site.btaBulgarian-UAE Seismic Station on Livingston Island Upgraded with Additional Solar Panel

On Friday (local time), an additional solar panel was installed at a seismic station in Sally Rocks on Livingston Island. Bulgarian seismologist Gergana Georgieva and seismologist Badr Al Amer from the United Arab Emirates have been developing this joint project since last year.

Near the Bulgarian Antarctic base, the next stage of seabed bathymetry was completed, a project led by geophysicist Kiril Velkovski.

In a video conference call between the base and Sofia Prof. Christo Pimpirev, head of the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions, base commander Kamen Nedkov, and Bulgarian Antarctic researchers spoke with the audience and answered their questions.

The research vessel Sv.Sv. Kiril I Metodii returned from an expedition to collect samples around Livingston Island. Some of the scientists transferred to the base, while others boarded the vessel for a new expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Meanwhile, loading and unloading operations were carried out onshore near the base, along with seawater sampling as part of a project by Greek scientists Dionysia Rigatou and Eleni Kytinou.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. These are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). BTA's Director General Kiril Valchev announced ahead of the fourth voyage to Antarctica on November 7, 2025 that the national news agency would send a special correspondent in January-February 2026.

He said the press clubs exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. 

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.