The AWACA¹ 2025-2026 scientific expedition has completed its traverse across the ice following a maintenance campaign of the instruments deployed last summer in Adélie Land, in front of the Dumont d’Urville Station. Teams visited the various sites to carry out essential operations: functionality checks, repairs, sensor replacements, and restoration of power and transmission systems, crucial tasks to ensure the continuity of measurements during the months of polar isolation.

The OPUs, autonomous observation platforms tested by extreme cold, katabatic winds, and frost, underwent thorough inspections: optics cleaning, electronic system checks, battery replacements, and repair of any damaged instruments. These interventions guarantee a reliable resumption of data acquisition at the end of summer.

This ambitious mission is led by scientists from CNRS, CEA, École Polytechnique in Paris, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Instrument deployment, a significant logistical challenge, is carried out by teams from the French Polar Institute, with financial support from the European Research Council.

This phase represents a key milestone for the sustainability of the observation network, enabling the instruments to continue precisely documenting changes in the atmosphere and water in all its forms in one of the planet’s most extreme environments.

The AWACA 2025-2026 daily field log, including photos and on-site reports, is now available on the project’s website: view the logbook

¹ Atmospheric WAter Cycle over Antarctica

Contacts

• Christophe Genthon, field mission moordinator, atmospheric boundary layer specialist • christophe.genthon@cnrs.fr
• Alexis Berne, radar hydrometeorology specialist • alexis.berne@epfl.ch
• Valérie Masson-Delmotte, water isotopes specialist • valerie.masson@lsce.ipsl.fr
• Thomas Dubos, atmospheric dynamics modeling specialist • dubos@lmd.polytechnique.fr
• Project website: https://awaca.ipsl.fr/