SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE 35thINDIANSCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO ANTARCTICA(2015-16)
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences /Climate Change- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
S Gurubaran :
A K Sinha:
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- To determine the substorm onset and location from Antarctic observations.
- Finding the time delay in substorm onset at Maitri and Bharati.
- Finding the extent of the substorm and the possible responsible parameters.
- Examine the auroral westward electrojet at Maitri and Bharati using Magnetometer data.
- To examine the consequence of interplanetary conditions on the Auroral Substorm Absorption (ASA) events over sub-auroral latitude.
- Study of substorm associated dayside CNA and simultaneous pc5 pulsations in geomagnetic field variations.
- To identify the global signatures in atmospheric electrical parameters and distinguish atmospheric, ionospheric and magnetospheric signatures in the surface electrical parameters with the goal of evaluating the electrical response of the atmosphere to magnetospheric influences.
- To monitor the declining strength of the total magnetic Field ‘F’ observed over the last few decades in the Southern Hemisphere, especially over the Antarctic continent and understand the underlying processes responsible for this feature.
- To study the dynamics of the Earth’s crust in the Queen Maud Land area of Schirmarcher Oasis and Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica.
- To study the mass balance and ice dynamics of the Nivlisen ice shelf in Antarctica
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
& ESSO- National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research2, Goa
Rupesh M. Das1-
Sachchidanand
Shailendra
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Study the response of sub-auroral ionospheric region to the geomagnetic sub-storm events.
- Investigation of solar wind – thermospheric – magnetospheric – ionospheric coupling process over sub-auroral region during adverse space weather conditions.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
& ESSO- National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research2, Goa
Rupesh M. Das1-
Sachchidanand Singh1 - nd
Anoop K. Tiwari2-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- To characterize the physical and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosol particles from the pristine environment of Antarctica
- Estimation of aerosol radiative forcing using Aerosol Optical Depth, Radiation Flux in the UV and BroadBand and measurements of Absorbing aerosol (BC).
- Assess the impact of aerosols and its morphology and mineralogical content on radiation budget of polar regions.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Director General, New Delhi
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Further enhancement of Class-I Surface observatory, installation of automatic snow gauge.
- Installation of new AWS, surface Ozone and Ozonesonde measurements.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude,Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Director General, New Delhi
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Study of Antarctic weather and climate; study of Antarctic Ozone and Solar radiation.
- Monitoring surface ozone variations and column Aerosol studies.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude,Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Anoop Mahajan1
and Rahul
- Main Activity/ Remarks
a) Ozone depletion in the troposphere and stratosphere.
b) The oxidising capacity in the remote Southern Ocean and Antarctic atmosphere, including ozone depletion, HOx and NOx ratio changes.
c) Mercury and DMS oxidation and changes to their lifetime.
d) Formation of new particles through iodine oxide coagulation
2) Measure the photolysis dependant fluxes of NOx and HCHO and biological emissions of halogen species over the snowpack and sea ice.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude,Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Anand K. Singh :
& Shailendra Saini:
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Monitoring of ionizing radiation at aviation altitude in Antarctica.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude,Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Biswadip Gharai:
Mahesh Pathakoti-
Prijith S.S-
& Shivali Verma-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Estimation of background concentration of CO2 at Bharati, Antarctica on a continuous basis for a long-term period (5 years).
- Identifying the changes in seasonal and daily amplitudes of CO2 against boundary layer height from high vertical resolution of COSMIC-Radio Occultation (RO) data.
- Identification of source processes leading to black carbon loading over Antarctic region.
- Measurements of BC concentration on snow to understand the BC deposition over Antarctica.
- In-situ measurements on Aerosol Optical Depth, total columnar ozone & water vapour and comparative study against satellite observations.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Jayaprasad
Ram Rajak D - ;
Raj Kumar Kamaljit
Maya Suryavanshi, Monika Gupta and
Sandip R. Oza-:
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Technique development for near-real time sea-ice condition assessment to be used for near real time sea ice advisory to optimum voyage route selection.
- Estimation and assessment of sea-ice type, thickness and fraction.
- Measurements of air temperature, wind speed, SST in high latitude oceans along with cloud/fog conditions.
- Validation of Microwave remote sensing signatures of land/sea ice features in the context of RISAT-1, Resource Sat-2 and SARAL missions.
- Aerial / Field surveys for the identified locations of areas vulnerable deformation (Hot Spots)
- Measurement of surface-/air-temperatures over the ice-shelf and ice sheet area.
- Measuring sub-surface profile using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for estimation of snow depth and ice thickness form the ice-sheet and ice shelf area including Amery Ice-shelf.
- Mapping the Research stations and Surroundings with High resolution satellite data.
- Crevasse Area Detection for convoy routes from RISAT-1 fine resolution datasets.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
H. S. Gusain -
Kamal Kant Singh-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Study of spatial and temporal variation of energy fluxes in shelf and continental ice sheet.
