Mese: Maggio 2022

The Government of India tabled The Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022 on the floor of the Lok Sabha on last April 1, 2022. (The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India’s bicameral Parliament,)

The Bill is introduced to “provide for the national measures for protecting the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems and to give effect to the Antarctic Treaty, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

While the Lok Sabha has passed the Bill, it will now be tabled in the Council of the States for passing.

India signed the Antarctic Treaty on August 19, 1983, and was soon granted the observer status on September 12, 1983. The protocol entered into force for India on January 14, 1998. India has active research stations Maitri (WAP IND-Ø3) at Schirmacher Hills, Bharati (WAP IND-Ø4) at Larsemann Hills as well as Himadri station in the Arctic — and it now belongs to the elite group of nations that have multiple research stations within the Polar Region.

Though there is no Arctic Bill, for the simple reason that there is no Arctic Treaty, India did roll out its Arctic Policy in January 2021. There are currently five states from Asia that enjoy the status of ‘Observer’ in the Arctic Council. These states are China, Japan, India, South Korea and Singapore, and all of them joined the Arctic Council in 2013.

 

Indian Antarctic Bill 2022: Key Points 

1-The Bill passed by the Lok Sabha earlier this month seeks to protect the Antarctic environment, and also regulate activities in the region.
2-The provisions will apply to any person, vessel or aircraft part of an Indian expedition to Antarctica under a permit issued under the Bill.
3-There will be a central committee on Antarctic Governance and Environmental Protection, which will be chaired by the secretary, Earth Sciences, and have 10 members, not below the rank of joint secretary, from ministries and organisations such as defence, external affairs, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, and National Security Council Secretariat. Two experts from Antarctic environment and geo-political fields will also be part of the panel that will grant permits for various activities, implement and ensure compliance of relevant international laws for protection of Antarctic environment, and negotiate fees/charges with other parties for activities in Antarctica, among other functions.

4-The Bill prohibits nuclear explosion or disposal of radioactive wastes in Antarctica, introduction of non-sterile soil, and discharge of garbage, plastic or other substances into the sea that are harmful to the marine environment.
5-The Bill specifies penalties for violation of its provisions.

Read more at: What Is Indian Antarctic Bill 2022 And What Its Provisions Aim To Achieve In North And South Poles (abplive.com)

During the long winter, no supplies or people can be flown in and the high altitude causes the crew to experience chronic hypobaric hypoxia or lack of oxygen in the brain.
After months of preparation, a crew of 12 scientists, explorers, and staff at Europe’s Concordia Research Station in Antarctica (WAP MNB-Ø3) are braced for long winter nights as Antarctica goes dark for four months. The Antarctic night and the winter will be a goldmine for research as the European Space Agency (ESA) commences living and working in isolation for six months on the frigid continent.

The penultimate sunset at Concordia research station marked the beginning of the long night, where no sunlight will be seen on the continent as it submerges in complete darkness. ESA said that medical doctor Hannes Hagson and his crew are ready, “finally embarking on their ‘real’ mission in Antarctica: living and working in isolation for six months in the name of spaceflight research.”
While the world experiences four major seasons, Antarctica has just two, summers and winters as it remains covered in thick ice. The region has six months of daylight in its summer and six months of darkness in its winter.

Read more at: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/long-night-begins-antarctica-goes-dark-as-the-sun-sets-for-four-months-1949938-2022-05-16
TNX Bhagwati Prasad Semwal (VU3BPZ ,Ex-AT10BP & 8T2BH)

The Italian-French outpost Concordia is located 3233 m above sea level where temperatures can drop to –80°C in the complete frozen darkness outside.  This image above, was taken by Hannes Hagson on 3 May. The last full sunset took place the day after but appeared only as a thin sliver in the sky.

For this reason, Hannes is facilitating biomedical experiments on himself and his crewmates to understand how humans cope with living in extreme isolation. From sleep studies to gut health measurements to mindful practices, the crew are poked and prodded to help researchers understand and overcome the challenges extreme environments, like space, pose to present and future explorers.

Follow Hannes during his winter-over on the Chronicles from Concordia blog.

• ESA/IPEV/PNRA-H. Hagson
• Human Spaceflight
• Human spaceflight and robotic explorations image of the week 

 TNX Volker Strecke DL8JDX

Clouds come in myriad shapes, sizes and types, which control their effects on climate. New research led by the University of Washington shows that the splintering of frozen liquid droplets to form ice shards inside Southern Ocean clouds dramatically affects the clouds’ ability to reflect sunlight back to space.

