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Mahesh

19/12/23 07:00 AM IST

India set to man its Arctic base around the year with new expedition

In News
  • This week, India will script history by commencing year-round observations in Svalbard, the world’s northern-most inhabited place, in the Arctic.
Arctic region
  • The region above the Arctic Circle, north of latitude 66° 34’ N, includes the Arctic Ocean.
  • Scientific evidence has shown that the Arctic ice and the sea ice have the potential to affect humans outside the Arctic region, as sea levels rise, and to influence atmospheric circulations.
  • Climate experts have found that on average, temperatures in the Arctic region have risen by 4 degrees Celsius over the last 100 years.
  • The Arctic sea-ice extent (the ice formed by the freezing of seawater) is declining at a rate of 13 per cent per decade. At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could go ice-free sometime during the summer of 2040.
  • Studies have demonstrated that the increased Arctic sea-ice loss could lead to a greater tropical sea surface temperature, increased precipitation in the tropics, and a shift in the position of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (the region of the Earth where northeast and southeast trade winds converge).
  • There are also high chances for an increase in extreme rainfall events.
  • With such unprecedented changes owing to global warming, the Arctic could become a more habitable and less hostile place.
Challenges
  • First, there are challenges related to the environment. At the research base Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway, the mean temperature in February – the year’s coldest month – is minus 14 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, the mean temperature during the warmest month, July, is 5 degrees Celsius.
  • Due to such a hostile environment, performing both outdoor and indoor scientific observations or sampling has remained largely limited to the summer months. So far, only three research stations have had permanent staff deployment in the Arctic round-the-year.
  • Further, Eight Arctic countries – Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA – form the Arctic Council. It is an intergovernmental forum of Arctic countries for promoting cooperation.
  • India has ‘Observer’ status here.
India Expedition
  • It is being funded by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.
  • Scheduled between December 19, 2023, and January 15, 2024, the expedition comprises researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, IIT-Mandi, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, and Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, the nodal agency for India’s polar explorations.
  • The winter expedition covers a range of research areas, from atmospheric sciences, astronomy and astrophysics to climate studies.
  • The focus will be on studying lightning over the Arctic in the winter, the role of precipitation on climate change, the characterisation of radio frequency environment and the role of aerosols on climate change.
  • The team will be stationed at Himadri, India’s only research station located in Ny-Ålesund. It is located about 1,200 kilometres from the North Pole.
Significance
  • India signed the Svalbard Treaty in Paris in 1920. This allowed it to operate in the Svalbard archipelago, which is under the sovereign control of Norway. But there was no concrete research taken up in the Arctic region till the turn of the century.
  • In 2007, the first Indian expedition comprising five scientists visited the International Arctic Research Facilities at Ny-Ålesund. The visit aimed at initiating studies in the fields of Arctic microbiology, atmospheric sciences and geology.
  • Following a successful visit, Himadri was established and would be manned only for 180 days a year. This station has, so far, hosted over 400 Indian researchers across 200 visits since its operations began in July 2008.
  • In May 2022, India released its Arctic Policy, which details six pillars – science and research, climate and environment protection, economic and human development, transportation and connectivity, governance and international cooperation and national capacity building.
  • Further, India is a member of the Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee, the International Arctic Science Committee, the University of Arctic and the Asian Forum for Polar Sciences.
Other countries
  • In 1990, the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan, was the first to establish a research station in Ny-Ålesund.
  • Located 2,100 km north of Norway’s capital Oslo, Ny-Ålesund has ten countries: China, Germany, France, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
  • They have set up eleven permanent research stations. Of these, only three stations have human presence around the year, until now.
Source- Indian Express

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