India’s 1st Arctic Winter Expedition: ‘Research station Himadri now equipped to support operations during polar nights’

Indian Arctic Winter Expedition

Dr Thamban Meloth, director, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) (Source: NCPOR)

This week, India will script history by commencing year-round observations in Svalbard, the world’s northern-most inhabited place, in the Arctic. Excerpts from an interview with Dr Thamban Meloth, director of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, who was himself at the research station, Himadri, during the late winter of 2012. He speaks on the significance of India’s maiden Arctic winter expedition.

Why is India undertaking winter expeditions to the Arctic?

With our vision to transform Indian scientific endeavours with a pan-Arctic approach, year-round observations in Svalbard region have become critical. It would cater to new scientific projects in atmospheric and space sciences.

The observations from Himadri station’s year-round operations will address the knowledge gap and data deficiency during winter polar nights, especially in atmospheric and biological sciences and space physics.

Indian Winter Arctic Expedition

Himadri, India’s research base in the Arctic. (Source: NCPOR)

Can you briefly describe the Himadri station and India’s facilities in the Arctic?

The Himadri station is situated in the Ny-Alesund region of Svalbard, which is the designated place for global scientific research in Svalbard, facilitated by Norway. It is a small station with facilities for laboratories and accommodation for eight people.

Further, India has an atmospheric science facility called Gruvebadet Observatory that houses various atmospheric observation networks. The country has initiated new scientific projects in the Canadian High Arctic (Nunavut region) and plans to initiate studies in Greenland soon.

What makes the Arctic challenging for scientific explorations?

The Arctic region has its own challenges in terms of limited access, harsh climate, several months of darkness and, most importantly, the presence of dangerous wildlife like polar bears. While the Antarctic is harsher and more remote for exploration, the Arctic is challenging mainly because of the limited space for independent studies.

Unlike Antarctica, which is governed by the Antarctic Treaty, the Arctic region belongs to various national jurisdictions. And various geopolitical complications, such as the current war between Ukraine and Russia, have made half of the Arctic region (the Russian Arctic) inaccessible to the world.

Compared to the number of expeditions to Antarctica, why has India undertaken fewer and only summer-time expeditions to the Arctic?

Antarctica is a large continent, measuring more than four times the size of India. It is a no-man’s land governed by an independent treaty called the Antarctic Treaty. Thus, the Antarctic is open for all countries to set up stations and facilities to undertake scientific studies. Whereas, the Arctic has limited space for independent studies as the region belongs to various Arctic countries with national jurisdictions and competing interests.

In the absence of facilities for wintering observations and sampling, we had restricted our activities to mostly spring-summer-autumn time till now. Given that more scientific studies were needed to be taken up in the Arctic, India required to build sufficient relationships with the Arctic countries in order to plan our studies, ensuring that they complement the existing ones. Since 2007, India has been very regular and active in the Svalbard region.

In terms of special preparations, how is the winter expedition different from the ones in summer?

We have equipped Himadri station for colder and darker polar nights (nights lasting more than 24 hours), with additional protective measures for both people and the building. The Norwegian government agency is supporting us with logistic facilities to transport people and is also providing operational facilities for undertaking studies during the dark polar nights.

Arrangements of special Antarctic-like winter clothing and local transportation facilities, like skidoos, have been made. The additional expenses towards wintering at the Himadri station will be about Rs 1 crore, as our major activities happen during the remaining seasons.

The major difference between the summer and the winter expedition is that during the latter, there would be darkness with very few hours of twilight. This will make sure that our studies would be restricted mostly to those that use observational platforms established on the Himadri station or the Gruvebadet Observatory.

Our station, Himadri, is now equipped with the necessary facilities to support the operations during polar nights.

What kind of projects is NCPOR on the lookout for from young researchers?

What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. The Arctic warming and the changes are already impacting us, with clear evidence pointing out that many of the extreme precipitation events happening in India have its origins in the loss of Arctic sea-ice. Our studies also reveal that the increased intensification of Arabian Sea cyclones are associated with a warmer Arctic.

All this makes the Arctic the most happening and interesting place to better understand climate change and its impacts.

Further, the Arctic is a natural laboratory for understanding life and life adaptations in extreme conditions. There are huge opportunities to establish experiments to understand the ongoing warming and its potential connection with tropical climate.

Polar-tropical climate teleconnections are one of the least understood phenomena, and studies on this would ultimately help us to better predict the monsoon vagaries on a decadal scale.

Unlike other seasons, we are approving only those projects that have strong justifications to undertake studies during the winter season – like atmospheric and space physics studies, especially on special phenomena like the aurora.

The NCPOR, the nodal agency for India’s polar expeditions, welcomes scientific proposals that come broadly under the branches of marine, cryosphere and atmospheric sciences, space physics and biosciences.

Anjali Marar works at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru.

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