GIS Explore stations and their surroundings

Concordia Station

Address

Dome C, East Antarctic Plateau

Operated jointly by:
Institut Polaire Francais Paul Emile Victor (France)
Programma Nazionale Di Ricerche in Antartide (Italy)

Station manager

Gregory Tran (France) and Vito Vitale (Italy)

Contact Station


https://institut-polaire.fr/en/antarctica/concordia-station/
https://www.isp.cnr.it/index.php/en/infrastructures/research-stations/concordia

Station Features

Opening year: 1991 Status: Open
  • Type of station: Station
  • Operational period: Year-round
  • Name of station owner: Institut Polaire Francais Paul Emile Victor (France) / Programma Nazionale Di Ricerche in Antartide (Italy)
  • Type of owner: Government
  • Name of managing institution: Institut Polaire Francais Paul Emile Victor
  • Managing Institution Country: France
  • Station owner country: France
  • Partner institution: Yes
  • Partner institution name: Programma Nazionale Di Ricerche in Antartide, Italy
  • Station latitude: -75,10100000
  • Station longitude: 123,34790000
  • Region (station location): Continental Antarctica
  • Altitude of station: 3233 m a.s.l
  • Type of surface facility is built on: Ice-sheet
  • Climate zone: Inland Antarctica
  • Mean annual temperature: -52,1 °C
  • Mean temperature in February: 43,7 °C
  • Mean temperature in July: -64,2 °C
  • Precipitation type: Snow
  • Snow free period (month to month): None
  • Sea ice break up: None
  • Dominant wind direction: South
  • Mean annual wind speed: 3 m/s
  • Maximum wind speed (absolute): 31,8 m/s
  • Atmospheric Clear air zone, Low artificial light pollution, Low humidity
  • Geomorphological Plateau, Other
  • Antarctic Environmental Domain East Antarctic high interior ice sheet

Facilities

  • Number of staff peak season/summer: 35
  • Number of staff off season/winter: 8
  • Area under roof: 3605 m²
  • Max. number of visitors at a time : 80
  • Showers: Yes
  • Laundry facilities: Yes
  • Power supply - period: 24 hours
  • Power sources at station Diesel/oil/gas
  • Waste management: Yes
  • Hazard(ous) management: Yes
  • Logistics area: 2856 m²
  • Conference room capacity: 0
  • Workshops Electrical and IT technologies, Mechanical, Metal, Wood, Other
  • Means of transportation to/from station Walk, Chartered plane/helicopter
  • Transport on land - at station Tracked vehicle, SUV (4x4), Snowmobile, Bicycles, Other
  • Water landing facilities None
  • Access: Air, Land
  • Number of airstrips: 1
  • Length (m) of longest runway: 2000
  • Width (m) of longest runway: 50
  • Number of ship visits per year: 0
  • Period of ship visits per year: None
  • Number of flight visit per year: 20
  • Period of flight visit per year: January, February, November, December
  • Specific device/Scientific equipment: No basic scientific equipment. Each project should bring its own necessary scientific equipment. : A scientific engineer (electrician) is appointed in winter for monitoring and maintenance of automated programs. Long-term monitoring/observations: Earth magnetism (INTERMAGNET Network), Seismology (GEOSCOPE Network), Stratospheric ozone, SuperDARN (Super Dual Auroral Radar Network), Glacier mass balance, Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), meteorology (incl. Radio-sounding).
  • Laboratory area: 748 m²
  • Laboratory equipment Other
  • Communications Computer, E-mail, Satellite telephone, Telephone, VHF
  • Medical facilities: Yes
  • Medical capability Basic, Dental, Surgery
  • Area of medical facilities (m2): 120 m²
  • Medical equipment Echography
  • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Summer): Yes
  • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Winter): Yes
  • Closest emergency facility in Antarctica: 1100 km
  • Closest emergency facility external: 5000 km
  • Medical research capabilities: Yes
  • Medical screening requirements: Yes

