Chinese scientists plan to embark on a major expedition to the South Pole, during which they will examine the ocean currents and the extent of ozone depletion over the southernmost continent.
The expedition, which is the 17th China National Antarctic Research Expedition, is composed of two sub-teams. One of them, including 16 scientists and six scholars on human geography will go to the Great Wall Station on King George Island this December. Another team composed of 15 scientists will go to the Zhongshan Station, another camp on the arctic continent, next January.
“Our ship, Xue Long, has left Shanghai bound for the Zhongshan Station every Antarctic summer since 1984 and to both our two stations every three years, but this time is going to be different,” said Dong Zhaoqian, director of Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China.
“Because our icebreaker will conduct a special inspection this year, we have to take a different route,” said Dong. “So, the earlier team will start from Beijing to Chile by international flights and then, the Chilean Navy Airforce will take us to King George Island on a military transport airplane.”
“The second team will fly to Australia from Beijing and then to the Zhongshan Station on board of Aurora Australis provided by Australian Antarctic Division,” he said.
Dong said the trip is also a transitional stage for the Chinese Polar Investigation Team.
“In the last five years, our study has been focused on many basic studies - the interaction between the seas, air and ice, the low temperature ecology and the atmosphere in the Antarctic,” Dong said. “However, we are going to spend the next five years on some applied fields and conducting research on how the antarctic environment effects other regions of the world.”
Dong said the extremely low temperature ocean water around the South Pole flows into other oceans.
Researchers hope that by studying the directions of the ocean currents, they will be able to explain certain oceanic problems in other regions.
“Another problem that we have to come up with is the ozone hole becoming bigger and bigger above the Antarctic,” Dong said. “The continent only covers an area of about 14 million square kilometers while the hole is as big as 28 million square kilometers.”
(Eastday.com)
