During the 2024–2025 field season, three teams from the THAWIMPACT project contributed to the maintenance of PERMANTAR observatories on King George, Livingston, and Deception Islands.

At King George Island, the team led by Paula Matos (CEG/IGOT) and Marina Bowen assisted in collecting data from the instruments installed at the King Sejong Station observatory. 

On Livingston Island, the team led by Joana Baptista (CEG/IGOT) and Marcelo Fernandes (CEG/IGOT), while based at the Spanish Station Juan Carlos I, focused on reinstalling an A-ERT system at Reina Sofia (ANTERMON network), where ground resistivity is continuously monitored along a 12-meter-long. They also conducted a DGPS survey at the False Bay rock glacier to assess the velocity and direction of ground movement. During their stay at the Bulgarian Station St. Kliment Ohridski, the team maintained the Papagal, CALM, and Meteo observatories and performed DGPS surveys at monitoring sites with solifluction lobes on the slopes of Punta Hespérides and the CALM site. As part of the observatory maintenance, after collecting temperature data, they reinforced the equipment by replacing thermometric poles and radiation shields and insulating the borehole protection boxes to improve resistance to extreme weather conditions and extend the operational period of the observatories.

On Deception Island, the team led by Rute Cesário (IST) and Catarina Louro (IST) supported the PERMANTAR network by maintaining the Irizar and Refugio Chileno observatories, collecting temperature data, and replacing batteries. Additionally, they measured the active layer thickness at the Irizar CALM site.

The activities carried during the field season were supported by PROPOLAR, the Korean Polar Research Institute, the Spanish Polar Committee, the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, and the College on Polar and Extreme Environments of the University of Lisbon, to whom we express our gratitude. FCT provided funding under the THAWIMPACT project.

The field season of 2023-24 was an important one for the PERMANTAR network. Gabriel Goyanes, Gonçalo Vieira, Henrique Zilhão, Joana Baptista, Marcelo Fernandes, Miguel Angel de Pablo, Miguel Esteves and Pedro Pina were the team members that contributed to the maintenance of the observatories in Deception Island, Livingston Island, King George Island, Amsler Island and Cierva Cove. Data was collected in all, except one borehole in Cierva Cove, which was surrounded by penguins in the expanding rookery and where bird flu restrictions were in place, so we did not visit the site. That was the 4 m borehole, but we managed to collect the data from the 15 m one located in higher ground above the colony. In Amsler Island, we have upgraded the logger and thermometric chain to a more accurate system. In Deception Island, the highlight was upgrading the A-ERT monitoring system installed in Crater Lake for satellite data transmission and the good news is that it is working smoothly. This system is part of the ANTERMON network.
This season the activities were supported by PROPOLAR, the Spanish Polar Committee, the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, the Korean Polar Research Institute and by the College on Polar and Extreme Environments of the University of Lisbon, to whom we are thankful. Actually, our team was integrated in the COASTANTAR 2024 Expedition in a 24 m sailing boat, that allowed us to reach Cierva Cove and Amsler. It was amazing!
This year's activities were funded by the FCT under the project THAWIMPACT.

The 2022-2023 Antarctic Campaign was highly productive for the PERMANTAR project. The field team with Joana Baptista and Vasco Miranda, spent one month travelling along the Western Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula to visit the PERMANTAR observatories.
In January, both researchers went onboard of the Spanish Vessel Hespérides and sailed from Fildes Peninsula to Amsler Island and Cierva Cove, where they collected the data and maintained the PERMANTAR observatories. Throughout the journey, they visited opportunity sites conducting spectroscopy and UAV surveys. Later, they stayed for two days at Gabriel de Castilla Station (Deception Island) for the maintenance of the PERMANTAR observatories and CALM sites. The short stay was very demanding considering the tasks defined. However, the support of the Spanish team and colleges from the PERMAMERC project was crucial. After exploring the volcanic landscape of Deception, the researchers sailed to Barton Peninsula (King George Island) where they stayed at the King Sejong Station for the maintenance of PERMANTAR observatory and ERT system installed by the team lead by Mohammad Farzamian (ANTERMON). Despite missing the Hurd Peninsula observatory, the campaign was a success, as all observatories are in very good conditions and fully operational. Moreover, was an excellent opportunity for PhD candidate Joana Baptista get to know the different observatories which are part of her study sites. It is worth noting that the campaign's success was the result of the funding obtained for the project by the Portuguese Polar Program (FCT) and much valuable logistical support of the Spanish Polar Program, the Korean Polar Research Institute, the Argentinean Antarctic Institute.

After the COVID-19, the PERMANTAR team returned to the field in January 2022, facing tightened restrictions that increased logistical complexities. After completing quarantine in Punta Arenas, team members traveled to different work sites.
Gonçalo Vieira, Joana Baptista, Patrícia Valadares, and Paula Matos departed for Hurd Peninsula and were warmly received at the Juan Carlos I station. During the stay, they maintained the SKO observatoires and collected ground and air temperatures. Additionally, they monitored the solifluction lobes, measuring the position of previous installed poles with DGPS.The same procedures were repeated for the Rock Glacier in False Bay.
Mohammad Farzamian and Henrique Zilhão headed to Barton Peninsula for the maintenance of the King Sejong observatory and the collection of the 20 GST loggers installed across the peninsula. Moreover, they were responsible for the installation of a new ERT system, located in the observatory area, enhancing the instrumentation setup.
Despite the challlenges of this field campaign, the majority of the goals defined were achieved through the involvment of the teams members but mostly by the funding support provided by the the Portuguese Polar Program (FCT) and logistical suppport of the Spanish Polar Program, the Korean Polar Research Institute and the Chilean Antarctic Institute.

