Four RI researchers to join Antarctic team

JAKARTA (JP): The Agency for Technology Application and Assessment (BPPT) is planning to send four of its researchers on the South-Arctic Expedition next month.

Two of the four Indonesian candidates are Muhammad Evri, and Fadli Syamsuddin. They will be leaving for Australia on Aug. 17 to join other researchers from Australia, New Zealand and the United States on board the Aurora Australis expedition boat.

The two other researchers, Bugi Wiku Wicaksono and Muhammad Ilyas, will be posted to a station in Hobart on Tasmania to stand in for Muhammad and Fadli in case of emergencies.

The candidates have yet to undergo health tests to determine whether they are suitable for the expedition.

Indrojono Soesilo, head of the agency's natural resources technological inventory, said that the researchers' participation is in conjunction with the celebration of Aerospace and Maritime Year.

"This is the first time that Indonesian researchers have taken part in an international scientific expedition to the South pole," Indrojono said.

He stressed, however, the difference between this expedition and "adventurous" expeditions conducted by other groups in the country.

At a press conference yesterday, the researchers said they would focus their study on the role of the southern oceans' tidal waves circulation on climactic changes. Previous studies had been conducted on Indonesian waters by the state-owned Baruna Jaya research boat.

Muhammad Evri pointed out that it is important for Indonesia to join such expeditions, given its geographical position which makes it greatly influenced by global climactic changes.

The expedition is being conducted jointly by the Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories of the Australian Antarctic Division, and BPPT.

The expedition is a part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment program.

The Indonesian researchers, aged 26 to 30, will start the expedition from Hobart on Aug. 22. The expedition is scheduled to end on Sep. 24.

The Aurora Australis ship is specially designed for arctic expeditions. It is capable of breaking ice up to 1.2 meters thick at a speed of 2.5 knots or approximately five kilometers an hour. (14)