Concordia Station, FR+IT
Concordia Station, FR+IT
Concordia station is jointly funded, staffed and operated by Italy (Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide – PNRA) and France (French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor – IPEV).
Contact
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Location
Concordia station is located at Dôme C, on the high East Antarctic plateau. The site is one of the coldest and among the most remote places on Earth. Among the permanent stations in Antarctica, only 3 are located inland the continent (Amundsen-Scott, Vostok and Concordia). The closest stations are Dumont d’Urville and Mario Zucchelli.
Resupply of the station is ensured in summer by the traverse from Dumont d’Urville whereas personnel are brought over by air, from the Italian base Mario Zucchelli or from Dumont d’Urville. The vessel L’Astrolabe also forms part of the supply chain from Australia to Dumont d’Urville.
Website
https://polardex.org/ – Concordia
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61073506e9b0073c7eaaf464/t/611497cc1ece1b43f0eeca8a/1628739608968/COMNAP_Antarctic_Station_Catalogue.pdf
Facilities
The station is suitable for 14 persons winter residents to live in, completely isolated from the rest of the world for 9 months in the year. Up to 70 people can work at the station in summer, using the nearby “summer camp”.
The research projects implemented at Concordia are linked to many subjects involving societal concerns, such as climate change, the role of greenhouse gases or aerosols in past and present trends or the hole in the ozone layer. Beside the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), which was completed in December 2004 and extended the record of climate variability to around 800,000 years BP, Concordia remains an active site for glaciology. Dome C also offers an exceptional environment for astronomical observations and provides good conditions for calibration and validation of sensors embarked on polar orbit satellites. Observatories in seismology, geomagnetism, or Earth-Sun interactions are present. Concordia station itself is also considered as an excellent Earth-based analogue for orbital space stations or Mars-bound vessels and projects in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) are implemented.
Availability for access
Time frame for access preparation
Annual plan for science activities is defined during spring. Process involve scientific (CNR) and logistic (ENEA) operators. The final plan is approved typically in May, beginning June by the National Antarctic Commission for Antarctica (CSNA). To better secure resources for POLARIN, CNR will operate to obtain yet in the previous fall an approval that all resources offered in the TA call will be at disposal during thespring discussion. So the spring disccxussion will be devoted to define the details of project participation: number of researchers, period in Antarctica, how to reach and return from Antarctica, special requests/use of base facilities, amount of transported material.
Deadline to receive all information for this detailed plan, can be fixed to end of April.
Meanwhile the period May-July can be the timeframe to define all the logistic details, integrating the TA project in the frame of the whole planned science activity.
Permits, licenses and training
Depending on research activities should be carried out, request for Ethical of Environmental impact declarations can be requested to researchers by PNRA. In any case PNRA will manage the interaction with AT and/or SCAR offices devoted to check that planned activities are respectful of the environmental and ethical rules for Antarctica.
Medical guidelines
Medical health check is a pre-requisite. Italian Antarctic Program accept as valid:
–Certification on health status provided by another Antarctic program.
–Cedical certification/clearance provided by researchers. In this case a specific list of required documentation will be provided by the PNRA medical officer. List being based on the standard PNRA protocol for access to Mario Zucchelli station.
–Personal information, as well as logistical details are requested and manage only after Medical health check is positive.
–Participants will receive from PNRA all dress and material necessary to operate in Antarctica. This material will be than recovered by PNRA at the end of the Expedition.
