SWEDARP 2006/07 - Swedish Polar Research Secretariat

SWEDARP 2006/07

The Swedish Antarctic Research Program (SWEDARP) for the 2006/07 Antarctic summer season includes research activities both at the Swedish Wasa and Svea stations and in other parts of Queen Maud Land.
The Swedish winter polar research projects in Antarctica are scientifically and logistically diverse, including research work conducted high and low, and in water, ice and air: marine biology from the icebreaker Oden, atmospheric physics and snow meteorology at Wasa, seismology and geodesy at Svea, particle physics deep in the ice at the Amundsen-Scott base at the South Pole, and airborne meteorology at the German Neumayer Station.

Map of Antactica (click for larger map)

One new feature this year is that the Swedish icebreaker Oden will be making a unique voyage, sailing to Antarctica for the first time after having been used in numerous polar research expeditions as a successful research platform in the Arctic. The National Science Foundation of the USA have chartered the Oden from the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat and the Swedish Maritime Administration to break a channel in the ice outside the American McMurdo Antarctic Station on the Ross Sea, to allow it to be reached by boat. The Oden departed Göteborg on 5 November, will leave Buenos Aires, Argentina on 10 December after bunkering oil and picking up researchers, arrive at McMurdo around Christmas, and is expected to return to Sweden in March. During the voyage from South America, researchers from Sweden, Chile, and the USA will perform onboard marine research activities, mainly sample collection. Sweden will be represented by Agneta Fransson and Melissa Chierici of the University of Göteborg, who are involved in a project concerning the carbon dioxide system and biogeochemical processes in the surface water, in fronts, and in the ice in Antarctic waters. The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat is responsible for leading the expedition and for providing the doctor on board, while the crew will consist of the Oden's regular Swedish crew. At McMurdo, the researchers will disembark and the crew will be relieved before the return voyage. The researchers will later fly home by way of New Zealand

Karta Odens rutt Atlanten-Antarktis.©Stig Söderlind

Icebreaker Oden's route to Antarctica (click for larger map)

To reach the Swedish Wasa Station in Queen Maud Land, travellers fly via Cape Town, South Africa and the Russian Novolazarevskaja Station. Two research projects will be conducted there during the 2006/07 season:

Aerosol measurements will be made at Wasa using a moveable atmospheric radar system (MARA). The purpose of the project is to improve our understanding of aerosol processes and waves in the polar middle atmosphere, and to compare aerosols in the troposphere of the "clean" Antarctic with those in the "polluted" Arctic. This research could also increase our knowledge of meteorological disturbances around Wasa and other research stations in the area. The project manager is Sheila Kirkwood of the Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, Sweden.

A Dutch engineer will accompany the expedition to Wasa to maintain the automatic weather stations which were installed near Wasa and Svea in the 1997/98 season. Water and snow experiments will also be conducted at Wasa's weather station. The project manager for this is Michiel van den Broeke of Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

A great deal of the work at the Wasa and Svea stations this season will consist of preparations for a Swedish-Japanese glaciological traverse next year: maintenance work on the vehicles at the station, equipment review, stockpiling fuel and consumables, and work on supplying electricity to research stations.

Swedish Polar Research Secretariat technicians will retrieve data from a GPS/geodesy project which was begun during the 2004/05 season at Svea, where they will also install a small seismographic station in cooperation with the German Alfred Wegener Institute. Cooperation is also planned with the Finnish Antarctic research program, FINNARP, which is based at Aboa, Wasa's neighbour station. FINNARP/the Finnish Institute of Marine Research will be responsible for travel by sea from Scandinavia, while SWEDARP/the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat will handle the travel by land for both countries, and the two programs will share a doctor.

Aeroplanes will be used at the German Neumayer station in Queen Maud Land to conduct meteorological measurements of aerosols under the auspices of the ANTSYO Project, which is concerned in part with studying whether interactions between solar radiation, highly reflective surfaces, aerosol particles, and clouds increase the radiation effects of atmospheric aerosols. Sweden will be represented by Radovan Krejci of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Stockholm.

The IceCube international particle physics project continues at the Amundsen-Ross Station at the South Pole. Researchers are deploying light detectors deep in the clear ice to capture the light that is sometimes emitted when neutrinos pass through ice. A Swedish citizen under the employ of the American wing of the project will also winter at the station to work with the detector during the Antarctic winter. The Swedish project manager is Per Olof Hulth of the Physics Department at the University of Stockholm. More information on IceCube can be found on the web site www.icecube.wisc.edu.

