site.btaUAE Meteorological and Seismological Laboratory Inaugurated at Bulgarian Antarctic Base

A meteorological and seismological laboratory of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was inaugurated at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island on February 10.

The facility is a joint project of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute (BAI) and UAE scientists. It was opened by the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions and BAI President Christo Pimpirev, Flotilla Admiral Boyan Mednikarov and Captain Miroslav Tsvetkov of the Varna Naval Academy, and UAE scientists Ahmed Al Kaabi and Badr Al Ameri, who are taking part in the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition.

Scientists and logistics personnel took advantage of a lull in the storm that had been raging since February 9 to disembark from the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) to attend the event.

The UAE scientists are taking part in the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions for a second consecutive year.

RSV 421 set sail for the icy continent on November 7 from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna.

BTA has had a national press club on board the vessel since 2022. In February 2024, the national news agency also opened one at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island. The two press clubs exist thanks to the free support of the RSV 421 crew and of the Bulgarian base, which have provided the necessary premises. These are added to BTA's other 41 press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and countries with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile called National Book Press Club).

The reports of BTA’s special correspondents from NIK 421 and from Antarctica are freely accessible in a special thematic section of the news agency’s website, entitled “Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log,” in Bulgarian and English, and may be used freely by all media with attribution to BTA. According to BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, thanks to its special correspondents the agency appears among the first results in a Google search for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.