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Concordia Station | |
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 Concordia Research Station at dome Circe, Charlie or Concordia. | |
  Concordia Station Location of Condordia Station inAntarctica | |
| Coordinates:75°05′59″S123°19′56″E / 75.099780°S 123.332196°E /-75.099780; 123.332196 | |
| Country |  France Italy |
| Location in Antarctica | Dome C Antarctic Plateau |
| Administered by | PRNA IPEV |
| Established | 2005 (2005) |
| Elevation | 3,233 m (10,607 ft) |
| Population (2017)[1] | |
| • Summer | 70 |
| • Winter | 13 |
| UN/LOCODE | AQ CON |
| Type | All Year-round |
| Period | Annual |
| Status | Operational |
| Activities | List
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| Website | Concordia Institut Polaire Français |
Concordia Research Station, which opened in 2005, is a French–Italian research facility managed by l'Institut polaire français Paul-Émile Victor andProgramma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide, that was built 3,233 m (10,607 ft) above sea level on a geographical formation known asdôme C, on theAntarctic Plateau,Antarctica. It is located 1,100 km (680 mi) inland from the French research station atDumont D'Urville, 1,100 km (680 mi) inland from Australia'sCasey Station and 1,200 km (750 mi) inland from the ItalianZucchelli Station atTerra Nova Bay. Russia'sVostok Station is 560 km (350 mi) away. TheGeographic South Pole is 1,670 km (1,040 mi) away. The facility is also located within Australia's claim on Antarctica, theAustralian Antarctic Territory.
Concordia Station is the third permanent, all-year research station on the Antarctic Plateau besidesVostok Station and theAmundsen–Scott South Pole Station (U.S.) at the Geographic South Pole. It is jointly operated by scientists fromFrance andItaly and regularly hostsESA scientists.
The station is also known asConcordia camp, and previously asDome Charlie.[2]
The first research work at dôme C began during 1978. In 1982 the French first had the idea to build a permanent base at thedôme.
In 1992, France built a new station on the Antarctic Plateau. The program was later joined by Italy in 1993.
In 1995, Pr. Jean Vernin fromUniversity of Nice Sophia-Antipolis and Pr. Giorgio Dall'Oglio fromUniversity of Rome performed the first scientific experience towards a site qualification at dôme C.
In 1996, a French-Italian team established a summer camp at dôme C. The two main objectives of the camp were the provision of logistical support for theEuropean Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) and the construction of a permanent research station.
The new all-year facility,Concordia Station, became operational in 2005. The first winterover began with a staff of 13 (eleven French and 2 Italians) in February 2005.
While the station has been in use for summer campaigns since December 1997, the first winterover (February to October) was only made in 2005. During this period, the station is inaccessible, requiring total autonomy.
The first winter began in mid-February 2005, with thirteen wintering (eleven French people and two Italians).
During February 2022 initial ice core extraction of theBeyond Epica-Oldest Ice research activity was completed, located 34 km from the station.[3]
Most of the cargo is moved to Dome C by traverse (called raid)[4] fromDumont d'Urville Station, covering 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) in 7 to 12 days depending on weather conditions. Station personnel and light cargo arrive by air, landing on a Skiway, using theTwin Otters orBasler BT-67 flying from DDU orZucchelli Station at 1,200 kilometres (750 mi).
Dome C is situated on top of the Antarctic Plateau. No animals or plants live at a distance of more than a few tens of kilometers from theSouthern Ocean. However,south polar skuas have been spotted overflying the station, 1,200 km away from their nearest food sources. It is believed that these birds have learned to cross the continent instead of circumnavigating it.
Concordia Station shares many stressor characteristics similar to that of long-duration deep-space missions, in particular extreme isolation and confinement, and therefore serves as a useful analogue platform for research relevant to space medicine. During the winter, the crew are isolated from the outside world, having no transportation and limited communication[5] for 9 months and live a prolonged period in complete darkness, at an altitude almost equivalent to 4000m at the equator. This creates physiological and psychological strains on the crew. Concordia station is particularly useful for the study of chronic hypobaric hypoxia, stress secondary to confinement and isolation, circadian rhythm and sleep disruption, individual and group psychology, telemedicine, and astrobiology. Concordia station has been proposed as one of the real-life Earth-based analogues for long-duration deep-space missions.[6]
In the 1970s, Dome C was the site ofice core drilling by field teams of several nations.In the 1990s, Dome C was chosen for deep ice core drilling by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA). Drilling at Dome C began in 1996 and was completed on 21 December 2004, reaching a drilling depth of 3270.2 m, 5 m above bedrock. The age of the oldest recovered ice is estimated to be ca. 900,000 years.[7]
Concordia Station has been identified as a suitable location for astronomical observations.[8] The transparency of the Antarctic atmosphere permits the observation of stars even when thesun is at an elevation angle of 38°. Other advantages include the very lowinfrared sky emission, the high percentage ofcloud-free time and the lowaerosol anddust content of theatmosphere.[citation needed]
Themedian seeing measured with a DIMM Differential Image Motion Monitor[9] placed on top of an 8.5 m high tower is 1.3 ± 0.8arcseconds. This is significantly worse than most major observatory sites, but similar to other observatories in Antarctica. However, Lawrenceet al. considered other features of the site and concluded that "Dome C is the best ground-based site to develop a new astronomical observatory",[10] a conclusion made before whole-atmospheric seeing measurements had been made at Dome C.
