New Delhi: India has managed to launch the 41st Scientific Expedition to Antarctica with the arrival of the first batch of its contingent on the South White Continent.
The first batch consisting of 23 scientists and support staff reached the Antarctica India station, Maitri, last week, the Minister of Earth Sciences said in a statement.
The four batches will reach Antarctica through the air and Chartered Vessel ice class MV Vasiliy Golovnin in mid-January 2022.
The 41st expedition has two main programs – the first includes geological exploration of American ice rack at Bharati Station.
This will help explore the relationship between India and Antarctica in the past.
The second program involves survey reconnaissance and preparatory work for an ice core drilling 500 meters near the Maitri.
This will help improve the understanding of Antarctic Climate, West Wind, sea ice and greenhouse gases from a single climate archive for the past 10,000 years, the statement said.
The Ice core drilling will be carried out in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey and the Norwegian Polar Institute.
In addition to achieving a scientific program, he will refinance the annual supply of food, fuel, provisions, and spare parts for operations and maintenance of life support systems at Maitri and Bharati.
The 41st Expedition was being led by Shailendra Saini, a scientist at the National Polar and Sea Research Center (Voyage leader), Huidrom Nageshwar Singh, a meteorologist at the Indian Meteorology Department (leader, Maitri Station), and Anoop Kalayil Saman, a scientist at Institute of Indian Geomagnetism (Leader, Bharati Station).
The crew is expected to return to Cape Town in South Africa at the end of March or early April 2022, leaving a team consisting of 48 members during the winter.
It will also bring back the winter team from the previous 40th expedition.
The Antarctic Indian program, which 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).
At present, Maitri and Bharati are fully operational.
National Center for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa – Institute of Autonomy under the Minister of Earth Science – Manage all Indian Antarctic programs.
When India is committed to maintaining the Antarctic Continent free of Covid-19 and the highest safety standards, the contingent has reached Antarctica after a strict medical examination at the Indian Medical Institute (AIIMS) in New Delhi, training for snow-tickets acclimatization and survival at the Institute of Climbing And the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Ski (ITBP) in Auli Uttarakhand and a tight sanitary protocol, including 14 days quarantine at Cape Town.