Explore stations and their surroundings

Wasa Station

Address

Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Operated by Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
www.polar.se/en

Station manager

Margareta Johansson and Håkan Grudd

Contact Station


https://www.polar.se/en/research-support/research-stations-in-antarctica/

Station Features

Opening year: 1989 Status: Open
  • Type of station: Station
  • Operational period: December-February
  • Name of station owner: Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
  • Type of owner: Research institution
  • Name of managing institution: Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
  • Managing Institution Country: Sweden
  • Station owner country: Sweden
  • Partner institution: Yes
  • Partner institution name: Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, Sweden
  • Station latitude: -73,04350000
  • Station longitude: 346,58690000
  • Region (station location): Continental Antarctica
  • Altitude of station: 440 m a.s.l
  • Type of surface facility is built on: Ice-free ground
  • Climate zone: Inland Antarctica
  • Mean annual temperature: -15,3 °C
  • Mean temperature in July: -21,9 °C
  • Precipitation type: Snow
  • Snow free period (month to month): None
  • Geomorphological Other
  • Permafrost zone Continuous
  • Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Region Dronning Maud Land
  • Antarctic Environmental Domain Northern latitude ice shelves (e.g. Wordie, George VI, Wilkins, Abbot, Riser-Larsenisen, Nansen)

Facilities

  • Number of staff peak season/summer: 5
  • Number of staff off season/winter: 0
  • Area under roof: 130 m²
  • Max. number of visitors at a time : 20
  • Showers: Yes
  • Laundry facilities: Yes
  • Power supply - period: 24h
  • Power sources at station Diesel/oil/gas, Solar, Wind
  • Waste management: Yes
  • Logistics area: 50 m²
  • Workshops Mechanical, Metal, Wood
  • Means of transportation to/from station Scheduled flight
  • Transport on land - at station SUV (4x4), Snowmobile, Other
  • Access: Air
  • Number of airstrips: 1
  • Helipad: No
  • Number of ship visits per year: 0
  • Period of flight visit per year: January, February, December
  • Laboratory area: 0 m²
  • Communications E-mail, Satellite telephone, VHF
  • Area of medical facilities (m2): 0 m²
  • Medical equipment Diagnostic ultrasound
  • Staff with basic medical training or doctor (Summer): Yes

Science

  • Transnational Access: No
  • Remote Access: Yes
  • INTERACT Virtual Access: No
  • Climate
    • Snow
    • Rain
    • Hail
  • Landscape and environment
    • Bluff
    • Clear air zone
    • 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
    • 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

Wasa Research Station, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat

Location

Dronning Maud Land. The station is co-located together with the Finnish station Aboa at the Mount Basen. The distance between Wasa and Aboa is about 200 meters. Together, the two stations form the Nordenskiöld Base Camp. The stations cooperate both in research and logistics. Distance to nearest year round Station (Neumayer Station III) is about 500 kilometers.

Climate data

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

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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

Mount Basen is a small Antarctic Nunatak completely surrounded by ice.

History and facilities

Both Wasa and Aboa were built at the same time, no previous facilities at this location.

General research and databases

Wasa is a small facility without permanent staff. The station is staffed and open when there is Swedish expedition activity in this area. The fields of science vary to a high degree from expedition to expedition.

Station Monitoring

Human dimension

Access

Member of:
  • Polarin