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The first winter in Antarctica at the French-Italian Station Concordia
On 10th February 2005 the last seasonal flight of the light aircraft Twin Otter took back, from Dome C to Mario Zucchelli Station, the personnel of the XX summer expedition bound to Italy. In that very moment the first winter season at the French-Italian Station Concordia started. The winter season began, to be concluded only on 5th November 2005 when the Twin Otter made the return flight, the first one of the new season, carrying the fresh personnel of the XXI expedition.
Located on the polar plateau Concordia Station is the result of a French-Italian effort which begun in 1993 with the collaboration between the Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and the Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA). The Station, at 3230 metres a.s.l., was built during the last five summer seasons which, from a practical standpoint, are only 10 weeks long each.
Building a Station in such a harsh site turned out to be a bold enterprise. One has to take into account the large distances involved and the low temperatures. The French Station Dumont d'Urville is about 1,100 km distant from Concordia, while the Italian Mario Zucchelli Station at Terra Nova Bay is about 1,200 km. During the year the temperature ranges between -50°C to -80°C and, for example, during the winter 2005 the low of -78°C was recorded. The builders faced additional difficulties due to low oxygen content of the air. It is not easy to raise a building 14 metres tall in a place where the air is so thin that it would correspond at our latitudes to an elevation of 4000 metres.
Actually the environment at Dome C is a white desert where not even the smallest and simplest organism can survive. No noise all around apart from the wind. While the scientific research has been the ultimate motivation to build Concordia, the realisation of the Station has been in itself a frontiere exploit both for the technology and logistics involved as well as for the skills required to the personnel.
The first winter season at Concordia was aimed at testing and qualifying all Station's systems and plants. And when the mission was under planning a particular care was put to the safety systems, taking into account the extreme isolation of the site and the hostile environment.
The winter team was made of 13 persons, 11 French and 2 Italian, with duties as follow. Michel Munoz, head of the team and plumber; Roberto Dicasillati, medical doctor and research-worker in biology and medicine; Claire Le Calvez responsible for the technical services and the technology of the Station; Stephane Beausire, multi-competence engineer; Pascal Bordais, computer systems; Jean Louis Duraffourg, chef; Jean Elegoet, mechanical engineer; Michel Galland, electrical/mechanical engineer; Jean Francois Jurvilliers, multi-competence engineer; Christophe Mozer, mechanical engineer and responsible of the power station; Karim Agabi, astrophysicist; Guillame Dargaud, research-worker in atmospheric physics; Emanuele Salvietti, glaciologist.
Work at the Station during all winter was continuos and binding, also as a consequence of the fact that minor parts of the plants had to be finished and final touches were missing.
To the activities aimed at the completion and technical checks at Concordia Station one has to add the checking, starting up and the operation at low temperature of the plants left at the neighbouring Summer Camp, a facility which had been used during the construction of Concordia and should be used in case of an emergency occurring at the Station.
All the above required a hard work from everybody, which often extended in the evening hours beyond dinner time and required that personnel devoted himself to all necessary tasks, e.g. helping in the kitchen, or in the mechanical or the joiner's shop. At the end of winter the Station appeared nearly completed to the newcomers of the XXI expedition.
When the winter period was over the French and Italian personnel passed medical and psychological tests in order to ascertain their physical and psychological conditions. According to the results of the screening the conditions of the winter personnel appeared quite satisfactory.
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| Photo by Sergio Tugnoli |
Some links:
- Vidéo-transmission avec la Station Concordia (in French)
- Mission To Mars Via Antarctica
- Primo inverno in Antartide per la Stazione italo-francese Concordia (in Italian)
- Neuf mois d’hivernage dans le désert blanc (in French)
- Concordia's First Winter on the High Antarctic Plateau
- Concordia, une nouvelle station en Antarctique (in French)
- The first winter-over at Concordia
- Premier Hivernage au Dôme C (in French)
- Winter site testing at Dome C, Antarctica: first results
- First whole atmosphere night-time seeing measurements at Dome C
- Observation of snow crystals at Dome C
- The daily life at Concordia base
- The first sunrise