The National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) as an Indian research and development

Research and development

The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...

 institution, and an autonomous Institution of the Department of Ocean Development (DOD), Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

. Situated at Vasco

Vasco da Gama, Goa

Vasco da Gama is the largest city in the state of Goa on the west coast of India. It is named after the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Vasco has Goa's largest population, estimated at over 100,000. It is also the headquarters of the Mormugao taluka...

, Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

, it is responsible for administering the Indian Antarctic Program

Indian Antarctic Program

The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica...

 and maintains the Indian government's Antarctic research station

Research station

A research station is a station built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. Research station sites might include outer space and oceans. Many nations have research stations in Antarctica; Showa Station, Halley and Troll are examples...

, Maitri

Maitri

Maitri is India's second permanent research station in Antarctica. It was built and finished in 1989, shortly before the first station Dakshin Gangotri was buried in ice and abandoned in 1990-91...

. NCAOR was established on 25 May 1998, with Dr. P C Pandey as its founding director. At present NCAOR is an agency working under Ministry of Earth Sciences

Ministry of Earth Sciences (India)

The Ministry of Earth Sciences formed in 2006 from a merger of the India Meteorological Department , the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting , the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology , Pune , and Earth Risk Evaluation Centre , and the Ministry of Ocean Development. It is one...

, Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 since 2006, by the notification President of India.

Overview

As well as serving as the Indian government's nodal organization for co-ordinating Antarctic and Ocean studies, NCAOR also offers doctoral research opportunities for doctoral research in conjunction with University of Goa and the Mangalore University

Mangalore University

Mangalore University is a public university located in Konaje, Karnataka State of India. Ranked with a four star by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in June 2000, this young university offers higher education and conducts research in various fields...

. In pursuit of this goal, NCAOR has established a number of scientific firsts within the nation. The agency is home to a special low-temperature laboratory complex for the storage of ice core

Ice core

An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet, most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere. As the ice forms from the incremental build up of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper, and an ice...

 samples, not only from Antarctica but also from the Himalayan Mountains. NCAOR is also founding a National Antarctic Data Centre and a Polar Museum, additional firsts for the country.

NCAOR operates the Himadri

Himadri Station

Himadri Station is India's first Arctic research station located at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. It is locatedat the International Arctic Research base, Ny-Ålesund.The station is operated by National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research....

 Arctic research station in Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.

NCAOR also manages the Oceanic Research Vessel ORV Sagar Kanya

ORV Sagar Kanya

The ORV Sagar Kanya is a research vessel owned and operated by India's National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research . The ship has helped in India's studies of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean....

, the flagship of India's fleet of oceanographic

Oceanography

Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...

 study vessels. This ship has contributed immensely to India's study of the Arabian Sea

Arabian Sea

The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...

, the Bay of Bengal

Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...

, and the Indian Ocean. NCAOR is known for its participation in global experiments, hosting of international conferences and in the leadership of international committees concerned with Antarctic science.

This centre's name had previously been Antarctic Study Centre.