the end we managed to sample several dozen organisms. We’re going bring these samples to the biology lab at the ULB for detailed analysis (taxonomical identification and genetic sequencing).
We then moved our base camp to Camp Derwael. The team did another test with the lander, in a new configuration. Unfortunately, the underwater lighting equipment again suffered from a lack of adequate waterproofing. The team recovered the traps after they spent around thirty hours at the bottom of the ocean, which enabled us to recover around fifty smaller organisms who will also be shipped to Belgium.
In addition to our biological sampling, we launched CTDs (sensors recording depth, temperature and salinity), which allowed us to collect data that are not often collected in this part of Antarctica. These data will make it possible characterize the profiles of the water masses along the Princess Ragnhild Coast. We finished the day by deploying a CTD in a deep zone (784 metres) so we could profile water masses, which revealed unexpected results!
After eight days in the field, we returned to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica with a few stops along the way. Despite the technical difficulties we encountered, the expedition produced a series of data, allowed us to collect specimens, and gave us the opportunity to get valuable field experience, which will shape future marine biological research in an area that has been identified as having a particular ecological value for large marine predators (birds and mammals), but which is a heavily under-researched area.
After some delays brought about the COVID-19 pandemic, the 3rd Arctic Shorts film evening took palce on Wednesday, January 26 at BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.
The Arctic Shorts film evening, which featured eight films from filmmakers from across the Arctic, was made possible thanks to the financial and organizational support of the Mission of Canada to the EU, and the Arctic Futures Symposium partners, who each contributed a film from their region to the event.
An official side event of the Arctic Futures Symposium, the event had been delayed a few times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty around the cutlural sector being open in Belgium. It was finally given the green light to happen this past Wednesday.
The event welcomed around 150 people in BOZAR's Salle M to watch eight flims featuring the beauty, challenges, and realities of life in the Arctic, seen through the eyes of Arctic filmmakers.
Before the films were shown, Judith Gelbman, Councellor from the Mission of Canada to the EU, and Michael Mann, the EU Special Envoy for Arctic Affairs, gave brief opening remarks to welcome the cinema-goers.
All attendees were required to have COVID safe tickets and wear masks at all times inside the venue.
In spite of the the restrictions, everyone who attended from the Arctic commmunity in Brussels and the general public enjoyed the event.
The Arctic Futures Symposium partners are already thinking about when it might be possible to organize another Arcitc Shorts film evening, hopefully at a time when the pandemic will be less of an issue.
At PEA a lot of scientific instruments are continuously collecting data for researchers working at different universities or research institutes in Europe and around the world. But have you ever wondered how these data find their way to the scientists who need it for the reserch projects?
We can divide the data repatriation in three categories:
An example of near real time data collected is the amplitude and orientation of Earth's magnetic field. A variometer and a proton-magnometer housed in a specially-constructed shelter located about 500 metres from the station send their data via fiber link to the station, where it is then forwarded via satellite to the Royal Meteorological Institute in Belgium every second!
Other data from various instruments around the station are transmitted to a data centre inside the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, where they are stored until they can be transmitted. So as not to disturb activities of people at the station, these data are transmitted every night to a datacenter in Amsterdam. The data are then forwarded to the various instutues who are colelcting data at PEA.
The last category of data repatriation are devices that store all their data within the instrument. Scientists or IPF staff visit the instrument yearly, do an inspection to make sure it is orking properly, and download the data. At the moment, this is the case for most of the instruments that have been set up in the field, far away from the station.
Always eager to find better solutions, IPF is currently investigating ways to conduct data downloads from instruments in the field. Data will be sent with a low power point-to-point radio link to PEA. From the station, these data will be forwarded via satellite to the respective institutes who need the data. We expect the first project using these links to perform the data repatriation soon.
Scientific projects providing real time data transmission:
Scientific projects transferring data every day each evening
Instruments delivering data once per year:
It’s been a busy time at the Princess Elisabeth. Scientists from the Mass2Ant, CLIMB, and PEACE projects along with the station cook for mid-season and a few members of the station’s technical team left the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on Friday, January 14. The 15 people who left were replaced by six new people, including scientists, station engineers, and the final cook for the 2021-22 season.
Arriving via Novo Station, the six new arrivals quickly settled in, did their field training, and got started on their respective research projects or duties.
In addition to engineer Johnny Gaelens making a return to the station after three years of absence and a new cook, Thomas Fontaine, the station welcomed four new scientists who will spend the next few weeks conducting research on diverse topics.
