- India
- International
Four city-based scientists will embark on a voyage to the Southern Ocean Sunday for a two-month-long study of the seas, air and their changing role in the monsoons.
Started in 2004 by the Ministry of Earth Science (MoES), this will be India’s 11th scientific expedition to the Southern Ocean, and will be co-ordinated by Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR).
Anoop Mahajan from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) will lead a team of 34 researchers representing 18 scientific institutions and universities.
The other scientists from the city include research scholar Swaleha Inamdar from IITM, scientist Tushar Kaushik and student researcher Mangesh Rajguru from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI).
The team will set out on the the mission Sunday and first head to Mauritius. The sea journey will be completed onboard the oceanographic vessel SA Agulhas.
The researchers plan to collect samples of air and water at 60 designated stations en route and conduct further studies in various fields of science. Studies will be carried out on the link between air-sea-ice interactions and the anthropogenic aerosols over the Southern Ocean, and the repercussions of heat and mass exchanges between the tropics and the polar region. The team will also study the physical, chemical and biological relationships between elements occurring across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.