Activities of the wintering party of the 37th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 1996-1997

Abstract

The wintering party of the 37th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-37) executed its planned activities at Syowa and Dome Fuji Stations from 1996 to 1997. The wintering party at Syowa Station, consisting of 31 personnel, carried out its observations and logistic work from 1 February 1996 to 31 January 1997. Some specific observations were conducted for studies on upper atmospheric physics, atmospheric science, solid earth geophysics, biology and medical science as well as routine observations. Besides the station observations at Syowa, airborne and field observations were carried out for air sampling, geomagnetic measurement, ice sheet margin monitoring, penguin population monitoring and so on. The second wintering at Dome Fuji Station started from 23 January 1996 and was completed on 25 January 1997. The wintering party, consisting of 9 personnel, conducted deep ice core drilling to a depth of 2503m succesfully and performed in-situ core analyses. Routine meteorological and glaciological observations were carried out at the station. A few day field trips were carried out for radio echo sounding of the ice sheet in the summit area.