Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base
| Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Base Estação Antártica Comandante Ferraz |
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| — Research station — | |
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| Country |  Brazil |
| Territory | Brazilian Antarctica |
| Established | February 6, 1984 |
| Population | |
| • Total | 100 |
| Time zone | BRT (UTC-3) |
| Postal code | 20001-971 |
| Website | www.mar.mil.br PROANTAR |
The Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base (Portuguese: Estação Antártica Comandante Ferraz) is a research station, as part of the Brazilian Antarctic Program, located in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, 130 km from the South American continent.
The station began operating on 6 February 1984, brought to Antarctica in modules by the oceanographic ship Barão de Teffé (H-42) and several other Brazilian naval ships. It now houses about 60 people, including researchers, technicians and staff, military and civilians.
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[edit] History
It was named after Navy Commander Luís Antônio de Carvalho Ferraz, a hydrographer and oceanographer who visited Antarctica twice on board of British vessels. He was instrumental in persuading his country's government to develop an Antarctic program, and died suddenly in 1982 while representing Brazil at an oceanographic conference in Halifax.
The Comandante Ferraz Base was built on the same site of the old British "Base G",[1] and the weathered wooden structures of the old base made a sharp contrast with the bright green and orange metal structures of the Brazilian base, which was first set up on 6 February 1984. Above the site of the base there is a small cemetery with five crosses: three of them are the graves of British Antarctic Survey (BAS) personnel; the fourth commemorates a BAS base leader lost at sea, and the fifth cross is the grave of a Brazilian radio operator sergeant who died of a heart attack in 1990.[citation needed]
[edit] 2012 fire
On 25 February, 2012, a blast in the machine room housing the generators at the station caused a fire that, according to the Brazilian navy, destroyed approximately 70% of the compound.[2] 59 people were estimated to be in the base when the fire broke out, with 44 people (30 scientists, an alpinist, a representative from the Ministry of Environment and 12 workers from the Arsenal de Marinha do Rio de Janeiro) being evacuated to the nearby Chilean Eduardo Frei Montalva Station, while 12 soldiers stayed at the base trying to fight the blaze.[3]
Two soldiers, originally reported as missing by the Brazilian navy, were found dead in the debris of the station after the fire, while a third one was injured but said to be in a stable condition after treatment at the Arctowski Antarctic Station.[4][5] The evacuees were later embarked in an Argentine Air Force flight to Punta Arenas, from where they would head back to Brazil.[5] The Brazilian Air Force sent a C-130 Hercules aircraft to pick up the 45 evacuees from Chile.[6]
[edit] Governmental response
On 26 February, 2012, the Brazilian Navy issued a press release with a preliminary report of the extent of the damages. According to the report, although roughly 70% of the station was destroyed by the fire, the shelters, several laboratories (of meteorology, chemistry and atmospheric sciences), the fuel tanks and the heliport remained intact, as they were isolated from the main building.[2] President Rousseff issued a separate statement where she reiterated her "strong commitment to the full reconstruction of the Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Base".[7] The Ministry of Defense announced that reconstruction plans would commence on 27 February, 2012.[8] The Brazilian government estimates that it will take about two years to rebuild the base.[9] It has also been confirmed that a barge carrying 10,000 litres of diesel fuel sank 900m from the base in December.[5] [10]
[edit] Climate
With all 12 months having an average temperature below 10 °C (50 °F), Comandante Ferraz Station features a polar climate (Köppen E). The average temperature at the station is of about -2.8° C, however in the region of the Thiel Mountains, where the new station Criosfera 1 was built, the temperature may drop to -35 °C. The temperature at the Russian station Vostok, for example, has reached -89.3° C.[n 1]
| Climate data for Comandante Ferraz Station | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 4.3 (39.7) |
4.2 (39.6) |
3.3 (37.9) |
1.0 (33.8) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
−2.5 (27.5) |
−3.3 (26.1) |
−2.5 (27.5) |
−1 (30.2) |
0.2 (32.4) |
2.1 (35.8) |
3.4 (38.1) |
0.73 (33.31) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 2.2 (36.0) |
2.2 (36.0) |
1.1 (34.0) |
−1.5 (29.3) |
−3.1 (26.4) |
−5.4 (22.3) |
−6.4 (20.5) |
−5.3 (22.5) |
−3.7 (25.3) |
−2 (28.4) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
1.2 (34.2) |
−1.74 (28.86) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 0.4 (32.7) |
0.4 (32.7) |
−1 (30.2) |
−3.7 (25.3) |
−5.6 (21.9) |
−8.1 (17.4) |
−9.7 (14.5) |
−8.2 (17.2) |
−6.5 (20.3) |
−4.1 (24.6) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
−4.07 (24.68) |
| Source: CPTEC/INPE[11] | |||||||||||||
