Work on country's first polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 continues apace
Work on China's fifth Antarctic research station, which is still waiting approval, is expected to expand the country's polar research scope in an area with infinite scientific research potentials, according to Chinese oceanic authorities.
"The new Antarctic research base will be a perennial research station and be able to carry out multiple scientific investigations in the Antarctic," Qin Weijia, director of the State Oceanic Administration's (SOA) Polar Expedition Office, told the annual academic meeting of Chinese polar science, which ended on Friday in Changchun in Northeast China's Jilin Province.
"The research station's location can help China expand its Antarctic research scope from the eastern part, where it has four research stations, to the west of Antarctica," Qin told the Global Times on Monday.
China selected Inexpressible Island as the station site because of its building-friendly nature and the fact that it is a balance point for research in the area and the international Antarctic treaty coordination plan, he explained.
The Polar Expedition Office is now working on the station plans and going through various procedures in China and abroad. Once construction work starts, the building will take around 3 to 5 years, Qin said.
China's four Antarctic research stations were developed over a 30-year period, with Changcheng and Zhongshan serving as two permanent stations, and Taishan and Kunlun as two summer stations, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Ross Sea is a deep bay in the Southern Ocean regarded as the least altered marine ecosystem on earth and is a living laboratory that could possibly tell the life history of the Antarctic, Xinhua reported.
Meanwhile, China is building its first polar icebreaker, the Xuelong 2 and, according to Qin, they have completed all design work by the end of September 2017.
China will deliver the Xuelong 2 to the scientists by around March 2019 to undergo further sea trails, which will take about half a year, according to Qin.
Qin said that the Xuelong 2's first voyage will take it to the arctic pole for the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate.
The ship will perform an oil supply mission for the central observatory of the project, the German's icebreaker the RV Polarstern, with which the Chinese scientists will also participate in year-round research, Qin said.
