Polar Daily Life and Research at King Sejong's Research Station

There is a place on Earth where in winter there is an ice pack in the coastal waters, and the temperature drops to -25 °C. This is King Sejong's King George Island research station, which in the winter season is virtually cut off from the world – flights are stopped, and the shipping blocks the krires and pieces of ice pushed by wind.

Winter stay at the research station?

Once a year there is a winter expedition: eighteen people – scientists, technicians and logistics specialists – who stay there until summer. Crew replacement takes place in a short summer weather window when flights and cruises are possible.

Winter is not a pause for them, but the best time for research: fewer ships, fewer people, more silence in data. It is then that series of meteorological, oceanographic, glacjoological and biological measurements are created, which in summer are almost impossible to carry out. From this data they give birth amendments to climate models and forecasts for the entire planet.

King Sejong station (KOPRI) lies on the Barton Peninsula, in the southwest of King George Island in the Southern Shetland archipelago. In the summer you can fly To the Fildes Peninsula and continue to swim to the station. In winter, transport works in weather windows: flights are usually halted or severely restricted, and even ice-class ships face an ice pack, kremi and ice lumps pushed by wind.

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Satellite communications: operates all year. When the antenna cover (radom) splashes with snow and ice, the bandwidth drops – it is a challenge, but also a great test of the resilience of systems and procedures.

Logistics in polar conditions – ground, not obstacle

Stocks are completed before May: sea deliveries from Punta Arenas and, if allowed by aura, the last flight with fresh products. Then they count plan, discipline and stock rotation. A small greenhouse (a salad, herbs, some leaf vegetables) raises comfort, but the core are canned, frozen and dry products.

Every malfunction is a test of readiness. Parts? Only the ones in the warehouse. This experience, which later percentages anywhere where logistics is demanding – from ships on long voyages to offshore mining installations.

Even two decades ago, the bay more often froze whole and longer, creating an ice bridge. Today, we get a swimming pack more often, which forms a blockade. It's not just a restriction – it's a living lesson in ice processes: how wind, temperature and sea model the shore as the rhythm of the rhizome changes. These observations give material for comparisons – season after season.

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Eighteen people, one goal: to maintain the station and research program. The rhythm of the day is determined by weather windows and watches. When the sun comes out, scientists go to the field for samples, technicians do a survey. Then a short "reset": makeshift toboggan track, coffee in the mess hall, conversation. They're little things that build morale.
There are no ports. No rotation. There's a team. He's the one who makes the place "active".

What does Antarctica teach us for tomorrow?

Antarctica teaches us for tomorrow mainly continuous data: in winter long, "clean" series of measurements are collected crucial for reliable forecasts. It is also a lesson in the resilience of systems – communication, energy and maintenance – which can be scaled from station to offshore installations. It teaches inventory logistics: planning, rotation and self-sufficiency where the "shop" is far away. And finally he teaches cooperation: without the band there is no station – and there are no results.

This is not a story about the "end of the world" but about a place where data really has a great weight. The winter season at King Sejong Station teaches how the planet works – and how people can keep the system running in silence, winds and at sea, which can close in an hour with ice. And that's the knowledge we need more than ever.

Written by KBC News/Mariusz Dasiewicz