Team about to leave Belgium for Antarctica

This Saturday, Quentin Laffineur  (RMI) and Christian Hermans (Institute for Space Aeronomy) will start their journey from Belgium to Princess Elisabeth station Antarctica. As mentioned before, they will take care of all measurements and instrumentation for the AEROCLOUDproject. The scientific activities will take place in the framework of this year’s scientifc  Belgian Antarctic expedition  (BELARE 2015-2016), which is organised by the Polar Secretariat and the Belgian Federal Science Policy (BELSPO). The expedition is supported by the Belgian Secretary of State for the federal science policy, Ms Elke Sleurs, and is also supported by the Ministry of Defense (logistic support and personnel).

After arrival, Quentin and Christian will check several instruments for detecting clouds and precipitation, and properties of ambient aerosol particles. For the first time, all these instruments have been operational whole year-round. This means, also during the time when the station is uninhabited and the instruments rely on remote control. They will also re-install several instruments which cannot operate for several reasons during Antarctic winter (Cimel sunphotometer, Brewer ozone spectrophotometer), or which have been in Belgium for repair. In addition, there are again some newcomer-instruments.  In total, Quentin and Christian will have to deal with 13 instruments, plus the automatic weather station and weather balloon launches, and this within just tight 4 weeks. I wish them all the best and good luck for their work.