Science

  • Transnational Access: Yes
  • Remote Access: Yes
  • INTERACT Virtual Access: No
  • Climate
    • Snow
    • Rain
    • Hail
  • Landscape and environment
    • Clear air zone
    • Bluff
    • High elevation
    • Coast
    • Low artificial light pollution
    • Fjord
    • Low humidity
    • Hill
    • Other Atmospheric
    • Lake
    • Melt streams
    • Moraine
    • Mountain
    • Permanent snowpatches
    • Plateau
    • Rock
    • Sea
    • Shoreline
    • Terrestrial geothermal
    • Valley
    • Nunataks
    • Crevasse
    • Ice cap
    • Glacier
    • Blue ice
    • Ice shelf
    • Ice tongue
    • Sea-ice
    • Snow
    • Sustrugui
    • Other
    • Continuous
    • Discontinuous
    • Sporadic
    • None
    • Bird colonies
    • Seal colonies
    • Other biological
    • North-east Antarctic Peninsula
    • South Orkney Islands
    • North-west Antarctic Peninsula
    • Central south Antarctic Peninsula
    • Enderby Land
    • Dronning Maud Land
    • East Antarctica
    • North Victoria Land
    • South Victoria Land
    • Transantarctic Mountains
    • Ellsworth Mountains
    • Marie Byrd Land
    • Adelie Land
    • Ellsworth Land
    • South Antarctic Peninsula
    • Prince Charles Mountains
    • Antarctic Peninsula northern geologic
    • Antarctic Peninsula mid-northern latitudes geologic
    • Antarctic Peninsula southern geologic
    • East Antarctic coastal geologic (e.g. Vestfold, Bunger, Wilson hills)
    • Antarctic Peninsula, Alexander (and other islands main ice fields and glaciers)
    • Larsen Ice Shelf (also includes Prince Gustav and other northern peninsula ice shelf remnants)
    • Antarctic Peninsula offshore islands (e.g. most of Deception Island)
    • East Antarctic low latitude glacier tongues (e.g. Mertz, Rennick)
    • East Antarctic ice shelves (e.g. Fimbulisen, Amery, Shackleton, Cook, Moubray Bay)
    • Southern latitude coastal fringe ice shelves and floating glaciers (e.g. Pine Island,Thwaites, Getz, Drygalski)
    • Northern latitude ice shelves (e.g. Wordie, George VI, Wilkins, Abbot, Riser-Larsenisen, Nansen)
    • Continental coastal-zone ice sheet
    • Continental mid-latitude sloping ice (e.g. Ellsworth & Coats lands, upper Lambert Gl, northern Berkner & Thurston islands)
    • East Antarctic inland ice sheet
    • West Antarctic Ice Sheet (also includes inland Coats Land, Taylor Dome, Ross Island ice cap)
    • Ross and Ronne-Filchner ice shelves
    • East Antarctic high interior ice sheet
    • Transantarctic Mountains geologic (Shackleton Range to Cook Mountains)
    • McMurdo - South Victoria Land geologic (also includes Ellsworth, Werner etc mountains)
    • Inland continental geologic (Dronning Maud, MacRobertson, Victoria, Oates lands, Ford Range)
    • North Victoria Land geologic (also includes Executive Committee Range, Prince Charles & Jones mountains)
  • Housing and accomodation
    • Showers
    • Laundry facilities
    • Municipal grid
    • Diesel/oil/gas
    • Wood
    • Solar
    • Wind
    • Water
    • Geothermal
    • Biofuel
    • Other
    • Waste management
    • Hazard(ous) management
  • Logistics
    • Electrical and IT technologies
    • Mechanical
    • Metal
    • Wood
    • Plexiglas
    • Other
    • Walk
    • Tracked vehicle
    • Truck
    • SUV (4x4)
    • Car
    • ATV
    • Zodiac
    • Snowmobile
    • Open boat/Dhinghy
    • Bicycles
    • Closed boat
    • Amphibie vehicle
    • Ski
    • Other
    • Snow shoes
    • KickSledges
    • Other
    • Ski
    • Snowmobile
    • Boat
    • Car
    • Tracked vehicle
    • Truck
    • SUV (4x4)
    • Bus
    • Train
    • Scheduled flight
    • Chartered plane/helicopter
    • None
    • Other
    • Harbour/port
    • Warf/pier
    • Pontoon/float bridge
    • Barges
    • Beach
    • Hydroponics facilities
    • Helipad
  • Laboratory
    • Freezer < -80
    • Freezer -40 - -10
    • Fridge
    • Microscopes
    • Basic laboratory equipment
    • Advanced laboratory equipment
    • Basic chemical reagents
    • Analytical instrumentation
    • Other
  • Communication and IT
    • Computer
    • E-mail
    • Fax
    • Internet
    • Printer
    • Satellite telephone
    • Scanner
    • Telephone
    • VHF
  • Medical facilities
    • Medical facilities
    • Basic
    • Medium
    • Extensive
    • Dental
    • Surgery
    • Other
    • Aeromedical equipment
    • Altitude medicine
    • Anaesthesia
    • Biochemistry
    • Blood transfusion medicine
    • Diagnostic X-ray
    • Diagnostic ultrasound
    • Endoscopy
    • Haematology
    • Hyperbaric recompression chamber
    • Laboratory diagnostics
    • Microbiology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Telemedicine
    • Other
    • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Summer)
    • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Winter)
    • Medical research capabilities
    • Medical screening requirements
  • Partner institutions (involved in the operation of the station)
    • Partner institution

