Recent Russian remote sensing investigations in Antarctica within the framework of scientific traverses

Abstract

This paper includes a short historical review of Russian and Soviet scientific traverses to study the Antarctic inland. The first traverse left on April 2, 1956. It resulted in the opening of the first Russian inland research station named Pionerskaya and provided the first geophysical and glaciological data on regions inland of the Antarctic coast. By 1965, a number of regional inland scientific traverses had been completed and the first Atlas of Antarctica was published in 1966. The atlas presented the main achievements of that time. After the discovery of Lake Vostok, Russian scientists commenced remote sensing investigations to study this unique natural phenomenon. The propagation of acoustic and electromagnetic waves in the glacier near VostokStation were measured to provide important geophysical data. Radio-echo sounding data showed that Lake Vostok is isolated and separated from the rest of the Antarctic subglacial hydrosphere. The total area of the lake is 15 790 km 2 , excluding 365 km 2 occupied by 11 islands. Reflection seismic soundings of Lake Vostok estimated a total volume of about 6 100 km 3 , an average depth of about 400 m, and a maximum depth of 1 200 m. Since 2008, there have been a number of scientific traverses between Mirny and Vostok stations and between Progress and Vostok stations. The data collected during the traverses have provided new insights into sub-ice topography and ice sheet structure, and have led to the discovery of subglacial lakes near Komsomolskaya Station and under Pionerskaya Station. Citation: Popov S V. Recent Russian remote sensing investigations in Antarctica within the framework of scientific traverses. Adv Polar Sci, 2015, 26: 113-121, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2015.2.00113