The Romanian Governmental Scientific Expedition in Antarctica – ROICE 2015, is organized by INCDSB in partnership with Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI). The team of Romanian researchers will be taking part in this expedition during 3 – 23 February 2015, at the Antarctic King Sejong Station, host station of the Korea Institute for Polar Research, on King George Islands in West Antarctica.
Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) was established in 1987 as a government supported research institute specializing in polar sciences and, as the operator of the Korean Antarctic Research Program (KARP). KOPRI has the largest research infrastructure in this field, in the world.
King Sejong Antarctic Station, together with the Dasan Arctic Station, the Jango Bongo Antarctic Research Station, as well as the ARON icebreaker, constitute a large and a modern research infrastructure which will enable Korea Polar Research Institute to become the most powerful research organization in the field of polar sciences in the world.
The station was inaugurated in 1988 as a research platform with permanent activity, including during polar winters. Since its opening to present, the station has been undergoing successive and significant processes of modernization and development.
King Sejong Antarctic Station is located on King George Islands, on the Barton Peninsula in West Antarctica. The location of the station makes for a strategic advantage for research in Antarctica in all major areas: life sciences, genomic sciences and physical sciences, as well as in interdisciplinary research areas. The research platform hosts its own scientists and partner researchers, which include: scientific expeditionists operating during polar summers and those who carry on the studies throughout the year.
Their research in life sciences (multidisciplinary research in biological sciences and oceanography) takes place at the station and on board of various ships in the Peninsula region, in order to investigate the biological resources of the area and to study how environmental changes determine fluctuations associated with global warming and the annual ozone layer.