XXVI Indian Antarctica Expedition flagged off from Goa

Vasco-da-Gama, Goa, Nov 26 (UNI) The XXVI Indian expedition to Antarctica took off today to undertake climate studies using ice-core shelf besides upgrading the sophisticated facilities of the seismology and global positioning systems at the Maitri research station base in the icy continent.

''For the first time, we have flown our scientists from Capetown through a special arrangement with Antarctic Logic Consortium International of Russia, which operates flights to the icy continent,'' said Rasik Ravindra, director of the prestigious National Centre Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) here.

Talking to UNI before flagging off the expedition, the NCAOR chief said the organisation used to fly the scientists from Mumbai to Capetown from where they set sail to Antarctic by a special ship taking about 20 days.

''Now that summer had set in the Antarctic, we have decided to fly the team allowing for early research activities and faster reach,'' said Mr Ravindra, who was the leader of the first winting team of the Indian expedition to Maitri station.

A batch of nine top scientists are now flying to the Capetown today, while another batch of 14 including logistics, scientific and technical experts from the Indian Army on a deep drilling mission, had left the previous week.

In all, 50 scientists would be working in the expedition. Others would, however, reach the Antarctic through the ship from Capetown later this week for different missions.

The study of the ice-core that contains of signatures of the climate of the last thousands of years through its entrapped gases of the past atmosphere, is one of the core research activities of the NCAOR.

They had already brought ice-core, drilled 210 metres deep on the shelf, and started studying it at the state-of-the-art Ice-Core Laboratory set up in the NCAOR here.

Significantly, the scientists detected presence of about half a dozen microbes in the ice-core, which had now been analysed with the help of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (Hyderabad), for strategic applications.

The task of reaching the icy continent became easier using Russian flights, after India joined the ''DROMLAN'' network, a consortium of 11 exploration countries, claims Mr Ravindra. The Russian flight from Capetown takes just six hours to reach Antarctic and the India's Maitri research station was located just eight km away from the airstrip of Central Droning in Maudland, Antarctica, he said.

India had set sail to unravel the mysteries of the icy continent first in 1981, headed by top scientist and visionary S Z Qasim. The first research base station ''Dakshin Gangotri'' was set up in 1983.

The second station, Maitri, was set up in 1988-89, when the first station caved in as it was located on an ice sheet.

Efforts were now underway to set up the third research base station, 600 nautical miles east of Maithri at Larsermann Bay on a plateu. The experts had now been finalising the draft for obtaining clearance of the site by the Apex Antarctic Treaty Consultative Committee.

For the first time, the current expedition included specialists from the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for assisting logistics.

The multi-disciplinary research team involves about 30 institutions including from the Defence Research and Development Organistion (DRDO), the Birbal Sahani Institute of Paleobotony, National Geophysical Research Institute, Geological Survey of India, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism and Sriram Institute for Industrial Research, Indian Mteorological Deprtment, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and Annamalai University.

UNI