Research Team
Alejandro Román
Principal Investigator
Gabriel Navarro
Co-Investigator
Susana Flecha
Co-Investigator
Emma Huertas
Co-Investigator
Project Overview
AMIGA aims to accurately quantify greenhouse gas (CH₄ and CO₂) exchange in two key Antarctic ecosystem compartments – penguin colonies and ice shelves – to improve regional carbon budgets. Although GHG are essential in climate regulation, their production and release from Antarctic biological hotspots and cryospheric systems are still not well quantified, leading to significant gaps in global assessments.
AMIGA tackles this issue by conducting detailed field campaigns from Neumayer Station III in Queen Maud Land, focusing on the Emperor penguin colony at Atka Bay and the nearby Atka and Ekström ice shelves during the 2028 austral summer. The project integrates ground-based high-precision gas analyzers (LI-COR instruments) and smart chamber systems for direct flux measurements with drone-mounted Sniffer 4D sensors for spatially resolved atmospheric sampling.
Drone-based multispectral, thermal, and LiDAR imaging will assess surface properties, supplemented by Sentinel-2 satellite data for regional scaling. Laboratory analyses of guano, ice cores, and meltwater will identify biogeochemical drivers of gas exchange. Artificial intelligence tools — including convolutional neural networks for automated penguin counts and machine learning algorithms integrating multiple data sources — will upscale local observations into reliable regional estimates.
Neumayer Station III
Neumayer Station III is an overwintering station for atmospheric, biological, and seismological research and logistics in Antarctica. It is the logistical backbone for national and international research based in Western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica.
While the winter crew consists of nine people, the station can accommodate up to 60 people in summer, 20 of whom maintain the technical and scientific equipment.
The station hosts the Air Chemistry Observatory, Geophysical Observatory, Hydroacoustic Observatory and the Infrasound Array I27DE to measure micropressure fluctuations in the atmosphere, making it ideal for long-term observational studies.
Study Sites
AMIGA will focus on two key Antarctic ecosystem compartments in the Atka Bay region to quantify greenhouse gas exchange.
Atka Bay
Emperor penguin colony - biological hotspot for methane production from guano
Atka & Ekström Ice Shelves
Cryospheric systems - greenhouse gas exchange dynamics in ice shelf environments
Key Objectives
Simultaneous CH₄ and CO₂ flux measurements from penguin colonies and ice shelves
Insights into how ecosystem structure and ice shelf dynamics affect GHG emissions
Validated AI-driven methods for extrapolating site measurements to landscape scales
Refined understanding of Antarctic contributions to global GHG budgets to support IPCC reporting
Open-access datasets and algorithms for future polar research