Two of the scientists who arrived on January 14 included Olivier Francis and Sajad Tabibi from the University of Luxemburg. They’re here working on one of the oldest ongoing research projects at PEA - the GIANT project, which, as those of you who have followed the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica for years may remember is using geodesic techniques (including gravimetric and gnosis observations) to track the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the region of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
These measurements will contribute to a greater understanding of how quickly the Antarctic Ise Sheet is gaining or losing mass. Combined with measurements taken in other parts of the white continent, determine where the ice sheet is gaining mass and where it’s losing mass. As 90% of the world’s freshwater is contained in the Antarctic Ice Sheet, how rapidly the ice sheet loses mass to the oceans can determine how much sea level rise will occur in the coming years as the climate changes.
The work the GIANT team is doing perfectly complements the work of research projects such as Mass2Ant.
This season, the GIANT researchers plan to update their equipment. They’re upgrading the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) antenna at PEA, and installing a GNSS antenna at the nearby abandoned Japanese Asuka Station, 60 km north from PEA. They also plan to repeat absolute gravity measurements the project has been taking intermittently over the last decade to see if snow accumulation on the ice sheet in the region is permanent or not.
Another new arrival is Quentin Van Hellemont from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. He’s spending a few weeks with us to take some measurements for the Horizon 2020 funded HYPERNETS project.
The EU-funded project has developed a new low-cost multi-head hyperspectral spectroradiometer that works as an in-situ validation for satellite measurements of surface reflectance of solar radiation on both land and water. The project is measuring visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared radiation reflected from the snow and ice in the vicinity of the station.
The project chose 24 places around the planet to take these validation measurements, including in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
The amount of radiation reflected from various surfaces on Earth plays an important role in how much solar radiation is absorbed by the planet and how much is reflected back into space, and plays a key role in climate change. Lighter surfaces with snow and ice reflect more solar radiation, while darker surfaces free of snow and ice absorb more solar radiation, contributing to greater warming of the planet.
While a number of microbiological studies have taken place at PEA over the years, this season marks the second season since the station’s inauguration that it has hosted biologists looking at macro fauna and the continuation of the BELSPO-funded RECTO project (initiated in 2017 with the census of Snow Petrel around the Western Sør Rondane Mountains). Bruno Danis, who heads the Marine Biology Lab at the Unviersité Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), arrived last week to start his research project to survey the land and marine biodiversity in the vicinity of PEA.
He’s doing some work alongside the ANTSIE project, studying the stomach contents of snow petrels to see if they’ve ingested pollutants such as PCBs or microplastics. Although Antarctica is a remote continent, its inhabitants aren’t immune from being affected by pollution from more inhabited parts of the world. Atmospheric and ocean currents bring this pollution to Antarctica, too.
Bruno will also spend a good part of his expedition at the coast with Expedition Leader Alain Hubert and Mechanic Tim Grosrenaud dropping a GoPro yo-yo cam from the edge of ice shelves to get snapshots and videos of the creatures living close to the ice edge of the Droning Maud Land coast. Baited traps will also be deployed to assess the scavenger biodiversity of the seabed. Marine scavengers are good bioindicators as they are numerous, easy to sample, and they play an important role in recycling the organic matter in the marine ecosystems of Antarctica.
Alain and Tim - who have already done a reconnaissance of the coast to determine the best study sites for the RECTO project and determine the next season’s transport ship landing site, will assist Bruno in his sampling by assembling and operating a 2000 metre-long winch equipped with a telescopic mast from which he’ll let the yo-yo cam drop into the briny deep away from the ice shelf to take photos of the sea floor and to detect living organisms.
By investigating the poorly known Droning Maud Land coast, Bruno hopes that information he collects on this trip will provide research material for future Masters and PhD students and help prepare future biological resarch expeditions to this part of Antarctica.
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.
On the geophysics side, Scientists collected a 26 km-long ground-penetrating radar transect going from east to west over the Lokeryggen Ice Rise to examine the variations in the surface mass balance from grounding line to grounding line, extending the data previously collected in 2017.
The crew also collected a high resolution 200 x 200 m radar data grid over the center of the Ice Rise to compare the surface mass balance recorded by the 200 m deep ice core collected in 2017 with this radar-derived record.
To constrain the ice dynamics of the Lokeryggen Ice Rise, 21 pRES measurements (phase-sensitive radio echo sounding, aka phase-sensitive radar data) were collected over a distance of 10 km across the ice crest, where a glaciological phenomenon known as a Raymond Bump is suspected to be present. Raymond Bumps occur at ice divides due to the slower vertical compaction of the ice which shows up as big arches in the ice layers.
