Recent Indian contribution in the realms of polar studies

Abstract

Indian work in Antarctica has covered mainly atmosphere, biology and geoscience domains of sciences in central Dronning Maud land and Princess Elizabeth land (PEL) of eastern Antarctica. While observations of synoptic weather, geophysical and glaciological parameters have continued in both the sectors, thematic earth science studies focusing on crustal evolution and Gondwana fit have gained attention in the PEL where Neoproterozoic as well as Pan-African tectonic and metamorphic events that have established granulite grade metamorphism with peak conditions of ∼ 900 °C and 11 kbar followed by two stages of decompression. In the mafic granulites. The earth’s declining magnetic field and space weather studies have dominated the geophysical investigations. Ice sheet dynamics and deglaciation history have for the first time indicated that the Antarctic ice shelf too are losing ice and shrinking. The recent results of the Southern Ocean expeditions have revealed that the AABW have become fresher (∼ 0.002), warmer (0.04 °C), and sub ducted by ∼ 50–20 m toward the end of the past decade in the Indian Sector of Southern Ocean. Studies in the Arctic have mostly been conducted in the atmosphere and biological fields.