The 28th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition returned home. Its participants arrived in Ukraine today, April 18, 2024.
The winterers have overcome a long and difficult path. They were delivered from Ukrainian Antarctic Akademik Vernadsky station to Chile by our RV Noosfera. As we wrote earlier, this time the Drake Passage has met the polar explorers with the stormiest weather for the time of all Antarctic missions under the flag of Ukraine.
From Chile, the polar explorers reached Poland by plane, and from there to Ukraine by bus.
We will remind that the 28th UAE worked at Vernadsky for a year. The team carried out geophysical, meteorological and biological research, as well as maintaining the normal functioning of the station.
We are talking about monitoring of the Earth’s magnetic field, the ionosphere, global thunderstorm activity, the ozone layer, climate, the living world of Antarctica, etc. It is important that due to improved communications and logistics, as well as the use of drones, the expedition was able to significantly expand the geography of field research at sea and conduct fuller observations of birds and mammals.
The 28th UAE was headed by a record-breaking polar explorer Bogdan Gavrylyuk: this was his tenth wintering. Between the current and previous expeditions, he defended Ukraine with weapons in hand and will now return to military service again. In total, more than 20 polar explorers have already joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On April 2, the 29th UAE began its work at the station, and it will continue the mentioned research and observations. Most of them have been going on for decades and are very valuable for global science. For example, our station has one of the longest series of measurements of climate indicators, the ozone layer, and the Earth’s magnetic field in Antarctica.
We wish the 28th UAE a rapid health recovery and warm meetings with loved ones, and the 29th UAE – fruitful work for the next year.
Photo: Anna Torgonenko