Thanks to the Single Star Scidar SSS, Vernin, Chadid and Aristidiet al.[11] and Giordano, Vernin and Chadidet al.[12] finally demonstrated that most of the optical turbulence is concentrated within the first 30 m atmospheric level at Dome C. The rest of the atmosphere is very quiet with aseeing of about 0.3-0.4arcseconds, and the overall seeing is somewhat around 1.0 arcseconds.
Launched in 2007, PAIX, the first robotic multi-color AntarcticaPhotometer[13] gives a new insight to cope with unresolved stellar enigma and stellar oscillation challenges. Chadid, Vernin, Preston et al.[14] implement, for the first time from the ground, a new way to study the stellaroscillations, pulsations and their evolutionary properties with long uninterrupted and continuous precision observations over 150 days, andwithout the regular interruptions imposed by theEarth rotation. PAIX achieves astrophysicalUBVRI bandstime-series measurements ofstellar physics fields, rivalingphotometry fromspace.[15]
The Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP) programme is composed of two telescopes: a 10 cm refractor installed in 2008, and a 40 cm telescope installed in 2010 and upgraded in 2022.[16][17][18]
The climate at Dome C where Concordia Station is located is frigid all year round, being one of the coldest places on Earth. It has apolarice cap climate (KöppenEF), with maximums ranging from −24.8 °C (−12.6 °F) in December to −62 °C (−80 °F) in May, mean ranging from −30.4 °C (−22.7 °F) in December to −65.3 °C (−85.5 °F) in May and minimums ranging from −36.1 °C (−33.0 °F) in December to −68.7 °C (−91.7 °F) in May. The annual average air temperature is −54.5 °C (−66.1 °F). The station has never recorded a temperature above freezing; the warmest temperature recorded was −5.4 °C (22.3 °F) in January. Temperatures can fall below −80 °C (−112 °F) in winter, and the coldest recorded temperature was −84.6 °C (−120.3 °F) in August 2010; one of the coldest temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Humidity is low and it is also very dry, with very little precipitation throughout the year.
Dome C does not experience thekatabatic winds typical for the coastal regions of Antarctica because of its elevated location and its relative distance from the edges of the Antarctic Plateau. Typical wind speed in winter is 2.8 m/s.
| Climate data for Concordia | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | −5.4 (22.3) | −12.9 (8.8) | −11.5 (11.3) | −32.9 (−27.2) | −28.5 (−19.3) | −30.2 (−22.4) | −25.4 (−13.7) | −26.5 (−15.7) | −30.3 (−22.5) | −23.1 (−9.6) | −17.0 (1.4) | −9.4 (15.1) | −5.4 (22.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −24.9 (−12.8) | −33.7 (−28.7) | −48.7 (−55.7) | −58.5 (−73.3) | −62.0 (−79.6) | −58.9 (−74.0) | −58.4 (−73.1) | −57.8 (−72.0) | −54.1 (−65.4) | −44.8 (−48.6) | −32.5 (−26.5) | −24.8 (−12.6) | −46.6 (−51.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −31.1 (−24.0) | −40.6 (−41.1) | −54.0 (−65.2) | −61.9 (−79.4) | −65.3 (−85.5) | −62.3 (−80.1) | −62.1 (−79.8) | −61.7 (−79.1) | −59.5 (−75.1) | −52.2 (−62.0) | −39.3 (−38.7) | −30.4 (−22.7) | −51.7 (−61.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −37.5 (−35.5) | −47.7 (−53.9) | −59.4 (−74.9) | −65.4 (−85.7) | −68.7 (−91.7) | −65.8 (−86.4) | −66.0 (−86.8) | −65.8 (−86.4) | −65.2 (−85.4) | −59.8 (−75.6) | −46.2 (−51.2) | −36.1 (−33.0) | −57.0 (−70.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −49.8 (−57.6) | −60.0 (−76.0) | −74.2 (−101.6) | −78 (−108) | −79.6 (−111.3) | −82.2 (−116.0) | −82.3 (−116.1) | −84.6 (−120.3) | −81.9 (−115.4) | −74.0 (−101.2) | −61.9 (−79.4) | −45.9 (−50.6) | −84.6 (−120.3) |
| Source:[19][20][21] | |||||||||||||
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