Neumayer III and Kohnen Station in Antarctica operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute

The Alfred Wegener Institute operates two stations in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The German overwintering station Neumayer III is located on the Ekström Ice Shelf at 70°40’S and 08°16’W and is the logistics base for three long-term observatories (meteorology, air chemistry and geophysics) and nearby research activities. Due to the vicinity to the coast (ca. 20 km from the ice shelf edge), the Neumayer III Station is the junction for many German Antarctic expeditions, especially as the starting point for the supply traverse for the second German station Kohnen.The summer station Kohnen is located about 600 km from the coast and 750 km from Neumayer III Station on the Antarctic plateau at 75°S and 00°04’E. It was erected as the base for the deep-drilling ice core project, which took place between 2001 and 2006. Since then Kohnen Station is used as a logistics base for different research projects

The Gender Factor

Purpose Antarctic residence holds many challenges to human physiology, like increased psycho-social tension and altered circadian rhythm, known to influence sleep. We assessed changes in sleep patterns during 13 months of overwintering at the German Stations Neumayer II and III from 2008 to 2014, with focus on gender, as many previous investigations were inconclusive regarding gender-based differences or had only included men. Materials & Methods Time in bed, sleep time, sleep efficiency, number of arousals, sleep latency, sleep onset, sleep offset, and physical activity level were determined twice per month during seven overwintering campaigns of n = 54 participants (37 male, 17 female) using actimetry. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression and analysis of covariance for change over time with the covariates gender, inhabited station, overwintering season and influence of physical activity and local sunshine radiation. Results We found overall longer times in bed (p = 0.004) and sleep time (p = 0.014) for women. The covariate gender had a significant influence on time in bed (p<0.001), sleep time (p<0.001), number of arousals (p = 0.04), sleep latency (p = 0.04), and sleep onset (p<0.001). Women separately (p = 0.02), but not men (p = 0.165), showed a linear increase in number of arousals. Physical activity decreased over overwintering time for men (p = 0.003), but not for women (p = 0.174). The decline in local sunshine radiation led to a 48 minutes longer time in bed (p<0.001), 3.8% lower sleep efficiency (p<0.001), a delay of 32 minutes in sleep onset (p<0.001), a delay of 54 minutes in sleep offset (p<0.001), and 11% less daily energy expenditure (p<0.001), for all participants in reaction to the Antarctic winter’s darkness-phase. Conclusions Overwinterings at the Stations Neumayer II and III are associated with significant changes in sleep patterns, with dependences from overwintering time and local sunshine radiation. Gender appears to be an influence, as women showed a declining sleep quality, despite that their physical activity remained unchanged, suggesting other causes such as a higher susceptibility to psycho-social stress and changes in environmental circadian rhythm during long-term isolation in Antarctica

Modulations of Neuroendocrine Stress Responses During Confinement in Antarctica and the Role of Hypobaric Hypoxia

The Antarctic continent is an environment of extreme conditions. Only few research stations exist that are occupied throughout the year. The German station Neumayer III and the French-Italian Concordia station are such research platforms and human outposts. The seasonal shifts of complete daylight (summer) to complete darkness (winter) as well as massive changes in outside temperatures (down to -80 degrees C at Concordia) during winter result in complete confinement of the crews from the outside world. In addition, the crew at Concordia is subjected to hypobaric hypoxia of similar to 650 hPa as the station is situated at high altitude (3,233 m). We studied three expedition crews at Neumayer Ill (sea level) (n = 16) and two at Concordia (high altitude) (n = 15) to determine the effects of hypobaric hypoxia on hormonal/metabolic stress parameters [endocannabinoids (ECs), catecholamines, and glucocorticoids] and evaluated the psychological stress over a period of 11 months including winter confinement. In the Neumayer III (sea level) crew, EC and n-acylethanolamide (NAE) concentrations increased significantly already at the beginning of the deployment (p < 0.001) whereas catecholamines and cortisol remained unaffected. Over the year, ECs and NAEs stayed elevated and fluctuated before slowly decreasing till the end of the deployment. The classical stress hormones showed small increases in the last third of deployment. By contrast, at Concordia (high altitude), norepinephrine concentrations increased significantly at the beginning (p < 0.001) which was paralleled by low EC levels. Prior to the second half of deployment, norepinephrine declined constantly to end on a low plateau level, whereas then the EC concentrations increased significantly in this second period during the overwintering (p < 0.001). Psychometric data showed no significant changes in the crews at either station. These findings demonstrate that exposition of healthy humans to the physically challenging extreme environment of Antarctica (i) has a distinct modulating effect on stress responses. Additionally, (ii) acute high altitude/hypobaric hypoxia at the beginning seem to trigger catecholamine release that downregulates the EC response. These results (iii) are not associated with psychological stress

