The reporter learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources on April 8 that the "Snow Dragon" polar scientific expedition icebreaker returned to Shanghai on the same day, and China's 41st Antarctic expedition team successfully completed its main tasks.

　　Welcome sample - shallow ice core drilling. (Photo provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources)
　　China's 41st Antarctic expedition team consists of 516 people from 118 units at home and abroad. The "Snow Dragon" departed from Guangzhou on November 1, 2024, lasting 159 days and a total voyage of more than 27,000 nautical miles; the "Yongsheng" ship set sail from Zhangjiagang on November 20, 2024, and completed the inspection mission on January 23 this year, lasting 65 days and a voyage of nearly 11,000 nautical miles; the "Snow Dragon 2" is currently carrying out a joint voyage of the Ross Sea and is expected to return to Shanghai in June.

　　The expedition team overcame difficulties such as melting land-margin ice and dense ice floating ice, completed the unloading tasks of materials and personnel from Zhongshan Station, Great Wall Station, and Qinling Station, completed comprehensive investigation and monitoring and scientific and technological projects in the Antarctic Peninsula, the Sea of ​​Astronauts, Pritz Bay, Amundsen Sea, and the Ross Sea. They completed engineering and support capacity building, land and coastal ecological environment survey, inland and aviation survey, international cooperation and other tasks in Zhongshan Station, Great Wall Station, Qinling Station, Kunlun Station, Taishan Station, Grove Mountain and other areas.

　　The team members are conducting flight inspections. (Photo provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources)
　　The inspection team focused on completing three tasks: carrying out the construction of supporting facilities and equipment of the Qinling Station in Antarctica, applying a clean energy system that complements wind, light, hydrogen and multi-energy storage for the first time at the Antarctic station, carrying out the overwintering inspection of the Qinling Station, and my country achieved overwintering three stations in Antarctica for the first time; through aviation surveys, it filled the basic data gap in the ice cover area along the Zhongshan Ice and Snow Airport to Enderby, Grove Mountain, Prince Charles Mountain and Princess Elizabeth Land, and successfully collected long gravity cores in the Amundsen Sea for the first time; organizing joint Ross Sea voyage inspections, continuing to implement the International Antarctic "ring action plan" and China-Russia drilling project, and participating in the BRICS cooperation around the Antarctic inspection.

　　This inspection, which was held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of my country's polar inspection, has made new breakthroughs in technological method innovation, independent research and development of polar equipment large-scale application, international exchanges and cooperation, and has set record highs in terms of operation time and regional span, which has accumulated valuable experience for the future implementation of large-scale, high-intensity, internationalization and interdisciplinary polar comprehensive inspections, and has provided strong support for in-depth research on the rapid changes in Antarctica and effectively responding to global climate change. (Reporters Wang Libin and Zhang Jiansong)

[Editor in charge: Chen Tingyu]