Station name and owner

The Concordia Station is jointly managed by the Institut Polaire Francais Paul Emile Victor (France) and Programma Nazionale Di Ricerche in Antartide (Italy).

Location

Concordia station is located at Dome C, on the high East Antarctic plateau. The site is one of the coldest and among the most remote places on Earth. Among the year-round stations in Antarctica, only 3 are located inland the continent (Amundsen-Scott, Vostok and Concordia). The closest stations are Dumont d’Urville and Mario Zucchelli.

Climate data

Grey colours are WMO Climate Normals including maximum and minimum values. Blue colours are individual years.

Export to PDF

Climate data for the stations where extracted via Copernicus Climate Data Store, from the global gridded reanalysis product:
ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present. Description and source code: Roemer J.K. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10214922 Data Source: Hersbach et al. 2023. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

Biodiversity and natural environment

Dome C is 1100 km from the coast at a height of 3233 m a.s.l., surrounded by thousands of kilometers of solid ice. Temperatures hardly rise above -25°C in summer and can fall below -80°C in winter with record of -84.6°C reached in 2010. As a consequence, there is no fauna and no flora.

History and facilities

The idea of constructing a European permanent research station in the heart of Antarctica, with an environment particularly hostile for humans, sprang up when the site at Dome C was revealed to be especially favourable for deep ice coring and astronomy. This scientific challenge is accompanied by another, parallel adventure: the design and construction of a modern station, capable of yielding new scientific knowledge concerning not only Antarctica, but also concerning the whole our planet and beyond, the Universe. The Institut Polaire Francais Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and the Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) have therefore pooled their skills and know-how, resources and combined operations to develop this new station between 1999 and 2005. Concordia has been continuously occupied since that time.

General research and databases

The research projects implemented at Concordia are linked to many subjects involving societal concerns, such as climate change, the role of greenhouse gases or aerosols in past and present trends or the hole in the ozone layer. Beside the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), which was completed in December 2004 and extended the record of climate variability to around 800,000 years BP, Concordia remains an active site for glaciology. Dome C also offers an exceptional environment for astronomical observations and provides good conditions for calibration and validation of sensors embarked on polar orbit satellites. Observatories in seismology, geomagnetism, or Earth-Sun interactions are present. Concordia station itself is also considered as an excellent Earth-based analogue for orbital space stations or Mars-bound vessels and projects in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) are implemented.

Station Monitoring

Human dimension

Access

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