Advances in Remote Sensing Technology and the Three Poles

30 Multi-Disciplinary Research in the Indian Antarctic Programme and Its International Relevance

Anand K. Singh^1,*, Yogesh Ray¹, Shailendra Saini¹, Rahul Mohan1 and M. Javed Beg¹

¹ National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Goa, India^* Corresponding author

30.1 Introduction

The Indian Antarctic endeavor started in the austral summer of 1981/82 with the expedition vessel, MV Polar Circle, and it has continued ever since. During the first and second expeditions, the scientific experiments and fieldwork were carried out from the vessel and ice-shelf in the campaign mode. It also included inland penetration to the Schirmacher Oasis and Wohlthat mountain. With India joining the Antarctic Treaty in 1983, the first permanent station, Dakshin Gangotri station, was commissioned on the ice-shelf in Central Dronning Maud Land in the season 1983/84 to facilitate year-round multi-disciplinary scientific work.

As the Antarctic Programme developed further, the second station, Maitri station, was constructed on the rocky terrain of Schirmacher Oasis in 1988/89 as a replacement for Dakshin Gangotri, which was completely buried under snow and eventually decommissioned in 1989/90. The site of Dakshin Gangotri has been declared a historic site and monument (HSM-44) under the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty (ATCM XXVI CEP VI, 2015). Meteorology and space weather, geological and magnetic surveys, ice-shelf dynamics, regional biology, oceanography, environment, lacustrine ...