A team of scientists from EPFL, CNRS, CEA, and École polytechnique de Paris will be in Antarctica from December 2024 to mid-January 2025. As part of the AWACA project, they are installing innovative observation systems designed to predict the evolution of the ice cap over the next 100 years.
From early December 2024 until mid-January 2025, a series of observation systems will be deployed by the AWACA project in Antarctica. Autonomous and capable of operating continuously for three years in extreme weather conditions, these innovative instruments will be installed along a 1,100 km transect between the Dumont d'Urville and Concordia stations. They will make it possible to study -- for the first time on such a scale -- the meteorological processes involved in the accumulation of snow in Antarctica, with a view to better predicting the evolution of the ice cap over the next 100 years.
This ambitious mission is overseen by scientists from the CNRS, CEA, l'École polytechnique of Paris, and the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). The deployment of these instruments, a genuine logistical challenge, is managed by teams from the French Polar Institute. This research received funding from the European Research Council.
Rising water levels in the future, in the context of global warming, mostly depend on the quantity of water stored in the form of snow and ice within the Antarctic ice cap. The AWACA project will make field measurements of unprecedented scope in order to improve our knowledge of the atmospheric aspects of the water cycle and snow formation in Antarctica.
The observations made regarding our climate will greatly improve climate models, with the goal of eventually reconstructing the climate variability for Antarctica over the last millennium, and predicting that of the next 100 years. From 2 December 2024 until mid-January 2025, a scientific trek conceived by the French Polar Institute will deploy measurement and observation instruments along a 1,100 km transect representative of the various climate regions of East Antarctica.
The fruit of a three-year technical and instrumental effort, the observation systems specially designed for the project will provide accurate data for the properties of the droplets and crystals that form clouds and precipitation, as well as for how they contribute to the accumulation of snow on the surface. A major component of the project will also focus on studying water isotopes, invaluable sources of information on the origin of air masses and their successive changes of state.
Once in place, the observation systems located along the transect will make readings continuously, and for those located outside of permanent stations entirely autonomously as well. They can operate for at least three years in the extreme weather conditions of Antarctica, a technical feat! Annual maintenance will be provided by the teams during Antarctic summer campaigns via the deployment of long-distance control treks.
The AWACA project is co-directed by scientists from the CNRS, the CEA, l'École polytechnique of Paris, and the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne working in various laboratories. The research project involves technicians, engineers, and researchers, in addition to specialists in meteorological observations, instrumentation in extreme conditions, and atmosphere and climate modelling.