NCAOR to conduct scientific expedition to Antarctica

Bangalore, Oct 12 (UNI) National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) will conduct its 28th scientific expedition to the south polar region next month followed by another in March next year to carry out a study on global warming.

The first team would leave in the first week of November and return with data collection after four months of stay in Antarctica, NCAOR Director Rasik Ravindra told reporters here on the sidelines of a seminar on Earth Sciences.

The second team would leave in March and camp there for 16 months, he said adding at least 55 members, including geologists, glaciologists, chemists, physicists, and biologists would take part in the study which would provide significant leads in understanding antarictic region and global climate change.

Stating that the Indian programme was part of a multi-national, multi-institutional campaign, he said the Indian ice core drilling programme was expected to lead to even more significant contributions in the years to come and thus poised to contribute to some of the fundamental questions raised in Antarctic environmantal variability in the recent past.

A detailed science plan has been made for a long-term study of the climate and environmental change during the past several centuries in the coastal Antarctic, he said.

''India has already set up a state-of-the-art technology with an online transmission of data for analytical facilities at the south polar region,'' he said.

Dr Ravindra said India would launch its second scientific expedition to Arctic region (north pole) in March to study glaciers, biology, human physiology and climate change.

UNI SIV ROY RL KP1658