It has just begun at the Italian-French Concordia base on the Antarctic Plateau, more than 3,000 meters above sea level and 1.200 kilometers from the coast, the 20th winter campaign of the National Research Program in Antarctica, funded by the Ministry of University and Research and managed by the National Research Council for Scientific Coordination, ENEA for the planning and logistical organization of activities at the Antarctic bases and the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics - OGS for the technical and scientific management of its research ship Laura Bassi. Spending nine months at Concordia in complete isolation due to the temperature, which can reach as low as minus 80 degrees during the austral winter, will be a selected team of 13 "winterers": six from PNRA, six from the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor and one doctor from the European Space Agency. The team will carry out activities related to 29 French-Italian projects in climatology, glaciology, atmospheric physics and chemistry, and biomedicine, while also conducting station maintenance activities. While the winter season opens in Concordia, the Mario Zucchelli coastal station in Baia Terra Nova closes, which will reopen next October with the arrival of the new summer expedition contingent.
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