National Antarctic Research Program (''Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide'' or PNRA) is the Italian

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

research program. The PNRA is directed by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) through two national bodies: the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) for the coordination of scientific research and the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) for the implementation of the

Antarctic expedition This list of Antarctic expeditions is a chronological list of expeditions involving Antarctica. Although the existence of a southern continent had been hypothesized as early as the writings of Ptolemy in the 1st century AD, the South Pole was no ...

s, for logistics and the maintenance of the two Antarctic stations. Italy started its National Antarctic Program in 1985 with the formation of the Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) and the National Scientific Committee for Antarctica (CSNA). Italy maintains two Antarctic research stations. The first one, built in 1986, is Mario Zucchelli Station at Terra Nova Bay, a permanent station. In 1993, Italy and France agreed to build a joint station at Dome C, named Concordia, which was inaugurated in 1997 and has operated as a year-round station since 2005, accommodating 15 persons in the winter and 60 in the summer. For shuttling to Antarctic stations and field camps, every year PNRA charters aircraft, helicopters and a cargo/research ship.

Mario Zucchelli Station

Technical plants: * a unit for electrical and thermal energy generation, with four diesel generators (made up of two couples) * a co-generation system for the exploitation of the thermal energy produced by the power generators * a drinkable water production machine by desalting sea water * a burner and a waste water cleaner * a nitrogen and a helium liquefiers Research topics: offshore

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

, terrestrial biology,

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

, geomagnetic observations,

geodesy Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...

, onshore geology, glaciology,

meteorological Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

observations, ionospheric/

auroral An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

observations, cosmic ray observations, seismology and environmental monitoring.

Concordia Station

The station is a joint French-Italian research facility, managed by PNRA (National Antarctic Research Program) and IPEV (Institut Polaire Français).
Research topics: human biology, geomagnetic observations, geodesy, glaciology, meteorological observations, astronomy, seismology and environmental monitoring.

References

External links

Mario Zucchelli Station - pdf

Mario Zucchelli Station (English Text)

PNRA (COMNAP site)
{{Authority control Italy and the Antarctic Antarctica research agencies