Plans For Research In Antarctica

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30235, 13 September 1963, Page 12

Plans For Research In Antarctica

United States and Soviet scientists will co-operate in Antarctica thiis year in an investigation of cosmic rays, the high-energy particles which eonitimtally bombard the earth, it was announced in Ohristchuroh yesterday. The project will require the construction of huge steel antenna towers ranging in height from 105 ft to 1909t at idle South Pole and two other stations, and at as yet an undetermined number of Russian stations. Other nations with Antarctic bases may also participate. The abject is to detect distinct solar cosmic ray events, and to investigate their variations in energy, time, and location.

The research is part of the American contribution to the International Year of the Quiet Sun, a period of minimum solar activity. Installation of equipment and subsequent scientific observations will be made possible by a National Science Foundation grant to the Bureau of Standards. The grant is but one of 64 amounting to 3,411.075 dollars awarded so far this year by the foundation in support of the United States Antarctic Research Programme. Additional research grants still to be made, together with contracts for the support and maintenance of installations such as the biology laboratory at McMurdo station and the research vessel Eltanin, are expected to bring the foundation's support of Antarctic research this year to 7,000.000 dollars

Grants this year in the research programme support investigations of various aspects of the Antarctic land, ice. air, sea, life, and magnetic field. Disciplines represented include geology, glaciology, gravimetry, seismology, biology, oceanography, meteorology. cartography, and upper-atmosphere physics. Towers ror the cosmic ray study will be erected at the Byrd, South Pole, and McMurdo stations, as well as at one or two Soviet stations. As radio waves are beamed at the ionosphere from one station they will be scattered! downward and recorded at a receiving tower at another station. In this way the flux! of atomic nuclei generated in! the ionosphere by solar cosmic rays can be continually monitored. Study of Seals A number of new. as well as several continuing projects will be undertaken this year. Among the new ones at McMurdo will be two separate studies of Antarctic seals. An investigation will be made of the physiology and ecology of the four Antarctic seal species. This will involve driving in the frigid icecovered water to depths of 200 ft to photograph the behaviour of seals in their natural habitat. Another researcher will study the diving behaviour and physiology of the Weddell seal This species has been known to dive to a depth of more than 1000 ft, and its mectianism for surfacing from such depths without suffering “the bends’’ will be of interest in human physiology.

In another co-operative effort with the Soviet Union, Mr G. H. Meyer, of the University of Texas, a veteran of several Antarctic seasons, will spend a full year at Russia’s Mirny station studying tlie microbiology of the area. It is expected that a Russian scientist will, in turn, winter at an American station.

Scientists on a 1600-mile traverse from Byrd station to the FUchner ice shelf, made possible by a grant from the University of Wisconsin, will seek to determine ice thickness, physical properties of the snow and ice, the nature of exposed and subglacial rock, and probable ice-flow patterns.

Major geological inveaUgntrions include continued projects by the Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, and the United States Geological Survey in the Queen Maude range, the Sentinel range of the Ellsworth mountains, and the Pensacola mountains

The research vessel Elite - min will spend the coming year cruising the waters of the Drake passage, between Antarctica's Palmer Peninsula and the southern tip of South America. Investigations will range from submarine geology to upperatmosphere physics. 100-tnile Antenna

Among newly-supported projects in upper-atmiepheie physics is a University of Washington study to determine the feasibility of using the thick Antarctic icecap as a site for a 100-mile long horizontal antenna, utilising the unique thickness and electrical property of the ice. If the study shows that tlie use of such an antenna is possible, it may be possible to perform geocyclotronic experiments where ions are accelerated through the exosphere (fringe of space!. Other gin n>:s provide Nir continued operation of the cosmic ray laboratory at McMurdo station, and continued investigation of ionosphere radio absorption at the Eights, Byrd. South Pole, and Hallett stations. Most Antarctic research will begin in October and end late in February. Only about 35 United States scientists will remain on the continent during the six months of winter.