A land where science and peace reign supreme. These days, it seems difficult to imagine such a place on the planet. But he exists. And it’s at the southernmost point on Earth. Antarctica corresponds to a unique geopolitical arrangement in the world. On December 1, 1959, 12 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty. The document put an end to the disputes that existed over portions of land on this immense continent. With that, it paved the way for the freedom of scientific exploration of the region, in a peaceful regime of international cooperation.
Brazil would only sign the treaty in 1975 and in 1983 it became part of the so-called Consultative Party, with the right to voice and vote on decisions related to the present and future of the continent and its incalculable natural resources. To be an advisory member, the prerequisite required by the treaty is precisely that the country promotes some type of research in the region.
Currently, therefore, Brazil makes up a select group of 29 countries that have scientific stations in Antarctica and that will be able to decide the direction of everything related to the exploration of the region. And this story began precisely in January 1982, exactly 40 years ago, when the Brazilian government launched the Antarctic Program (Proantar) and took the first scientists to the continent, aboard, at the time, the oceanographic vessel W. Besnard.
“This project begins in the Geisel government, in 1975, with Brazil joining the Antarctic Treaty, followed by the 1980s, with the inauguration of the scientific station, then passing through all the governments of the democratic period until the present moment. It is certainly one of the most successful State policies in the country, unlike the discontinuities of national projects that we are used to,” said Paulo Câmara, a professor at the Institute of Biological Sciences at the University of Brasília (UnB) and the first scientific coordinator assigned to the project. Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station (EACF), Brazil’s home on the ice continent.
Câmara was at the station from October to December last year, in the first wave of Brazilian scientists who set foot in Antarctica after almost two years of stoppage due to the covid-19 pandemic. This hiatus in research, which affected practically all the countries operating on the continent, ended up preventing Brazil from debuting the modern scientific laboratories built for the new Comandante Ferraz Station.
Founded in 1984, the station suffered a major fire in 2012. In the tragedy, two soldiers died and 70% of the facilities were lost. The federal government invested around US$ 100 million in the reconstruction work, and the unit received the most advanced equipment in the world.
The delivery of the ready base took place at the beginning of 2020, but there was no time to resume scientific projects because about two months later, the global health emergency caused by the new coronavirus was decreed.
The researchers’ return to the ice continent did not have the same logistics as before. Because of the restrictions of the pandemic, the length of stay, which was about a month, has been extended to approximately three months, and now takes place in two stages throughout the year, not six, as before. In addition, the scientists had to stay aboard the Navy’s oceanographic support ship, the Ary Rongel, for 10 days, quarantining and undergoing tests for covid-19. People with comorbidities could not travel. Travel time has also increased. The previous route was made via Punta Arenas, in the extreme south of Chile. Until then, the researchers arrived by air. Then they would board a ship to cross the tempestuous Drake Strait to the Antarctic Peninsula, or take another direct flight to the southern continent. With Chile closed, the trip was made by ship from Rio de Janeiro straight to Antarctica, a journey that lasted about 20 days on the high seas.
cutting edge structure
In an area of 4,500 square meters, the new station has the capacity to host 64 people. The new Brazilian research center in Antarctica has 17 state-of-the-art laboratories. The base’s rooms, with two beds and a private bathroom, house researchers and military personnel much more comfortably than before. The station also has 4G internet access, a video room, meeting places, a gym, kitchen and an emergency clinic.
“The facilities are terrific. Comfort that was not available here before, allows us to process the data we collect here and have a guaranteed well-being. And with everything still new, it is an immense pleasure to be part of the first group of researchers who make use of all that is done for our work. Having these subsidies and the whole purpose of being here and doing science makes everything seem like a researcher’s dream”, said Dafne Anjos, a student in the tenth semester of the Biological Sciences course at UnB, who has been at Estação Comandante Ferraz since November 2021, at the first group that resumed research. Involved in research on Antarctic mosses, Dafne Anjos should stay at least until February at the base, collecting samples and analyzing their compositions.
Among the units recently reactivated is the meteorological station of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), nicknamed “meteor”, which makes automatic measurements directly from the Brazilian base in Antarctica. Another research facility that resumed its activities was the VLF module (Very Low Frequency), who carries out studies on electromagnetic propagation in the ionosphere (upper part of the Earth’s atmosphere). It was from there that scientists were able to follow, in December last year, the total eclipse of the Sun. This phenomenon, which occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are fully aligned, could only be seen completely from Antarctica.
In all units of the station, fire doors were installed and smoke sensors and fire alarms were installed. In the rooms where machines and generators are located, the walls are made of ultra-resistant material. In the event of a fire, they can withstand the fire for two hours and do not allow it to spread to other locations before the fire squad arrives. The station also has a wind farm that takes advantage of strong Antarctic winds. Plates to capture solar energy were also installed at the base and will generate energy, especially in summer, when the sun in Antarctica shines for more than 20 hours a day.
“We learned lessons throughout this process, to the point that today we have this extremely technological and safe station, with a series of resources that allow us to carry out cutting-edge scientific research in Antarctica”, highlights sea and war captain Marcelo Gomes, from the Navy. , who is undersecretary of Proantar.
From a structural and technological point of view, the Brazilian scientific station is among the most modern in Antarctica, second only to McMurdo Station, the huge scientific base in the United States, practically a small city that can house more than 2 thousand people, and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, located at the Earth’s geographic South Pole, also controlled by the North Americans.
The key to the future
Antarctica is considered the main thermal regulator of the planet, as it controls atmospheric and oceanic circulations, influencing the climate and living conditions on Earth. In addition, it holds the largest reserves of ice (90%) and fresh water (70%) in the world, in addition to having countless mineral and energy resources. Its size is also impressive: it covers more than 14 million square kilometers, almost twice the size of the Brazilian territory (8.5 million square kilometers).
For Brazil, which is considered the seventh closest country to Antarctica, studying and understanding its natural phenomena is literally a matter of survival in the future.
“Antarctica is heating up and this is creating disturbances in its atmosphere. These marine currents that rise from Antarctica to Brazil guarantee, for example, the quality of the water that allows the development of fish caught on our coast. It also has an influence on the rainfall regime, as the mass of cold and dry air from Antarctica travels to South America, where it meets the mass of warm and humid air coming from the Amazon. The balance of this flow, where one predominates over the other, is what guarantees alternating periods of drought and rain, which are essential for the functioning of agriculture”, explains Paulo Câmara.
The scientific coordinator of the Brazilian station in Antarctica also lists other relevant research carried out on the frozen continent. One of them is investigating species of fungus endemic to the region that could be used in the development of fungicides to combat Asian rust, a disease caused by another type of fungus that affects agriculture worldwide, causing billions in losses in crops such as soybeans.
With the accelerating advance of climate change and the depletion of the planet’s resources, everyone’s eyes should turn to Antarctica within a few decades. “Antarctica is the last stronghold of natural resources on Earth, it is a reserve for humanity”, emphasizes Câmara.
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