The Antarctic field season of 2020-21 was cancelled by the Portuguese Polar Program due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Thanks to the support of our partners from the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, Korean Polar Research Program, Spanish Polar Program and United States Antarctic Program, most of the PERMANTAR boeholes were maintained and the data series was maintained. We warmly thank Jehyuck Shin (KOPRI), Jun Yeong Hwang (KOPRI), Miguel Angel de Pablo (UAH), Petar Sapundjiev (BAI) and Randy Jones (Palmer, USAP) for their incredible support.

This austral summer season has been a busy one for the PERMANTAR team, with field teams working in King George Island (Gonçalo Vieira and Joana Baptista), Hurd Peninsula (Mohammad Farzamian, John Triantafilis, Gabriel Goyanes, Vasco Miranda and Miguel Angel de Pablo), Deception Island (Miguel Esteves and Miguel Angel de Pablo), Cierva Cove (Claudio Matko) and in Amsler Island (Palmer station staff support). All data was collected successfully in this summer that has been a really warm one in nothern Antarctic Peninsula as we have already noticed in some of the borehole data. We are now starting to analyse it and really curious on how far reaching will be the impacts on permafrost, something and we will only start to better grasp next season when the heat will reach deeper levels in the boreholes.
The borehole installed in 2019 in Barton Peninsula has also provided the first full year data series, feeding directly into the masters thesis of Joana Baptista, working on spatial modelling of ground temperature.
As an highlight, the ANTARMON team lead by Mohammad Farzamian has got a full year-long data set from the resistivimeter installed in Deception Island and installed a new one in Livingston Island. This is an important upgrade to the PERMANTAR network, which will be including resistivimeters at the key boreholes for monitoring permafrost degradation and changes in ice content of the ground.
It is now time to work the new data.
This campaign would not have been possible without the funding of the Portuguese Polar Program (FCT) and the logistical support of the Spanish Polar Program, the Korean Polar Research Institute, the Chilean Antarctic Institute, the Argentinean Antarctic Institute and the National Science Foundation. Thank you very much!

PERMANTAR activities of 2019 were highlighted in the Global Climate Observing System / Switzerland of July 2019. Last season's drilling in Barton Peninsula were funded by the Portuguese Polar Program and co-funded by MeteoSwiss in a cooperative framework. Daniel Vonder Muehll from ETH/Zurich has participated in the field season in Barton Peninsula, together with Gonçalo Vieira, Carlos Neto and Joana Baptista from the CEG/IGOT - University of Lisbon.

Last month the PERMANTAR team drilled a new borehole in bedrock in Barton Peninsula, which will be part of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost. We used a "portable" Weka drill powered by an electrical generator and after some hard work carrying all equipment up to 120 m asl by hand, we succeeded in installing a new observatory down to 13 m. The field team was Gonçalo Vieira, Daniel Vonder Mühll, Carlos Neto and Joana Baptista, with excellent support of Pedro Pina and Vasco Miranda from the VEGETANTAR project and Alper Gürbüz of the Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University. The drilling campaign was a collaboration between the CEG/IGOT - University of Lisbon, ETH, CERENA/IST-University of Lisbon and KOPRI. Funds were provided by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the Programa Polar Português, CEG/IGOT and the Swiss GCOS Office.
PERMANTAR was also active this season in Livingston and Deception Islands, as well as in Cierva Point. More info on these soon.

Mohammad Farzamian (IDL/ULISBOA) has now started the Electrical Resistivity Tomography surveys at Deception Island. Mohammad and Miguel Angel de Pablo (UAH) are also maintaining the observatories of Crater Lake, Irizar, Alluval fan and Chilean hut.

This year, the applied geophysics group of IDL (Prof. Monteiro Santos, Dr. Mohammad Farzamian and Miguel Esteves) developed an automated Electrical Resistivity Tomography system with a solar panel-driven battery and multi-electrode configuration to install at Deception Island, associated to the existing Crater Lake site of the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring Network (CALM) and corresponding boreholes of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) in order to study the long-term climatic trend on the ground thermal regime as well as to investigate the impact of the short-lived extreme meteorological events on the soil horizon. 

PERMANTAR activities in 2019 are just starting, with the maintenance of the observatories along the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetlands being conducted by 4 field teams, and also a new borehole to be installed in Barton Peninsula (King George Island) and new electrical resistivity surveys to be conducted in Deception Island:

- Deception Island - Mohammad Farzamian (IDL/ULISBOA) and Miguel Angel de Pablo (UAH) will maintain the observatories of Crater Lake, Irizar, Alluval fan and Chilean hut, and will install a new monitoring electrical resistivitimeter in Crater Lake, as well as repeat surveys to compare with observations one decade ago.

- Barton Peninsula - Gonçalo Vieira, Carlos Neto, Joana Baptista (CEG/IGOT-ULISBOA), Daniel Vondermuehll (ETH), Pedro Pina and Vasco Miranda (CERENA/IST) in collaboration with the Korean Polar Research Institute (Soon Gyu Hong) will drill a new permafrost borehole.

- Hurd Pensinsula (Livingston Island) - Dragomir Mateev, Oleg Vassilev  (Bulgarian Antarctic Institute) with the support of Nuno Pereira (IPB) will conduct the maintenance of the permafrost observatories Ohridski Station, Ohridski 1 CALM and Ohridski 2 Papagal, and conduct GNSS survey of terrain deformation at the PERMANTAR solifluction monitoring sites and Hurd rock glacier.

- Cierva Cove - Pedro Almeida (UBI) will do the maintenance of the two active permafrost boreholes.

- Amsler Island (Palmer archipelago) - Support provided by the National Science Foundation for downloading borehole data.