Initial Environmental Evaluation for SWEDARP 2006/07


	Research projects \| Timetable \| Reports (mostly in Swedish) \| Photos (in Swedish)	Hem

SWEDARP 2006/07 The Swedish Antarctic Research Program (SWEDARP) for the 2006/07 Antarctic summer season includes research activities both at the Swedish Wasa and Svea stations and in other parts of Queen Maud Land. The Swedish winter polar research projects in Antarctica are scientifically and logistically diverse, including research work conducted high and low, and in water, ice and air: marine biology from the icebreaker Oden, atmospheric physics and snow meteorology at Wasa, seismology and geodesy at Svea, particle physics deep in the ice at the Amundsen-Scott base at the South Pole, and airborne meteorology at the German Neumayer Station.	Map of Antactica (click for larger map)
One new feature this year is that the Swedish icebreaker Oden will be making a unique voyage, sailing to Antarctica for the first time after having been used in numerous polar research expeditions as a successful research platform in the Arctic. The National Science Foundation of the USA have chartered the Oden from the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat and the Swedish Maritime Administration to break a channel in the ice outside the American McMurdo Antarctic Station on the Ross Sea, to allow it to be reached by boat. The Oden departed Göteborg on 5 November, will leave Buenos Aires, Argentina on 10 December after bunkering oil and picking up researchers, arrive at McMurdo around Christmas, and is expected to return to Sweden in March. During the voyage from South America, researchers from Sweden, Chile, and the USA will perform onboard marine research activities, mainly sample collection. Sweden will be represented by Agneta Fransson and Melissa Chierici of the University of Göteborg, who are involved in a project concerning the carbon dioxide system and biogeochemical processes in the surface water, in fronts, and in the ice in Antarctic waters. The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat is responsible for leading the expedition and for providing the doctor on board, while the crew will consist of the Oden's regular Swedish crew. At McMurdo, the researchers will disembark and the crew will be relieved before the return voyage. The researchers will later fly home by way of New Zealand	Icebreaker Oden's route to Antarctica (click for larger map)
To reach the Swedish Wasa Station in Queen Maud Land, travellers fly via Cape Town, South Africa and the Russian Novolazarevskaja Station. Two research projects will be conducted there during the 2006/07 season: Aerosol measurements will be made at Wasa using a moveable atmospheric radar system (MARA). The purpose of the project is to improve our understanding of aerosol processes and waves in the polar middle atmosphere, and to compare aerosols in the troposphere of the "clean" Antarctic with those in the "polluted" Arctic. This research could also increase our knowledge of meteorological disturbances around Wasa and other research stations in the area. The project manager is Sheila Kirkwood of the Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, Sweden. A Dutch engineer will accompany the expedition to Wasa to maintain the automatic weather stations which were installed near Wasa and Svea in the 1997/98 season. Water and snow experiments will also be conducted at Wasa's weather station. The project manager for this is Michiel van den Broeke of Utrecht University, The Netherlands. A great deal of the work at the Wasa and Svea stations this season will consist of preparations for a Swedish-Japanese glaciological traverse next year: maintenance work on the vehicles at the station, equipment review, stockpiling fuel and consumables, and work on supplying electricity to research stations. Swedish Polar Research Secretariat technicians will retrieve data from a GPS/geodesy project which was begun during the 2004/05 season at Svea, where they will also install a small seismographic station in cooperation with the German Alfred Wegener Institute. Cooperation is also planned with the Finnish Antarctic research program, FINNARP, which is based at Aboa, Wasa's neighbour station. FINNARP/the Finnish Institute of Marine Research will be responsible for travel by sea from Scandinavia, while SWEDARP/the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat will handle the travel by land for both countries, and the two programs will share a doctor. Aeroplanes will be used at the German Neumayer station in Queen Maud Land to conduct meteorological measurements of aerosols under the auspices of the ANTSYO Project, which is concerned in part with studying whether interactions between solar radiation, highly reflective surfaces, aerosol particles, and clouds increase the radiation effects of atmospheric aerosols. Sweden will be represented by Radovan Krejci of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Stockholm. The IceCube international particle physics project continues at the Amundsen-Ross Station at the South Pole. Researchers are deploying light detectors deep in the clear ice to capture the light that is sometimes emitted when neutrinos pass through ice. A Swedish citizen under the employ of the American wing of the project will also winter at the station to work with the detector during the Antarctic winter. The Swedish project manager is Per Olof Hulth of the Physics Department at the University of Stockholm. More information on IceCube can be found on the web site www.icecube.wisc.edu. Initial Environmental Evaluation for SWEDARP 2006/07


	Editor: Sofia Rickberg For comments or enquiries, contact office@polar.se Technique and design: Arrive Inter Media	Updated 2006-11-23