Outline of the activities by the 39th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-39) wintering party, 1998-1999

Abstract

The 39th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-39) wintering party consisted of 39 members (leader K. Shibuya), and conducted observational and logistical programs under the framework of the Vth five-year JARE programme. Although some malfunctioning occurred in the station observation instruments during the power failure on 12 May 1998,and a heavy blizzard during 3-5 June 1998. the observations generally continued without serious problems. Newly started observations included the Automatic Meteorological Observation System-2 (AMOS-2) by the meteorology program, high-rate sampling aurora photometer and two-channel monochromatic all sky imager observations by the upper atmospheric physics program, and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations by the earth science program. As sea ice in Lutzow-Holm Bay and Ongul Strait was blown away by April 1998,the start of field activity was delayed to mid-July 1998,but many field teams for seismic, gravity and Global Positioning System (GPS) observations, and for oceanographic and penguin-census studies took observations around the coastal area of Lutzow-Holm Bay. As for inland oversnow traverses, a Yamato-Belgica traverse party (8 members) collected more than 4100 meteorites and cosmic dust samples (>10μm) by melting and filtering 60t masses of blue ice. Furthermore, a Dome Fuji traverse party (6 members) performed ice core drilling to 73m at H72 and to 108m at Dome Fuji, and firn-air sampling at various depths. Intense logistic activities included cleanup of old buildings, integration of a 20kW solar generating system with the 300kW diesel engine generator, and installation of a power meter on each building. Since the Antarctic Environmental Protection Protocol took effect in July 1998,cleanup of the station by bringing out the unnecessary remaining goods is going to be promoted. The total weight returned by JARE-39 to Japan amounted to 252t.