Report by Hima Sutha
The European Space Agency (ESA) informed the Sun’s arrival as the team at the Concordia research station woke up to a sunny morning in Antarctica on 5th August 2022.
Unlike the rest of the world, Antarctica has two seasons – winter and summer.
The winter season started in early May, and the Sun hasn’t risen in Antarctica since then. Usually, during the winters, the temperature dips to -80 degrees Celsius with no light. During this period, the team of 12 researchers kept themselves occupied by conducting biomedical research that required them to collect their samples of urine, stool, and blood samples, as well as cognitive and psychological measures through questionnaires.
This was done to study the impacts of isolated, confined and extreme environments on humans, and Antarctica was a perfect place for this experiment to be conducted.
Medical doctor Hannes Hagson said on 5th August – “Time here has the strange quality of both passing really quickly and very slowly at the same time, and in just two days we expect the return of the Sun to grace us here at 75 degrees south! The returning daylight certainly has us all cheered up and starting to sense the beginning of the final part of this adventure.”
The team will now welcome a group of 40 new researchers over the summer to Antarctica.