The Criosfera 1 is a
Brazilian standalone
research module for atmospheric data collection, prepared at the
National Institute for Space Research
The National Institute for Space Research (, INPE) is a research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Brazil), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, the main goals of which are fostering scientific r ...
(INPE) for the
Brazilian Antarctic Program
The Brazilian Antarctic Program (; PROANTAR) is a program of the Brazilian Navy which has presence in the continent of Antarctica. It coordinates research and the operational support for research in the region. It currently maintains a year-round ...
(PROANTAR).
Location
Inaugurated on 12 January 2012, the module is located on the plateau of the western
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
ice sheet, at 84°00' S–79°30' W, from the
Union Glacier
Union Glacier (), is a large, heavily crevassed glacier which receives the flow of several tributaries and drains through the middle of the Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. The glacier drains from the plateau at Edson Hills on ...
, from the geographical
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...
, and south of the
Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base
The Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station () is a permanent Antarctic research station named after the Brazilian Navy Commander Luís Antônio de Carvalho Ferraz (1940–1982), who visited Antarctica many times with the British exploration team and ...
.
Expedition Criosfera 1
The expedition for the placement of the module was coordinated by Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) through Professor Jefferson Cardia Simões, director of the Centro Polar e Climático (CPC). The Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), was then represented by Professor Dr. Heitor Evangelista, responsible for the coordination of the project.
Measuring long, wide, high, and comprising a weight of , it was planned at above the ground to avoid snow accumulation, allowing so the passage of the winds. Among the scientific tasks developed by the staff are ice drilling, assembly and activation of the module, and the surveying of ice morphology and dynamics at the glacier.
Climate
Objective
The first
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
ian fully automatic data-collecting scientific module placed inside the Antarctic continent is intended for data collection concerning the analysis on reflexes of the pollutants generated in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
and in Antarctica. Data will be sent via satellite directly to the computers of the national institute (INPE).
See also
*
List of Antarctic research stations
*
List of Antarctic field camps
Many research stations in Antarctica support satellite field camps which are, in general, seasonal camps. The type of field camp can vary – some are permanent structures used during the annual Antarctic summer, whereas others are little more tha ...
References
{{PROANTAR
Outposts of Antarctica
Brazilian Antarctica
2012 establishments in Antarctica