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Successful Antarctic expedition lands here
By Cai Wenjun |
April 3, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
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CHINA'S only icebreaker, Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, will return to its base in Shanghai's Waigaoqiao port next Saturday after fulfilling all its scientific research and logistical tasks on the 26th Antarctic expedition, said the Polar Research Institute of China in Shanghai yesterday.
This expedition had the biggest staff since China started Antarctic missions in 1984.
The 251 staff completed more than 50 scientific research projects during the 180-day trip focusing on global climate and environmental change, said the Shanghai-based Polar institute.
The team also visited all China's three Antarctic stations -- Changcheng, Zhongshan and the new Kunlun -- for renovation work and scientific projects.
Kunlun Station, built in January last year, is the nation's first station in the Antarctic inland.
During their stay, scientists conducted major research projects on remote sensing, glaciology, biology and aerophysics, including the first large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle observations of the ocean and icebergs, the first field spectral collection and establishing a permanent tide station in the Antarctica.
Two exploration teams ventured inland to conduct fruitful research at Dome A, the highest point on the continent at 4,093 meters above sea level, and the Grove Mountains, an important nunatak region, or rocky area free of snow and ice on the East Antarctic Glacier, respectively, to collect ice cores and meteorites and conduct research in astronomy, mapping and geophysics.
The ice cores contain climate information for over a million years, experts say.
This expedition had the biggest staff since China started Antarctic missions in 1984.
The 251 staff completed more than 50 scientific research projects during the 180-day trip focusing on global climate and environmental change, said the Shanghai-based Polar institute.
The team also visited all China's three Antarctic stations -- Changcheng, Zhongshan and the new Kunlun -- for renovation work and scientific projects.
Kunlun Station, built in January last year, is the nation's first station in the Antarctic inland.
During their stay, scientists conducted major research projects on remote sensing, glaciology, biology and aerophysics, including the first large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle observations of the ocean and icebergs, the first field spectral collection and establishing a permanent tide station in the Antarctica.
Two exploration teams ventured inland to conduct fruitful research at Dome A, the highest point on the continent at 4,093 meters above sea level, and the Grove Mountains, an important nunatak region, or rocky area free of snow and ice on the East Antarctic Glacier, respectively, to collect ice cores and meteorites and conduct research in astronomy, mapping and geophysics.
The ice cores contain climate information for over a million years, experts say.
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