A team of 26 Ukrainian biologists, geologists, and engineers is to spend more than two months conducting scientific research in Antarctica, in the longest and largest Ukrainian scientific expedition to the polar region since 2001, according to the National Antarctic Scientific Center.
And for the first time, the Ukrainian Antarctic team will include a woman, biologist Mariya Pavlovska.
The mission will set sail for the icy continent on Jan. 18, the center’s acting director Yevhen Dykiy said during a briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center on Jan. 17.
Through the end of March, it will conduct various types of research at the Vernadsky Research Base, the only Ukrainian station in Antarctica, located on Galindez Island in the Bellingshausen Sea, close to the Antarctic Peninsula, some 2,700 kilometers away from the South Pole.
According to geoscientist Volodymyr Bakhmutov, the team will explore islands near the station and the continent’s coastline, generating 3D models of glaciers, researching various bacteria and viruses, and also the blooming of unicellular algae in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean.
“This is important because the blooming influences the balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” said Pavlovska.
“And this is what directly influences climate change. With research conducted on regular basis, this process could be closely followed, modeled, and forecast.”
Vernadskiy Station, which was established in 1953 by Britain as Faraday Station, was purchased by Ukraine in February 1996 for a symbolic sum worth of just 1 pound sterling. It is normally home to between 10 and 24 polar explorers.
Since then, Ukraine has had 24 crew rotations at the station.
The Ukrainian national flag flutters over the Vernadskiy Station in the Antarctica (Wikipedia)
Apart from scientific activities, the station also regularly welcomes tourists, maintaining a museum of polar research, a souvenir shop, and even a coffee bar in its facilities.
During the Jan. 17 briefing, the scientists also said that the Vernadskiy research teams used to include up to 50 polar explorers, but after 2002 the scientific activities were severely curtailed due to a lack of funding.
In some seasons, the funding was only enough to maintain a minimal year-round staff at the station.
But, the Antarctic Center’s acting director Yevhen Dykiy, a combat veteran of Russia’s war in the Donbas, said that starting from 2019 Ukraine’s missions to Antarctica would be more regular and much broader.
In 2018, the Ministry of Education allocated Hr 15 million ($540,000) for major repairs to the station, while this year the Antarctic mission expects to get more than Hr 27 million ($960,000), including Hr 19 million ($680,000) to modernize the station.
“We are working on making the station a window of opportunity for Ukrainian scientists,” Dykiy said.
“To let them participate in multinational projects, publish in leading international journals without emigrating from our country. Because polar research are in the very focus of attention in global science.”
“Antarctica is a land where can make efforts to save our planet,” said Deputy Education Minister Markym Strikha.
“The data received from the Vernadskiy Station will help us better understand what’s happening with global warming, and the biological diversity that is changing under its influence. All of this will be included in the new Antarctic program (through 2030).”