- Study of ice sheet velocity using remote sensing and in situ measurements.
- Thickness mapping along the grounding line using GPR and remote sensing techniques.
- Mapping of crevasse vulnerable zones and probable shelf ice break.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
K Satheesan:
T Narayana Rao:
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Use radar observations of atmospheric structure and turbulence, in the polar troposphere and lower stratosphere, to improve and validate models of air transport, particularly in relation to vertical transport and mixing, in different meteorological conditions.
- Extend possibilities to utilize radar measurements of ice-cloud layers in the polar summer mesosphere to improve understanding of middle atmosphere dynamics and composition on a global scale.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
S. Suresh Babu- ,
G. Ramkumar- ,
R.K. Choudhary-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Study of long term changes in the physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosols in polar atmosphere, quantify the effect of long range transport, and estimate radiative impact.
- Estimate snow scavenging of aerosols and deposition of soot in ice and to study the physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosols in Snow and the corresponding changes in snow albedo.
- Quantify the anthropogenic influence in Antarctic atmosphere to delineate local and long-range transport.
- Investigate the Atmospheric boundary layer characteristics and vertical flux of energy and momentum.
- Study of vertical distribution of aerosols, water vapor and clouds.
- Vertical distribution of ozone, its temporal variation and role of chemistry and dynamics in its variability.
- To study the dynamical coupling between troposphere and stratosphere through planetary and gravity waves.
- To understand the exchange process across the polar tropopause by measuring vertical profiles of ozone.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Sandip K. Chakrabarti-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Ms Rajashree V
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- To develop the operational products in cryosphere for Antarctica under National Information System for Climate & Environment Studies (NICES) programme.
- To collect field data to identify snow& ice conditions.
Biology and Environmental Science
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Anoop Kumar Tiwari-
Tanu Jindal-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- To monitor the environment through various indicators in and around research stations (Maitri and Bharati) in Antarctica
- To improve environmental health of Maitri station by installing new system and tuning old systems.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
ESSO- National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa
Asif Qureshi-
Anoop Kumar Tiwari-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Long-term (multi-year) measurements of mercury in the Antarctic environment, including air, water and biota.
- Analysis of temporal trends in observations.
- Assessing the changes in global emissions, fate and transport characteristics of mercury, including possible effects of climate change.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
K. Sivakumar-
and S. Sathyakumar-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Monitor indicator species such as penguins and seabirds in the Indian sector of operation in Antarctica using satellite telemetry and genetic sampling.
- To assess habitat use by the tagged individuals and determine key habitats for the species.
- To monitor any changes in the movement patterns over years correlated with climate change.
- Mapping of distribution pattern of ice-breeding seals at Larsemann Hills and India Bay.
- Develop a long-term monitoring for wildlife in Indian sector of operation in Antarctica.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Devendra Singh-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Survey, collection, identification and study of species distribution of bryophytes.
- Bryo-floral documentation with discovery of new species, new records, endemic elements, etc.
- Preparation of identification manual/ flora comprising key to the families, genera and species, taxonomic descriptions with colour photographs/line drawing illustrations.
- Comparison on the existing flora with the flora of other Antarctic and alpine regions of the Indian Himalayas.
- Carry out phytosociological studies to understand vegetation pattern and structure.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
A K Bakshi-
Rupali Pal-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Measurement of radiation level due to cosmic rays and terrestrial radiation at and around Bharati Station, Antarctica using on-line and passive dosimeters.
Human Phsiology & Medicine
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
M.Saha-
K.Halder-
A. Pathak -
& T. Chospel-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Introduction of yoga practices to Antarctica Expedition team members in order to improve their health and efficiency.
- To enhance the emotional wellbeing and coping skills for facilitating psychophysiological adaptation in expeditioners through integrated yoga practice
Earth Science, Glaciology and Global Change
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude,Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Vineet K Gahalaut -
& J.K.Catherine-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Seismological and geodetic studies in the Antarctica.
- Project Name/Number
- Discipline
- Location (Site Name, Latitude, Longitude)
- Principal Investigator
Alvarinho J Luis-
- Main Activity/ Remarks
- Quantifying changes in thermohaline structure with reference to frontal meandering, with special focus on region south of ACC front;
- Computation of annual upper-ocean heat and salt content in the coastal Antarctica by using expendable probe data and other data;
- Water mass distribution and their mixing characteristics;
- Monitoring of geostrophic circulation and transport and its temporal variation across the region between Africa and Antarctica;
- Summer fresh water thickness resulting from sea ice melting along the meridional transect in the coastal Antarctica; and
- Construction of empirical models of upper-ocean temperature and dynamic topography from satellite altimeter data to infer baroclinic transports.
- Project Name/Number