Neumayer-Station III

Neumayer Station III, shortly Neumayer III, named after the geophysicist Georg von Neumayer, is a German polar research station of the Alfred Wegener Institute in the Antarctic. It is located on Atka Bay on the approximately 200 -meter-thick Ekström Ice Shelf, a few kilometers south of the detached Neumayer Station II Neumayer transported in pieces beginning of November 2007 to the destination III flows on the ice shelf about 200 meters per year towards open sea.

After a nearly ten -year project period (starting in October 1999 ), consisting of design, environmental impact assessment and the planning and construction phases, the regular station operation on 20 February 2009 was recorded. The battery life is designed for 25 to 30 years, the entire project will cost 39 million euros.

Station structure

The outer part of the station consists of a 6 m above the floor surface located two-level platform standing on supports 16. The individually controllable restraints put on a firm snow ground cover. In the snow trench under the plant are the garages and other technical equipment. The mounted on movable concrete feet supports are provided with hydraulic lifting devices. Through an annual lifting operation from 80 to 100 cm, a sinking of the platform is to be prevented in the fresh snow.

The station is operated year-round and is equipped with 210 m² of scientific laboratory space, spread over 12 rooms, twice as large as its predecessor. In the 15 guest rooms, there are 40 beds. All interiors on the platform made ​​up of containers, which are connected depending on room size without adjacent interior walls or with passage and center adjacent to a walkway. Surrounded, this construction of a protective outer shell with sheet -insulating rigid polyurethane foam filling. The picture " frame cut", the existing in Antarctica grave upper edge in snow through the green metal support corner shows underlying areas are later below the snow surface.

The above-ground station operating Neumayer III is predominant in the Antarctic and is also implemented in the new stations, such as the Amundsen -Scott South Pole Station and the largely privately financed new Belgian Princess Elisabeth Station.

Hydraulic device with Concrete Base

Framework section of the outer shell

Assembly

The main part of the building materials as well as heavy construction equipment were delivered by the end of January 2008; latter have left the Ekström Ice Shelf again in February 2009. For mounting, a construction team of 90 specialists was sent to the Antarctic. In mid-January 2009, External works at the station have been completed, so that the further expansion of the container 99 located under the outer shell could take place largely independent of the weather. On 20 February, the station during a ceremony in Berlin was handed over in the presence of Minister of Research Annette Schavan of use.

Interior

In addition to these laboratory and accommodation spaces, there is a south facing, comparatively large lounge with lots of windows, a laundry room with two washing machines and two dryers, a sauna, a server room, shower and wash rooms, a dining room with serving hatch to the kitchen, a meeting room, a medical treatment and a surgery room, various store rooms, a large room cooling cell, a change of clothes room, a boiler room, a training or planning area and a water treatment room. The communication facilities include an amateur radio station with the extraterritorial German amateur radio call DP0GVN.

Data

  • Building height: 29.2 m (garage floor to outside deck )
  • External dimensions of the platform: 68 m × 24 m
  • Grave depth below the station: 8 m
  • Mass: about 2,300 t
  • Area ( four floors ): 4,864 m²
  • Air-conditioned area: 2,118 m²
  • Winter Crew: 9
  • Summer Crew: 50
  • Three diesel generators for normal operation: 6 x 75 kW
  • A diesel generator for emergency: 2 x 75 kW
  • Initially, only one Enercon E -10 Wind Generator: 30 kW
  • Electricity consumption ( light, pumps, scientific experiments, ...): about 70 to 300 kW
  • Thermal consumption from waste heat ( heating, hot water, 25 kW snow melt): about 70 to 150 kW
  • UPS: 2 x 20 kW for 20 minutes
  • Polar diesel consumption in the year ( heating, electricity and vehicles): 315,000 liters

Outstations and Webcams

In order not to be influenced by the station operation measurement results, it is to enter into a similar situation like arrangement at Neumayer Station II, smaller platforms in 900 m to 1,500 m. In these Langzeitobservatorien magnetics, seismic, trace element and acoustic research is conducted. The station operates a number of webcams, the preceding 24 h can be retrieved about the outdoor views of the station and movies. Similarly, the current weather data on the Internet will be made available (see links).

Research

On the Neumayer Stations research is being conducted continuously in the various observatories since 1981. In addition to the main directions of meteorology, geophysics and atmospheric chemistry that are researched since the 1980s, there, since 2003, research on infrasound and since 2005 on marine acoustics.

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Atka Iceport Neumayer-Station II Hydraulics Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research stations in Antarctica Kohnen-Station Eismitte
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