How does the atmospheric water cycle work in Antarctica? The EU-funded AWACA project strives to answer this question, improving our understanding of how snow in Antarctica forms, falls and in what quantity. This project regroups 4 partners, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) with 2 third-parties, UVSQ and Sorbonne Université, École Polytechnique (EP), Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). To understand and predict the fate of atmospheric water including isotopes all along the tropospheric column, the project applies a consistent and comprehensive combined observation and modelling framework. AWACA also combines designed instruments to form fully autonomous observation platforms, deployed at several sites along a 1,100 km coast-to-plateau transect, aligned with the typical moisture-carrying air mass trajectories. The findings help scientists to gain a deeper understanding of past, present and future variabilities.

More info on this video and in the press report (in french).