Sitry Airstrip, the name is derived from the abbreviation of C-3, was an Antarctic skiway operated by the Italian ENEA-Unità Tecnica Antartitide as part of the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA). The airstrip is located at above the sea level on the

Antarctic Plateau The Antarctic Plateau, Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau is a large area of East Antarctica that extends over a diameter of about , and includes the region of the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Thi ...

and is from

Zucchelli Station Zucchelli Station is an Italian seasonal research station in Antarctica, located at Terra Nova Bay on a granitic headland along the coast of the Northern Foothills to the north-east of Gerlache Inlet. It has been named after Mario Zucchelli, dire ...

. The skiway was used, since 2000, by the Italian personnel as fuel depot and refuelling point for the

Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada in the mid-1960s and still in production today. Built by De Havilland Canada from 1965 to 1988, Viking A ...

s flying from Zucchelli Station to

Concordia Station Concordia Research Station, which opened in 2005, is a French–Italian research facility managed by l' Institut polaire français Paul-Émile Victor and Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide, that was built above sea level on a geogra ...

. Sitry was visited for the last time, by the Italian researchers, in 2010; it was equipped with a shelter, which in case of emergency, could accommodate 8 people. The skiway was abandoned because of

sastrugi Sastrugi, or zastrugi, are features formed by the erosion of snow by wind. They are found in polar regions, and in snowy, wind-swept areas of temperate regions, such as frozen lakes or mountain ridges. Sastrugi are distinguished by upwind-facing ...

and the impossibility for the Twin Otters to land, however it is planned to remove any thing from the site while the refuelling point was displaced to Mid Point Airstrip.

AWS Irene

The

Automatic weather station An automatic weather station (AWS) is an automated version of the traditional weather station, either to save human labor or to enable measurements from remote areas. An AWS will typically consist of a weather-proof enclosure containing the data ...

, called by the code name Irene, installed on the site is out of use because of the impossibleness to do the maintenance. It makes part of a network run by the Antarctic Meteo-Climatological Observatory which collect data by 12 others operating weather stations.

References

{{Airports in Antarctica Outposts of Antarctica Skiway East Antarctica

AWS Irene

See also

References