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A Spanish pilot flies over Antarctica for over 20 uninterrupted hours on a single-engine airplane for the first time

Spanish version: sl.ugr.es/vuelo_antartida

French version: sl.ugr.es/vuelo_antartidaFR

Spanish scientists, including researchers from the University of Granada, have coordinated this historic milestone for the Antarctic flights, which took place on Wednesday, November 9

The objective of this expedition has been to measure the global atmospheric pollution of soot or black carbon, aerosol particles created by mankind and one of the causes of the climate change

Spanish scientists, including researchers from the University of Granada (UGR), have coordinated a historic milestone for the Antarctic flights, which took place on Wednesday, November 9, 2016: the first piloted Antarctic flyby without stopping for more than 20.5 hours in an experimental single-engine RV8 airplane of 1500 kilograms of weight.

The pilot Miguel Angel Gordillo left the Italian Antarctic Base Mario Zucchelli, at Terra Nova Bay, aboard the RV8, and traveled more than 4500 kilometers until arriving at the Argentina Antarctic Base, in Marambio Island, crossing Ross Sea, the Antarctic Plateau and the Weddell Sea, and flying over the South Pole.

During the travel, which he successfully concluded, the pilot was transmitting to the base information about his situation, time, ground speed and direction every 3 minutes. Previously, Gordillo, aboard the RV8, had sequentially overflew the South Atlantic, the Amazon, the American tropical zone, the American Midwest, Canada, the North Pole to the Svalvard Islands in the Arctic Sea, Norway and part of Europe before arriving to Madrid.

In this second phase, which ended with the Antarctic flyby, he has passed through the Mediterranean, the tropic-equatorial zones of Africa, the Indian Ocean to Australia, and ending in a direct flight from Tasmania to the Italian Antarctic Base Mario Zuccelli, in the Antarctic Terra Nova Bay.

The Interuniversity Research Institute for the System Earth (IISTA, from its abbreviation in Spanish), in Andalusia, and the University of Granada, in collaboration with the Slovenian firm Aerosol d.o.o., have given scientific support to the flight made by the pilot Miguel Ángel Gordillo around the planet, which has concluded with the flight over the South Pole in a light airplane. The project has been supported by the Ministry of Development, the Spanish firm Acciona, the Pilots’ Association and the Royal Aeroclub of Spain.

The aircraft was equipped with a A33-avio mini-aethalometer, from Aerosol d.o.o., capable of measuring atmospheric aerosol properties during the flight, with which the presence of desert or soot mineral dust can be detected, determining the concentration of soot, and discriminating if its origin is the combustion of biomass or fossil fuels.

Soot monitoring at remote locations is important in order to know the impact of this type of aerosol on the climate. The data recorded during the flight are currently being analyzed, and will allow a better understanding of this agent over global warming.

Antarctic Campaign 2016/2017

The Antarctic flyby is part of the Spanish Science Campaign 2016/2017 in Antarctica. It has been planned with the collaboration of the Spanish Polar Committee, which has coordinated the activity and the communications with the countries which have an Antarctic base, and it is part of the UGR project led by professor Lucas Alados Arboledas for the global measurement of atmospheric pollution by black carbon, particles significantly responsible for the short-term components that cause climate change.

As professor Alados explains, «the soot or black carbon we have monitored in this experiment is produced in incomplete combustion processes, it intensely absorbs solar radiation and produces an atmospheric warming effect». Thus, this anthropogenic aerosol adds its global warming effect to that of greenhouse gases, and «it’s the second most important atmospheric component in global warming, with a contribution that can reach 20-40% and a great spatial heterogeneity».

Said aerosol can travel long distances given its inert nature, and it produces its heating effects at a great distance from where it was emitted. «Polar areas are especially vulnerable to the effects of soot, as its deposition on ice and snow-covered surfaces obscures those highly reflective surfaces, contributing to an increase in solar absorption and, thus, to their melting», the UGR professor notes.

The analysis of the data from the last stage of the flight, in particular that from the polar stages, will be carried out during the next months. In brief, researchers are confident in completing the detailed assessment, combining the information obtained by Miguel Ángel with that provided by satellites and models.

Spanish Antarctic Campaign

The Spanish Antarctic Campaign is a model of cooperation between different public and private institutions contributing R&D&I within the framework of the Spanish State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research. The coordination of the activities developed by the different organisms during the Antarctic Campaigns is carried out by the Spanish Polar Committee.

The Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness contributes to the campaign expenses in the bases and in the BIO (Buque de Investigación Oceanográfica, oceanographic research vessel) ‘Hespérides’, as well as in the financing of the research projects that were developed during the campaign.

The operational entities participating in these activities are the Marine Technology Unit, belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, from its abbreviation in Spanish), which takes care of the Spanish Antarctic Base Juan Carlos I located in Livingston Island and coordinates the general logistics of the Antarctic campaign; The Spanish Army, which runs the Spanish Antarctic Base Gabriel de Castilla located in Deception Island; and the Spanish Navy, which operates the BIO Hespérides.

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The pilot Miguel Angel Gordillo, the first to fly over Antarctica for more than 20.5 hours without stopping, next to the RV8 plane with which he has accomplished his feat

Contact:

Lucas Alados Arboledas

Catedrático del departamento de Física Aplicada – Universidad de Granada

Telephones: (+34) 958 249 749 – (+34) 958 244 024

E-mail: alados@ugr.es