Nov. 2 – India kicked off its first scientific expedition to the South Pole Monday evening, sending eight scientists on a month and a half long voyage aimed at uncovering how climate change has affected the environmental conditions in Antarctica over the last 1,000 years.
Led by Rasik Ravinda, head of the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research, the team will first travel to Cape Town, South Africa where they will then board a plane bound for Maitri – an Indian research base located on the rocky, ice-free Schirmacher Oasis in East Antarctica.
Traveling on specially-designed ice trucks, the research team is scheduled to leave Maitri Station on November 8, beginning an estimated 40-day, 2,400 kilometer journey to the South Pole and back during which the scientists will conduct a variety of tests and experiments.
"We will conduct meteorological experiments, [and] record humidity, temperatures, wind speed and atmospheric pressures during the 20-day trip to the South Pole, and other experiments will be conducted on our way back," the 62-year-old team leader said. The team is also expected to study snow chemistry and the continent's bedrock topography, glacial landforms, and atmosphere.
"No one has taken the route we will be taking to the South Pole," Ravinda said. He added that the team will only spend one or two days at the South Pole.
"We chose the expedition because no one has gone on this track and things have changed over time so new data on variations will be available to us," he said. "Everything is now linked to global warming."
Sources say that India's ambitious South Pole expedition emphasizes the country's eagerness to make informative scientific contributions to the global fight against climate change. The Indian team plans on bringing rocks, ice cores, and air samples back to India for research.
