SANAE

SANAE II
SANAE II
Established	1971
Closed	1979

SANAE I
SANAE I
Established	1962
Closed	1963

SANAE I, II and III
SANAE I, II and III
Antarctic research station
	SANAE I, II and III Last location in Antarctica
	Coordinates: 70°17′54″S 2°25′34″W / 70.2984°S 2.4261°W
Region	Queen Maud Land
Location	Near Blåskimen Island
Government
• Type	Administration
• Body	SANAP, South Africa
Active times	All year-round

SANAE is the South African National Antarctic Expedition. The name refers both to the overwintering bases (numbered in Roman numerals, e.g. SANAE IV), and the team spending the winter (numbered in Arabic numerals, e.g. SANAE 47). The current base, SANAE IV, is located at Vesleskarvet in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. Summer teams comprise administrative and maintenance personnel, helicopter crew and scientists from various countries and can be up to 100 people. Overwintering teams consist of scientists and support personnel from South Africa, typically totalling 10 members in recent years.

The research programme at the SANAE IV base is carried out under the auspices of the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP).

History

SANAE III

Established	1979 (1979)
Closed	1997 (1997)

The first expedition, SANAE 1, overwintered at Norway Station, taken over by South Africa from Norway after the end of the IGY. Later teams overwintered at SANAE I, SANAE II and SANAE III, built on the Fimbul Ice Shelf near the Blåskimen Island. Built on the moving ice shelf, these stations inevitably got buried,^[1] and eventually broke off as part of icebergs drifting away. Successive stations were always repositioned at the same geographical position of 70°19′00″S 2°21′00″W / 70.3167°S 2.3500°W / -70.3167; -2.3500.^[2] SANAE IV was built on the nunatak Vesleskarvet in the hope of having a base with a longer lifetime. The first team to overwinter at SANAE IV was SANAE 36 in 1997. The base has been staffed uninterruptedly since then.