Activities of the wintering party of the 21st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 1980-1981

Abstract

The wintering party of the 21st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (1980-1981) consisting of 33 members carried out observations in many disciplines at Syowa Station and Mizuho Station, particularly laying emphasis on "Polar Experiment-South (POLEX-South)" as one of the subprogrammes of the Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP) and on "The studies of crustal structure of Antarctica" which started in the preceding year. Referring to POLEX-South, the aerological and micro-meteorological observations in order to clarify the behavior of the surface inversion layer and the aloft wind regime were carried out at Mizuho Station, and also the observations of heat budget at the surface of sea-ice were done near Syowa Station. Researches on the crustal structure by the long seismic refraction method were carried out successfully along a 300km long profile from Syowa to Mizuho Stations. At Syowa Station, in addition to the routine observations of aurora, geomagnetism, ionosphere, meteorology, seismology, and ocean tide, the studies of ionospheric disturbance, medical science and biology were performed throughout the year.