Antarctic Offworld Analog: Aurora Australis Over Concordia Station

This dazzling light show appears when charged particles from the Sun are guided by Earth’s magnetic field towards the polar regions, where they collide with gases in the upper atmosphere and create shimmering waves of colour dancing across the sky.

Concordia station, perched high on Antarctica’s Dome C plateau, is one of the most remote research outposts on Earth. On 4 May this year, the Sun set below the horizon and only returned on 10 August. During this four-month polar winter, the station’s crew experienced continuous darkness and glacial temperatures plummeting to –80°C.

This frozen, silent world is an analogue for space missions, with the isolation, extreme cold, lack of sunlight and distance from emergency support mirroring the challenges astronauts will face on long-duration missions.

Each year, ESA sponsors a medical doctor to live and work at Concordia station for a full winterover, conducting research into how the human body and mind adapt to these conditions. This year, Dr Nina Purvis from the United Kingdom has joined the DC21 crew – the 21st team to winterover at the station – to carry out biomedical studies on herself and her crewmates to help prepare for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Follow Nina’s updates from the station and read more stories from past ESA-sponsored doctors on our Concordia blog.

Astrobiology, exploration, antarctica,