The South African National Antarctic Programme (or SANAP) is the South African government's programme for research in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. Three research stations fall under this programme: the Antarctica research station SANAE IV, and one station each on the subantarctic islands Gough Island and Marion Island. These stations are managed and administered by the Directorate: Antarctic and Islands of the Department of Environmental Affairs.
The mission of the South African National Antarctic Programme is to increase understanding of the natural environment and life in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean through appropriate science and technology.
South Africa is one of the original signatory states of the Antarctic Treaty.[1]
Experiments
In April 2017, SANAP launched an experiment on Marion Island called Probing Radio Intensity at high-Z from Marion (PRIZM), searching for signatures of the hydrogen line in the early universe.[2] There are other global experiments looking for the same signal, but PRIZM is set apart by its location on Marion Island, which, at 2000 km from the nearest permanent inhabitants, is one of the most remote locations on Earth, allowing access to the full frequency range of the global signal without radio-frequency interference.
Notable people associated with the program
- Prof Bettine van Vuuren, zoologist [3]
See also
- SANAE – South African National Antarctic Expedition
- Gough Island – Island in the South Atlantic
- Marion Island – The larger of the Prince Edward Islands
- S. A. Agulhas – South African ice-strengthened training ship and former polar research vessel
- S. A. Agulhas II – Icebreaking polar supply and research ship
- Research stations in Antarctica – Research stations in Antarctica
- South African Weather Service – Meteorological agency of South Africa
References
- ^ "Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)". Department of International Relations and Cooperation. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
- ^ Philip, L.; Abdurashidova, Z.; Chiang, H. C.; et al. (2018). "Probing Radio Intensity at high-Z from Marion: 2017 Instrument". Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation. 8: 1950004. arXiv:1806.09531. Bibcode:2019JAI.....850004P. doi:10.1142/S2251171719500041.
- ^ "Prof Bettine Jansen-van-Vuuren". www.uj.ac.za. University of Johannesburg. Retrieved 2016-06-10.