The aim of the ERC Synergy project AWACA is to better understand the atmospheric water vapor cycle in Antarctica, focusing on the processes governing the meteorology in this region and in fine the evolution of snow accumulation and ice sheet mass balance.
The project combines new instrumentation (LSCE, LMD, LATMOS, EPFL) to observe atmospheric water along a transect from coastal Dumont d’Urville station to inland Dome C Concordia station and new physics parametrizations for climate models (LSCE, LMD).
One innovative aspect is the deployment of instruments for year-long monitoring in fully autonomous units (energy, communication…) far from any scientific base. These units have been designed in close collaboration with IPEV which is more specifically in charge of the energy supply module. Each of the 4 units will host 3 radars (24, 35 and 95GHz), one microlidar (532 nm), water isotopes laser spectrometers and surface meteorology instruments.
The units had to be ready in September 2023 to be sent to Dumont d’Urville, where final assembly took place early this year (Fig 1). They will be transferred from the island where they have been unloaded to the continent by the winterover team, probably in August, when the sea-ice is thick enough to allow the convoy.
Meanwhile in Europe, final adjustments were made to the instruments before carefully packing everything in June for the long journey to Antarctica. Given the large quantity of material to be shipped for this project (about 30 boxes for LSCE only), we directly put our boxes in the shipping crates in Guyancourt (Fig 2). The last days were quite busy but everything was ready on time!
Thomas and Olivier will be in the field from November 2024 to February 2025 as part of the raid team installing and starting all the instruments.