Zucchelli Station is an Italian seasonal research station, located at

Terra Nova Bay Terra Nova Bay is a bay which is often ice free, about long, lying between Cape Washington and the Drygalski Ice Tongue along the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (known as the ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

on a granitic headland along the coast of the Northern Foothills to north-east of Gerlache Inlet. It has been named after Mario Zucchelli, director of the activities, which conducted for sixteen years, for the ENEA-Unità Tecnica Antartide as part of the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA). The main functions carried out by the Station are: * logistic support to scientific personnel operating in remote fields * logistical and operational support to the oceanographic ship * support to research activities with laboratories and instrumentation * support to personnel and material in transit for Concordia Station * support to air operations

Description

The Zucchelli Station is a seasonal (from mid-October until mid-March) research Antarctic Station on the Terra Nova Bay located at an altitude of and covers an area of approximately 7,500 square meters. In 2010, the Station was enlarged and in the

austral summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

the traverse leave for Concordia Station operated jointly with France.

Main building

The main building was built in 1985, in the first seasonal expedition, on a steel structure from the ground and consist of 82

containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The ter ...

, 42 of which used for the personnel accommodation and services while the remaining 40 to the support activities as: * operations room situated on the top of the building, like a control tower, looking over the base * communications room, adjacent to the operation room to facilitate the

HF radio High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten ...

and the

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a '' broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than t ...

transmissions * calculation room which give informatics support and data transmission, *offices, * laboratories (chemistry, biology, geology, electronics), * cafeteria, * kitchen, * emergency, * infirmary, * laundry.

Technical plants

* aquarium * boat storage * carpentry * co-generation system for the exploitation of the thermal energy produced by the power plant * deposit for vehicles *

desalination Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture. Salt ...

plant * diving chamber * electrical and mechanical workshop * fuel storage * helipads *

incinerator Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...

plant * materials warehouse * nitrogen and helium liquefiers * power and thermal energy plant (four diesel generators) * shredder and compactor plant *

wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environm ...

plant

Research activity

* cosmic ray observations * geodesy * geomagnetic observations * glaciology * ionospheric/auroral observations * meteorological observations * oceanography * offshore marine biology * onshore geology * seismology and environmental monitoring * terrestrial biology

Icaro Camp

Icaro Camp () is a facility, fitted as a meteorological station, located south of the Zucchelli Station. The camp consists of two blue

, held by

guy-wire A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a free-standing structure. They are used commonly for ship masts, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles, and tents. A ...

s, meteorological equipment, solar panels and a wind generator. Although the structures are not suited to accommodate people, they could shelter a dozen in case of emergency.

Transportation

Boulder Clay Runway

Boulder Clay Runway () is located about south of Zucchelli Station on the Northern Foothills; the construction started in the 2016–17 season and will be completed in the 2021–22. The Italian team usually use an

Ice Runway The Ice Runway is the principal runway for the U.S. Antarctic Program during the summer Antarctic field season due to its proximity to McMurdo Station. The other two runways in the area are the snow runway at Williams Field (NZWD) and the c ...

in the Gerlache Inlet to start the summer campaign but in recent years the ice runway was closed earlier then before because of the

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and the melting of the ice. The airstrip is situated on the Boulder Clay Moraine and is built with the least

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

as possible. It is a gravel runway long and wide in order to be suitable to the Safair or

Aeronautica Militare , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...

C-130J The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the newes ...

or other larger types, such as the

C-17 Globemaster The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of tw ...

, Airbus A319-115LR and

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maid ...

. The airfield will be completed with a

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

which connect the apron with the runway, an

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

for aircraft parking and operational tasks, capable of stationing two C-130 Hercules, fire service as

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

standards, fuel deposit, terminal and shed for the personnel, operation room and a power unit. On 22 November 2022 at 4.30 CET a C-130J Hercules of the Italian Air Force landed for the first time on the gravel runway. This year the reduced thickness of the ice in the Ross Sea did not allowed the use of the

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's o ...

runway for the heavier C-130. Boulder Clay Runway will become an international hub as it can be used by the other nearby research stations.

Enigma Lake Skiway

Enigma Lake Skiway is situated at an elevation of , on the Northern Foothills, south of Zucchelli Station on an iced lake. Being long it is operated by the

Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restar ...

s and

Basler BT-67 The Basler BT-67 is a utility aircraft produced by Basler Turbo Conversions of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It is a remanufactured and modified Douglas DC-3; the modifications are designed to significantly extend the DC-3's serviceable lifetime. Design ...

. The skyway is prepared by removing the snow accumulated in the winter by the Station staff; in the same place stands an AWS (Rita) which makes part of the network managed by the Antarctic Meteo-Climatological Weather Observatory.

Zucchelli Ice Runway

Zucchelli Ice Runway is located in the Gerlache Inlet and is prepared, at the beginning of each season, by the station's logistic personnel in mid-October. The sea ice runway is suitable for operating the

Aeronautica Militare , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...

or Safair wheeled

C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desi ...

, but in the latest years it was closed earlier than before because the sea ice break up. Two runways are prepared, one is the 03/21 which is long and wide used by the C-130, the other is the 06/24 which is shorter measuring in length and in width utilised by the Twin Otters and the Basler BT-67.

Climate

AWS Network

The Antarctic Meteo-Climatological Weather Observatory, established in 1985, attempt to a give a contribution to understand the

through the study of the

atmospheric dynamics Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

. The programme is defined by two projects supported by the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA), one regarding the

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. I ...

and the other the Concordia Station, carried out by the ENEA personnel. The centre run an

Automatic weather station An automatic weather station (AWS) is an automated version of the traditional weather station, either to save human labour or to enable measurements from remote areas. An AWS will typically consist of a weather-proof enclosure containing the data ...

network, distributed through the territory, having the responsibility of the instrumentation assembly, the maintenance and the data collection. The network include 16 AW stations operating all year around: * Alessandra ( Cape King), * Arelis ( Cape Ross), * Concordia Station, * Eneide (

) * Giulia ( Mid Point), * Irene ( Sitry), * Jennica (

), * Lola ( Tourmaline Plateau), * Maria ( Browning Pass), * Modesta ( Priestley Glacier), * Paola ( Talos Dome), * Rita ( Enigma Lake), * Silvia ( Cape Phillips), * Sofia (

Nansen Ice Sheet Nansen Ice Sheet (), or Nansen Ice Shelf, is a by ice shelf. It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue, along the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. This feature was explored ...

), * Sofiab (

David Glacier David Glacier is the most imposing outlet glacier in Victoria Land, Antarctica. It is named after the geologist Edgeworth David and is fed by two main flows which drain an area larger than 200,000 square kilometres of the East Antarctic platea ...

), * Zoraida ( Priestley Glacier).

Gallery

File:Mario Zucchelli Station, Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica.JPG File:Mario Zucchelli Station 05.jpg File:Mario Zucchelli Station 06.jpg Image:Terra Nova Bay 097 Mario Zuchelli Station.jpg File:Mario Zucchelli Station 08.jpg

References

External links

COMNAP Antarctic Facilities

COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map

Mario Zucchelli Station - pdf

Mario Zucchelli Station (English Text)
* {{Antarctica Outposts of Antarctica Outposts of the Ross Dependency Italy and the Antarctic Victoria Land Scott Coast 1985 establishments in Antarctica