| Belgrano II Base | |
|---|---|
Belgrano II Base |
|
|
Location of Belgrano II Base within Antarctica
|
|
| General information | |
| Location | Coats Land |
| Coordinates | |
| Elevation | 250 m (820 ft) |
| Current tenants | 19 (October 2010) |
Belgrano II is an Argentine research station in Antarctica located at
Contents |
In 1955, General Hernan Pujato founded the first Belgrano station, remaining for years as the southernmost base. On February 5, 1979 the Belgrano II was opened as replacement of the previous base. A third base, Belgrano III worked from 1980 to 1984, but the second one is the only one running, and its as of 2010[update] the southernmost permanent Argentine base on the continent.
Although maintained by the Argentine Armed Forces, as all Argentine bases on Antarctica, it is operated by the civilian agency Instituto Antartico Argentino ( English: Argentine Antarctic Institute ). As of 2010, the base has a 19 men crew which two are Air Force meteorologists, three are DNA civilian researchers and the rest is Argentine Army personnel in charge of operating the base.
During the repairs of the Argentine Navy icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar which is normally used to supply the base, the Argentine Air Force take over the task with airdrops by KC-130 Hercules aircraft in a non-stop flight from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego [1]
One of the main features of the base is that as a result of its latitude, both day and night are four months long and the night sky has the usual aurora australis. The temperature is between 5 and 48 C below zero.
Portions based on a translation from Spanish Wikipedia.
|
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||