The Ukrainian research vessel "Noosfera" has completed its fourth Antarctic season and after almost 5 months of work has returned to the port of Cape Town in the Republic of South Africa. This is reported by the National Antarctic Scientific Center, writes UNN.
The most active fourth Antarctic season of the Ukrainian research icebreaker "Noosfera" has ended. After almost 5 months of work, the ship returned to the port of Cape Town (RSA) yesterday, May 10, 2025.
During this time, the "Noosfera" team made 5 voyages to Antarctica, and crossed the Drake Passage, the most turbulent on the planet, 10 times. In total, the ship traveled more than 20,000 nautical miles (more than 37,000 km), which is almost equal to the length of the Earth's equator.
This path was overcome by the flagship in order to:
- to ensure the change of annual 29th and 30th Ukrainian Antarctic expeditions, as well as to deliver to "Vernadsky" and back the seasonal expedition, which performed tasks at the station during the Antarctic summer;
- to conduct joint voyages with expeditions of Antarctic programs of Poland, the USA, Spain and the Czech Republic. These voyages were carried out at the expense of these countries, and gave Ukraine more opportunities to meet the needs of its own program, in particular, to deliver additional cargo and specialists to "Vernadsky";
- to carry out a number of geological, oceanographic and meteorological studies. For example, within the framework of the international OCEAN:ICE project, Ukrainian scientists launched 6 argo buoys for the first time, which are already actively collecting information about currents in the Southern Ocean. Also, our scientists for the first time conducted simultaneous radio sounding of the atmosphere from "Vernadsky" and "Noosfera" to learn more about the processes of cloud formation and precipitation in our region and their impact on the ocean, sea ice and glacier melting.
We are proud that even in the conditions of a full-scale Russian invasion, we not only remain a part of world science and continue research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, but also, thanks to increased international cooperation, have added new areas of research and gained additional opportunities. Therefore, this season has become a record not only in terms of the number of voyages, but also in terms of collaborations with foreign partners
The program of the fourth season was carried out by two Ukrainian captains from the Odesa region: Pavlo Panasyuk and Andriy Starish. Pavlo has been successfully driving "Noosfera" since its first Antarctic mission in 2022. For Andriy, this was his first season as captain, but before that he had successfully established himself as a senior assistant.
We will remind
As UNN wrote earlier, the Ukrainian research flagship delivered a technical team and cargo for modernization to the Antarctic station. The ship also brought fresh fruits and vegetables for the winterers.