Introducing EDEN ISS - A European project on advancing plant cultivation technologies and operations

Plant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The EDEN ISS project foresees development and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies, suitable for future deployment on the International Space Station and from a long-term perspective, within Moon and Mars habitats. The EDEN ISS consortium will design and test essential plant cultivation technologies using an International Standard Payload Rack form factor cultivation system for potential testing on-board the International Space Station. Furthermore, a Future Exploration Greenhouse will be designed with respect to future planetary bio-regenerative life support system deployments. The technologies will be tested in a laboratory environment as well as at the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III. A small and mobile container-sized test facility will be built in order to provide realistic mass flow relationships. In addition to technology development and validation, food safety and plant handling procedures will be developed. This paper describes the goals and objectives of EDEN ISS and the different project phases and milestones. Furthermore, the project consortium will be introduced and the role of each partner within the project is explained

Master tracks in different resolutions of POLARSTERN cruise PS125, Port Stanley - Bremerhaven, 2021-04-02 – 2021-04-29

Raw data acquired by position sensors on board RV Polarstern during expedition PS125 was processed to receive a validated master track which can be used as reference of further expedition data. During PS125 two Trimble Marine SPS461 GPS receivers and the iXBlue HYDRINS hydrographic survey inertial navigation system were used as navigation sensors. Data were downloaded from DAVIS SHIP data base (https://dship.awi.de) with a resolution of 1 sec. Processing and evaluation of the data is outlined in the data processing report found at EPIC repository https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.f0d55197-fb32-47f1-80bb-7c960dc8f36b. Processed data are provided as a master track with 1 sec resolution derived from the position sensors' data selected by priority and a generalized track with a reduced set of the most significant positions of the master track

Master track of POLARSTERN cruise PS125 in 1 sec resolution (zipped, 14 MB)

Raw data acquired by position sensors on board RV Polarstern during expedition PS125 was processed to receive a validated master track which can be used as reference of further expedition data. During PS125 two Trimble Marine SPS461 GPS receivers and the iXBlue HYDRINS hydrographic survey inertial navigation system were used as navigation sensors. Data were downloaded from DAVIS SHIP data base (https://dship.awi.de) with a resolution of 1 sec. Processing and evaluation of the data is outlined in the data processing report found at EPIC repository https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.f0d55197-fb32-47f1-80bb-7c960dc8f36b. Processed data are provided as a master track with 1 sec resolution derived from the position sensors' data selected by priority and a generalized track with a reduced set of the most significant positions of the master track

Continuous thermosalinograph oceanography along RV POLARSTERN cruise track PS125

Raw data acquired by two SBE21 thermosalinograph and two auxiliary SBE38 temperature sensor (Sea-Bird Scientific, USA) installed in an underway seawater flow-through system on board RV Polarstern were processed to yield a calibrated and validated data set of temperature and salinity along the cruise track. Data were downloaded from DAVIS SHIP data base (https://dship.awi.de) at a resolution of 1 sec, and converted to temperature and conductivity using the pre-deployment factory calibration coefficients. The converted data were averaged to 1 min values, outliers were removed, and sensor drift was corrected using coefficients obtained from a post-season calibration performed at Sea-Bird at the end of the measurement season. Salinity was calculated from internal temperature, conductivity and pressure according to the PSS-78 Practical Salinity Scale. Processed data are provided as 1 min means of seawater temperature, conductivity and salinity, aligned with position data taken from the master track. Quality flags are appended according to the SeaDataNet Data Quality Control Procedures (version from May 2010). More details are described in the attached processing report

Crevasse Detection for Safety Issues During the Antarctic Winter using High‐Resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imagery

The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging technique enables the mapping of the Earth’s surface independent of weather and light conditions, which makes it a suitable instrument during Antarctic winters. Since the early 1990s, imaging radar techniques have been established in polar sciences. The imagery can be used to support Antarctic wintering staff; e.g. to detect crevasses or other surface features. To do so, the radar backscattering behaviour of homogeneous (undisturbed) and heterogeneous (crevassed) areas is used to map crevasse fields or ice edges. A semi‐automatic technique of surface feature detection can help to process the data more rapidly. Nevertheless, an experienced observer is crucial in emergency cases