Finnish expedition team on its way to Antarctica
Lehtikuva/STR/ Jaakko Mäkinen Finnish expedition team arriving to Aboa in February 2004.The Finnish FINNARP 2009 expedition team began its expedition to Antarctica on November 27th. The scientific objective of the expedition is to research snow and the formation of aerosol particles in Antarctica.
Finland has been actively involved in research projects in Antarctica since 1988, when the research station Aboa was established. Aboa station is used for diverse research projects on ice and the atmosphere. The research station is utilized for instance by the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Department of Physics of the University of Helsinki.
In addition to carrying out new research, the current expedition is intended for servicing Aboa's automatic weather observation station and for performing general maintenance duties also on other observation and measurement equipment belonging to the station.
The expedition team consists of five researchers, a medical doctor, an engineer, a chef and a team leader. The team will bring with them a cargo of about 4500 kilograms, out of which half is research equipment and associated accessories. All the other materials are supplements for the station and food. A maintenance team of three people started off to Aboa earlier on.
The expedition team will spend about two months at the research station, which is located in Queen Maud Land. The team is expected to return to Finland in the beginning of February 2010.
The previous Finnish expedition team visited Aboa in 2007. FINNARP 2009 is the 17th Finnish Antarctic expedition team.
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