To measure ice properties, two types of measurements were combined at five locations on the Ice Rise: drilling shallow firn cores and acquiring laser scans of the surface. These locations were spread out on the east and west sides of the Ice Rise to sample sites with different snow accumulation and erosion conditions.
The firn cores will provide information on the chemical composition of the ice between these locations and their varying atmospheric conditions, as well as on the density and age of the snow/ice layers. The age of the snow layers allows to date the radar profiles, and the densities of the snow layers can be combined with the laser scan.
The snow surface is scanned by laser to provide a detailed map of surface roughness (how smooth or irregular the surface is) at each location over a radial area of 120 m. The surface roughness influences the signal that is received by satellites, but so does snow density. It was thus important for the scientists to get both the surface laser scan together with the firn core measurement to distinguish the impact of these two parameters on the satellite signal. The team revisited the same five locations after storms to measure changes in surface conditions due to strong winds and snowfall.
Indeed, the team experienced three storms over the three weeks of fieldwork. The weather was generally characterized by low visibility, lots of snowfalls and quite strong winds, sometimes making data collection a real challenge. Despite the difficulty of the weather conditions the team is proud to announce that this season was a great success as they managed to accomplish all the foreseen objectives. The scientists are now looking forward to further analyse the data they have collected.
The MASS2ANT team would like to thank the whole IPF team who helped make this once again a successful campaign and for their warm welcome at PEA!
- Maaike, Sarah, Frank and Marie
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)!
Context
The water cycle, cloud microphysics and cloud-aerosol-interactions are recognized as key elements of the Antarctic climate system. Clouds and aerosols play a significant role in the radiative energy budget. Aerosols impact cloud microphysics because they provoke cloud condensation and act as ice nuclei. In addition, clouds are an important part of the hydrological cycle, serving as a means of transporting water vapour to Antarctica via precipitation. Because precipitation is the only way mass can be added to the Antarctic Ice Sheet, thus incresing its surface mass balance (SMB), precipitation is therefore one of the key factors affecting global sea level. However, current knowledge on the interaction between clouds, precipitation and aerosols in the Antarctic is still limited, both from direct observations and from regional climate models.
At the Belgian research station Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA), an observatory for aerosol, cloud and precipitation properties has been put in place. Preliminary results show a strong sensitivity of cloud microphysics to the number of ice-nucleating particles (INP), and to a lesser degree, to the number of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) that form.
The CLIMB project does systematic measurements of INPs at PEA - combined with meteorological, aerosol and cloud microphysics observations – both at ground-level at the station and also at the typical precipitating cloud altitude. The aim is to improve the aerosol-cloud-precipitation parameterization in a regional climate model for East Antarctica.
Andy Delcloo from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI), who is currently at PEA, has been verifying the skill score (how well a model performs) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model. Andy is making on-demand forecasts for scientists in the field and at the station. It is vital for them to have the best available information to plan their missions. It is impressive to see how well the model can predict very specific weather phenomena here in Antarctica. Andy focuses on a lot on phenomena such as whiteouts, low cloud cover and probability of visibility, taking advantage of the ensemble forecast skills of the ECMWF model.
Also present at the station, colleagues from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Climate Experiment (PEACE) project, Derek Houtz and Simon Steffen (from the WSL in Zürich), are busy installing new automatic weather stations (AWS), which will soon be able to be consulted in near real-time. These seven stations will give us insight into the weather in near real-time from the Droning Maud Land coast to the Antarctic Plateau (along an almost 250 km transect). Together with atmospheric radio soundings launched from the station every two days, this will create added value for the operational numerical weather forecast models.
During their stay at PEA the scientists also installed a disdrometer at the station, an instrument that makes it possible to differentiate between different types of precipitation. On the Antarctic Plateau, we installed an OPS (Optical Particle Sizer instrument), which is powered by wind turbine and solar panels so that it can gather data continuously during the winter until the next BELARE expedition in 2022-2023.
Combined, these projects will give scientists a unique dataset and new information to help them estimate Antarctic mass balance, improve weather forecasting and closely monitor the changing climate!
The CLIMB project is coordinated by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (Dr. Alexander Mangold) with the following partners: Ghent University (research group EnVOC, Prof. Walgraeve), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Prof. Nicole van Lipzig), and the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (IASB-BIRA, Dr. Michel Van Roozendael, UV-Vis DOAS Research). The Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, (TROPO) in Leipzig, Germany, is a sub-contracted partner. CLIMB is financed by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) BRAIN-be program.
Our team and scientists at the station have been celebrating the Holidays in Antarctica, while continuing their important work to support scientific missions.
