Field work during BELARE 2025-26 for the PASPARTOUT project

In this photo gallery you can find Sarah Wauthy from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and field guide Sebastian Corret colelcting samples from volitaile organic compoud (VOC) samplers at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station and at L0 Ice Rise at the coast, as well as taking snow samples from trenches they dug during field expeditions to L0 Ice Rise at the Queen Maud Land coast and at two locations close to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.

Coordinated by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium in partnership with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Prof. Nicole van Lipzig)), Ghent University (research group EnVOC, Prof. Walgraeve) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, G-Time Laboratory, Prof. Nadine Mattielli), and financed by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) the PASPARTOUT project seeks to:

• Establish an in-depth understanding of the links between atmospheric circulation patterns, weather regimes, particles, VOCs and moisture;
• Characterise VOCs and partially oxidised VOCs in an unprecedented way and improve the understanding of their degradation pathways and seasonal patterns;
• Characterise the seasonal patterns of metals and rare earth elements, and Pb, Sr and Nd isotopes;
• Understand the seasonal variability in the sources of nitrate in Antarctica through the measurement of nitrate isotopes;
• Determine the source regions atmospheric transport pathways of organic and inorganic compounds;
• Investigate implications and changes to the before-mentioned points within a changing global climate.