First round-the-world scientific expedition to explore the Antarctic to measure climate change

New Delhi: The impact of climate change is extremely evident and the entire world is worried about how it will affect our future. In a nutshell, it doesn't look good.

Scientists have been relentlessly monitoring the freezing Antarctic region to gauge the damage caused due to climate change. Because things on that front aren't showing many positive signs, 50 researchers from 30 countries are going to come together and attempt the first full circumnavigation of Antarctica to measure pollution and climate change.

This international team will traverse the frigid waters of the Antarctic aboard the Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov, which left its home port of Arkhangelsk in the Russian arctic on Wednesday, October 19.

As per a report in the Mexico Star, the main stage of the expedition will leave South Africa's Cape Town on December 20 and return on March 18, braving turbulent weather and hostile conditions in the Southern Ocean.

The three-months long Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition, as it is known, will do a full reconnaissance of all the major islands in the vast ocean, as well as the Antarctic land mass, both of which are less well known to scientists than the Arctic.

The report further mentions the projects of this round-the-world scientific expedition, which includes mapping whales, penguins, and albatrosses in the Southern Ocean; measuring the effect of plastic pollution on the food chain; and logging the extent of phytoplankton – the base of the food chain – and its role in regulating climate.

To get an insight into conditions as they were before the Industrial Revolution, scientists will also take ice-core samples and study biodiversity on the continent.