On December 23rd, PEA welcomed four new arrivals. A new doctor, Jacques Champagne, replaced Barbara Weith. He’ll serve a tour of two months at the station. We also got a new plumber, Simeon Polet, who is the son of the station’s longtime plumber, Bernard.
The birds next door
Two ornithologists from the UK and Ireland arrived to conduct research on snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea). Eleanor Honan from Durham University and Stephanie Prince from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK are working for the ANTSIE project, which is studying behavioral ecology of this species and how climate change may affect the population and life cycles of colonies present in the Sør Rondane Mountains. For their work they will focus on pairs breeding on Utsteinen Nunatak, just 800 metres from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.
Eleanor and Stephanie have already started their field work accompanied by Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert (an ornithologist himself). They've already started to monitor the nesting, feeding, and breeding habits of the birds. This is the second time in the history of PEA station that macro-biological research is taking place (several microbiological research projects have already been conducted). Snow petrels are one of the few native animal species that live anywhere near PEA.
These snow-white birds, adapted to living in the extreme environment of Antarctica, typically nest in protective cavities in rocky outcrops sometimes well inland from the cost of Antarctica. Even though they have to fly 200 km to the coast (a trip that takes them four to six hours in each direction!), where they feed on crustaceans and cephalopods from the ocean’s surface, the birds need a safe space to lay their eggs. If they lay them on snow and ice, then their offspring won’t survive, so nunataks are the only place where they can find shelter suitable for breeding despite the distance to the coast.
As the climate in the region may change, this could alter the birds’ living conditions, which could in turn affect their ability to survive.
The scientists are placing GPS trackers on the bird’s central tail feathers and GLS loggers on their tarsus to determine where the birds go to feed and how much time they spend resting or fishing. They also plan to take some stomach content samples, as well as investigate the stomach oils the birds regurgitate in front of their nests (they need to do this from time to time to get rid of excess salt, as they get their food from salt water).
Regurgitated oils as old as 27,000 years old have been found in similar colonies elsewhere in Antarctica, so the species has been living like they currently do for millennia. Hopefully climate change won’t affect their livelihoods and so they can continue to live there for a long time!
Research in the eye of the storm
Weather in Antarctica isn’t always great, even in the middle of the austral summer. Sometimes whiteout conditions prevent anyone from going outside. Visibility can drop to less than a meter if the wind is blowing fallen snow around! Strong winds can accumulate up to several meters of snow on any object sitting on the ice sheet in a very short period of time.
Not only did the team at the station recently have to weather the storm, but the team of glaciologists at the Princess Ragnhild Coast from the MASST2ANT project had to tough it out as well. Thankfully they have a cozy living container that the IPF constructed for them, which allows them to shelter indoors if the weather becomes too inclement. The field guide, Christophe Berclaz, who is on-site with them ,communicates constantly with PEA to know the latest weather forecast, and especially wind direction, so he knows how to best protect their camp.
In about a week the MASS2ANT project will wrap up their mission and return to PEA.
The storm will have passed by then, but another one is arriving at end of the week. This means that researchers from the CLIMB and PEACE projects will need to rush and head back to the Antarctic Plateau before weather conditions degrade again. It will also allow engineers Guus Luppens and Mechanic Tim Grosrenaud to continue testing the new electric Venturi Antarctica vehicle, so they can collect data on how the vehicles performs and report it to the Venturi team.
Always a White Christmas
And of course, like every year, we celebrated Christmas with a wonderful dinner prepared by our amazing cook. The Christmas tree we fashioned from scrap wood went up in the living room of the station to create a festive atmosphere, and we exchanged some small gifts (mostly handmade) between us. We do our best to keep the festive mood, despite being far from family and home at this time of the year.
We look forward to good weather for the New Year!
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.
Alain Hubert, Founder and President of the International Polar Foundation, is set to receive the Belgica Prize at a ceremony to be held at the Royal Academy for Sciences and the Arts of Belgium the afternoon of Monday, June 10th, alongside French glaciologist Dr Jérôme Chappellaz.
Alain Hubert, Founder and President of the International Polar Foundation, is set to receive the Belgica Prize at a ceremony to be held at the Royal Academy for Sciences and the Arts of Belgium the afternoon of Monday, June 10th, alongside French glaciologist Dr Jérôme Chappellaz.
For the 3rd year in a row, entrepreneurs 35 or under based in the Arctic are invited to submit an application for the annual Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award.
The International Polar Foundation and its many Arctic stakeholder partners are happy to announce that the 15th annual Arctic Futures Symposium will take place on December 2nd-3rd at the Residence Palace in Brussels.