The paper, published in AGU Advances, shows that including this ice-splintering process improves the ability of high-resolution global models to simulate clouds over the Southern Ocean — and thus the models’ ability to simulate Earth’s climate. The research was funded by the US. National Science Foundation

“There’s much of interest in this paper, not only the surprising effect of ice splintering on clouds but the combination of high-res modeling with real-world data from satellites and an airplane,” said Eric DeWeaver, a program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences “It will be interesting to see what more happens with this toolkit.”

Thanks and credit NSF (US. National Science Foundation)
Read more at: Ice shards in Antarctic clouds let more solar energy reach Earth’s surface | NSF – National Science Foundation

Scientists have for the first time managed to get a glimpse of a vast reserve of water hiding under the Antarctic ice sheet.

In what could be a game-changing discovery, scientists have detected vast quantities of water hiding in the sediments beneath an Antarctic ice stream that could boost our understanding of how it might affect sea levels across the world. The new discovery confirms what researchers had already suspected.
The Team managed to image just one such ice stream on the frigid world, but suspect there are many more that can shed light on how the system works and how it changes over time in response to climate.

Electromagnetic techniques have been used to image shallow groundwater in the upper 100 to 200 meters (328 to 656 feet) beneath some thin glaciers and permanently frozen areas. This time the Team used the technology to measure about 800 meters at the Whillans Ice Stream. “This technique typically hasn’t been used in polar environments.

Read more at: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/water-reserve-hiding-under-antarctica-discovered-enough-to-submerge-statue-of-unity-1946162-2022-05-06

Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs (11 February 1908 – 11 November 1999) was an English  explorer.  Fuchs is best known as the leader of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole in 1958

Planning for the expedition began in 1953, and envisioned the use of Snow Cat tractors to cross the continent in 100 days, starting at the Weddell Sea, ending at the Ross Sea, and crossing theSouth Pole.

Fuchs and his party arrived in Antarctica in January 1957 after camp had been set up. The party departed from Shackleton Base on 24 November 1957. During the trek, a variety of scientific data were collected from seismic soundings and gravimeteric readings. Scientists established the thickness of ice at the pole, and the existence of a land mass beneath the ice. On 2 March 1958, Fuchs and company completed the 100-day trip by reaching Scott Base, having travelled 2,158 miles.

In 1958, Fuchs was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.  He co-wrote, with Sir Edmund Hillary The Crossing of Antarctica. In 1959 he was awarded the Hans Edge Medal by the Royal Danish Geographical Society.

The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was the first expedition to reach the South Pole overland for 46 years, preceded only by Amundsen’s expedition and Scott’s expedition in 1911 and 1912.

Read more at: Sir Vivian ‘Bunny’ Fuchs · CAPTAIN ANTARCTICA

Something interesting about Antarctica,  are certainly the illustrated cards which has become a rarity for collectors. The “fashion” of advertising one’s products spread by giving buyers different types of gadgets has been followed a lot and the Liebig cards are a typical  example.

A friend, sent WAP a set of small illustrated cards with Antarctica theme. We made some investigation and discovered that this one,  came out in 1936 published by Liebig. This company, did print  1871 series of small cards with different subjects, most of which consisted of six juxtaposed images. This collection of advertising trading cards consists of the colored lithographed cards found on the packaging of the products. The production of these cards started in 1870 and ended in 1975, spanning more than 11,000 different types of cards. The last lithographed series were released in 1939, but series were edited and reproduced through the 1970s. The cards were divided into subjects that nearly always made up a set of six or twelve.

The series of cards were produced in multiple countries, therefore the cards can be found in a multitude of languages. Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and Italy are just some of the countries in which these were produced.

Birth and history of Liebig cards

Liebig cards originate around the middle of the 19th century. In this period in France the “fashion” of advertising one’s products spread by giving buyers different types of gadgets – mostly of the cards, were printed in black and white or in color using the lithographic technique.

Usually these stickers represent the most varied scenes and at the same time promote a certain product, either directly in the cartoon, or on the back with written or direct advertising messages. At that time, very few companies could afford such a form of advertising. Baron Justus Von Liebig chooses to adopt the small cards system himself to promote his meat extract, first giving them to customers and then distributing them through a real point collection.

On the rear side of each of this cards, there is the description of the subject, do we have:
Erebus and Terror vulcanoes and elephant seals

Crushing of the ice at Cape Crozier

Icebergs in the Weddell Sea and Weddell seals

The Devil glacier

Cockburn Island

Cape Renard to the Bay of Flanders

TNX Mr. Polato of the Salesian School in the town of Lombriasco –Turin, Italy-