Noosphere icebreaker went on its first sailing from Odesa to the Vernadsky Research Base.

Reported by Militarnyi with reference to the press conference of the Director of the National Antarctic Scientific Center (NASC) Yevhen Dyky.

On board, in addition to the crew, six Ukrainian Antarctic explorers. Moreover, 28 more Ukrainian scientists will join them in the Chilean port of Punta Arenas.

Now the icebreaker goes to Antarctica to take to the Vernadsky Research Base the team of the 27th Ukrainian expedition and rotate explorers’ crew.

In addition, to take on board the second group of scientists and researchers of the Southern Ocean.

The icebreaker, which has undergone maintenance at the Black Sea Shipyard, will deliver a variety of cargoes to the station: annual               cache supplies, technological equipment and construction materials.

The icebreaker crew consisting of 26 sailors headed by Ukrainian Сaptain Pavlo Panasyuk, who has extensive experience working on foreign research vessels.

Research Program

The scientific program provides for the continuation of oceanographic research started in 1997-98 by the Ernst Krenkel research vessel.

In particular, at the landfill near the Argentine Islands, near the scientific station, at the South Scottish landfill and the South Orkney landfill, which have complex hydrophysical conditions and form a system of water masses of oceans of the southern hemisphere of the Earth.

There is a high biodiversity, as well as the main migration routes of krill, fish and whales.

The researchers also hope to obtain unique data on how the oceanographic characteristics of these areas of the Southern Ocean have changed over the previous three decades. It is in this part of the world that the fastest rate of warming of the atmosphere recorded, and it is very important to understand why and how this happens.

Scientists will also conduct a number of biological explorations together with American scientists, as well as analyze the content of bottom sediments. Including the presence of mercury, a series of geocosmic, radio-oceanographic measurements and a block of geological studies in the Argentine Islands, etc.