ISRO sends four teams to 36th Expedition to Antarctica

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in March 2017 announced that it has sent four teams to install stakes on ice for Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) to validate the glacier surface velocity.

The teams will mount the stakes around Indian station known as Bharati and Maitri.

Key highlights

• One team is from Space Application Center and the second team is from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). The third and fourth team belongs to IRS Dehradun and Space Physics Laboratory.

• The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences organizes the Indian Scientific Mission to Antarctica (ISEA) every year.

• Climate change is the thrust area of the 36th ISEA.

• The mission aims to install stakes on the ice for DGPS measurements. These teams will study and collect the data from the satellite.

• Based on the data collected, the teams will validate the glacier surface velocity in order to measure the thickness of snow over the land and sea using GPR’s.

• Further, the teams will also verify the situations of snow over the sea and land ice.

• In addition, these four teams will study snow melt and freeze dynamics on Antarctica. They will use space-based and ground-based facts and data to research on this.

About Indian Antarctic Program

• The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program.

• It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica.

• It gained global acceptance with India's signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983. The base was superseded by the Maitri base from 1990.

• The newest Indian base at the continent, Bharati, was commissioned in 2015. It is constructed out of 134 shipping containers.