Activities of the summer season of the 49th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2007-2008

Abstract

The activities in the 2007-2008 austral summer of the 49th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-49) are reported. JARE-49 consisted of 59 personnel including 30 summer and 29 wintering personnel. In addition, eight observers joined the voyage of R/V Shirase (4 Japanese and one Australian), the operation in the Sor Rondane Mountains (one Japanese), and the inland traverse operation (2 Swedish). R/V Shirase arrived at the ice edge on 14 Desember 2007. She anchored at Syowa Station on 26 December and unloaded ca. 870 t of cargo and fuel by mid-January 2008. A small balloon-borne cryogenic sampler experiment, the unmanned magnetometer network observation, and ecological research on Antarctic lakes were the major scientific programs of JARE-49 in the Syowa Station area. Because the weather condition in this season was extremely bad, some parts of scientific programs, transportation and construction work were delayed.Two special teams tried to access Antarctica directly from Japan on airplanes by using the DROMLAN system. The Japanese-Swedish Traverse Expedition (JASE) was a glaciological program with a long range inland traverse trip. Four JARE-49 members and 4 JARE-48 wintering members started to the meeting point with the Swedish traverse team on 14 November 2007, and returned on 26 January 2008. A 7-person special team for the geological field work in the Sor Rondane Mountains carried out a field survey for 75 days from 23 November 2007 to 5 February 2008 with skidoo, camping on ice. These two teams left Japan by air before the main team, and also returned to Japan by air before the main team.