The Antarctic Annual Plan 2022-2023, made up of more than 50 scientific research projects on climate change, biodiversity, seismology, submarine volcano activity or effects caused by pollutants, will be presented on Tuesday at the Foreign Ministry.
This planning also includes all the necessary tasks to sustain the seven permanent bases and the six transitory ones that Argentina operates in its Antarctic territory.
It also seeks to advance in the tasks of reactivation of the Petrel base, the installation of satellite antennas in Belgrano II and the construction of new laboratories at the Orcadas, San Martín and Esperanza bases.
The national director of the Antarctic, Patricia Ortúzar, stated in dialogue with Télam that “the Annual Antarctic Plan contains all the scientific and logistical activities that Argentina is going to develop in the territory of the white continent between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023”.
“In the planning there are more than 50 scientific research projects in which different organizations and universities participate, and in several of them there are also different working groups that will be deployed in different bases,” he said.
Long-term investigations
The official pointed out that “a large part of the investigations are projects that have continued for a long time because science is built year after year and in topics such as ecosystem monitoring or studies on climate change, strategies for collecting data in series are essential. historical data to understand what happens in Antarctica”.
“There are also new investigations and projects that arise in cooperation with other countries. This summer we are going to advance in the installation of a seismological and vulcanological surveillance network on Deception Island within the framework of an initiative that we are carrying out together with the Argentine Mining Geological Service (Segemar) and Spain,” he explained.
In the planning there are more than 50 scientific research projects in which different organizations and universities participate, and in several of them there are also different working groups that will be deployed in different bases”Patricia Ortuzar
All this work “positions us in a very good way in the international scientific community because the recent seismic activity in the South Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands have generated a lot of interest and the new monitoring system will allow us to better understand what is happening.”
He indicated that this summer the works will continue to install the satellite ground station at the Belgrano II Base, the closest to the South Pole of the Argentine bases.
Ortúzar specified that these antennas will allow “receive information from various earth observation satellites in low orbits, and give support to the operation of the Argentine SAOCOM satellites, since they will fulfill a task similar to the ground stations that Conae already operates in Córdoba and Tierra del Fuego” .
New scientific buildings will also be built at the Orcadas, Esperanza and San Martín bases, which will expand the laboratory and sampling facilities.
This will be important for the San Martín base “since it is expected that from next summer the Navy ships will access that site twice a year, opening the possibility of deploying scientific teams that can carry out summer campaigns in addition to what happens Now that only those who winter there go,” he said.
The official said that at the Petrel base “there is an endowment that wintered to advance in the cleaning and recovery tasks of the existing buildings. The challenge is to complete the necessary technical studies during the next campaign to complete the environmental impact study necessary to advance in the full recovery of that base”.
More than 200 scientists working in the territory
The director explained that more than 200 scientists will participate in the investigations planned for the campaign along with hundreds of technicians and members of the armed forces who will be in charge of all logistical tasks. To this we must add the work of the crews of ships, planes and helicopters.
“It is all part of a huge effort that Argentina is making not only in the exercise of its sovereignty, but also to build and deepen scientific knowledge about Antarctica, which is essential to understand many of our planet’s problems.”completed the official.
The presentation of the Annual Antarctic Plan will take place on Tuesday at 11 in the Golden Room of the San Martín Palace, at Arenales 761 in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
