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Neumayer Station III

Address

Ekström Iceshelf, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Operated by Alfred-Wegener-Institut
Helmholtz-Zentrum
für Polar- und Meeresforschung
Am Handelshafen 12
27570 Bremerhaven

Station manager

Julia Regnery (Science Coordinator)

Contact Station

Phone: +49 (0)471 4831-0

https://www.awi.de/en/fleet-stations/stations/neumayer-station-iii.html

Station Features

Opening year: 2009 Status: Open
  • Type of station: Station
  • Operational period: Year-round
  • Name of station owner: Alfred Wegener Institute
  • Type of owner: Research institution
  • Name of managing institution: Alfred Wegener Institute
  • Managing Institution Country: Germany
  • Station owner country: Germany
  • Partner institution: No
  • Partner institution name: Neumayer Station III, Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany
  • Station latitude: -70,67520000
  • Station longitude: 351,72700000
  • Region (station location): Continental Antarctica
  • Altitude of station: 43 m a.s.l
  • Type of surface facility is built on: Ice-shelf
  • Climate zone: Coastal Antarctica
  • Mean annual temperature: -16 °C
  • Mean temperature in February: -8,1 °C
  • Mean temperature in July: -24,9 °C
  • Precipitation type: Snow
  • Snow free period (month to month): None
  • Sea ice break up: January
  • Dominant wind direction: East
  • Mean annual wind speed: 9 m/s
  • Maximum wind speed (absolute): 36,9 m/s
  • Geomorphological Coast, Other
  • Wildlife Bird colonies
  • Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Region Dronning Maud Land
  • Antarctic Environmental Domain East Antarctic ice shelves (e.g. Fimbulisen, Amery, Shackleton, Cook, Moubray Bay)

Facilities

  • Number of staff peak season/summer: 20
  • Number of staff off season/winter: 5
  • Area under roof: 4890 m²
  • Max. number of visitors at a time : 60
  • Showers: Yes
  • Laundry facilities: Yes
  • Power supply - period: 24
  • Power sources at station Diesel/oil/gas, Solar, Wind
  • Waste management: Yes
  • Hazard(ous) management: Yes
  • Logistics area: 2511 m²
  • Conference room capacity: 0
  • Workshops Mechanical, Metal, Wood, Plexiglas
  • Means of transportation to/from station Ski, Snowmobile, Boat, Chartered plane/helicopter, Other
  • Transport on land - at station Tracked vehicle, SUV (4x4), Snowmobile
  • Water landing facilities Warf/pier
  • Access: Air, Land, Sea
  • Number of airstrips: 1
  • Length (m) of longest runway: 1000
  • Width (m) of longest runway: 60
  • Helipad: Yes
  • Number of ship visits per year: 2
  • Period of ship visits per year: January, February, December
  • Number of flight visit per year: 0
  • Period of flight visit per year: January, February, December
  • Specific device/Scientific equipment: Meteorological equipment, air-chemistry lab, GPS, hydrophones beneath the ice shelf, camera for observing penguin colony.
  • Laboratory area: 410 m²
  • Laboratory equipment Other
  • Communications Computer, E-mail, Internet, Printer, Satellite telephone, Telephone, VHF
  • Medical facilities: Yes
  • Medical capability Basic, Dental, Surgery
  • Distance to hospital (km): 0
  • Area of medical facilities (m2): 56 m²
  • Medical equipment Anaesthesia, Diagnostic X-ray, Laboratory diagnostics, Telemedicine
  • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Summer): Yes
  • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Winter): Yes
  • 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
    • Bluff
    • Clear air zone
    • Coast
    • High elevation
    • 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
    • Closed boat
    • Bicycles
    • Amphibie vehicle
    • Ski
    • Other
    • Snow shoes
    • KickSledges
    • Other
    • Ski
    • Snowmobile
    • Boat
    • Car
    • Tracked vehicle
    • Truck
    • SUV (4x4)
    • Bus
    • Train
    • Scheduled flight
    • Chartered plane/helicopter
    • Other
    • None
    • 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

Neumayer Station III, Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany

Location

Neumayer Station III is located about 20 km inland of the ice edge on the Ekström Ice Shelf. The Ekström Ice Shelf is a part of Dronning Maud Land in the Atlantic Sector of Antarctica. In contrast to the previous stations, Neumayer Station III was built about 7 m above the snow surface

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

The coastal environment favours the biodiversity in the vicinity of Neumayer Station III. Emperor penguin colony, Adélie penguins as well as Weddell seals, Skuas and other birds are present. The Ekström Ice Shelf is surrounded by two ice covered ridges and the ice shelf forms a bay (Atka Bay). The ice shelf is about 200 m thick at its front and has a velocity of 250 m/yr.

History and facilities

Neumayer Station III follows the Georg-von-Neumayer station (1981–1992) and Neumayer II station (1992–2009) on the Ekström Ice Shelf. It is the first of these three stations to be built about 7 m above the surface. Neumayer Station III integrates research, operational and accommodation facilities in one building. On the roof of Neumayer Station III, a balloon launching hall was built to launch radiosondes. A short distance from the station (1.5 km) an air chemistry (trace gases) and a geophysics observatory are located. Together with the meteorology, they comprise the long-term observatories of Neumayer Station III.

General research and databases

Main research fields are meteorology, air chemistry and geophysics. These are long-term observatories and the data are available at www.pangaea.de. The meteorology observatory is part of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN). Additionally, ocean acoustics and the observation of the penguin colony take place. The Neumayer Station III is also the location of the infra-sound array I27DE, a measuring field of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

Station Monitoring

Human dimension

Access

Member of:
  • Polarin