ESSO–National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research

  • M THAMBAN ESSO–National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Headland Sada, Goa 403 004

Abstract

The National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean
Research (NCAOR) under the Earth System Science
Organization (ESSO) of the Ministry of Earth
Sciences is the nodal agency to coordinate country’s
entire activities in the polar regions and oceans as
well as to carry out independent research activities in
specialised areas. The major mandates of NCAOR
include: (a) Overall planning, co-ordination and
implementation of the scientific programmes mounted
in Antarctica, Arctic, Southern Ocean and the
Himalayas; (b) Implementation of the ocean surveys
and mineral resources programs of the MoES such
as geoscientific surveys of India’s EEZ, Indian
Continental Shelf Program, technical management of
oceanographic vessels as well as exploration for
hydrothermal mineralization in the Indian Ocean Ridge
areas.
The mission objectives of NCAOR are however,
not merely restricted to the scientific, technical and
logistics management of the Indian Polar programs
nor to facilitating of the implementation of the other
mandated responsibilities entrusted to it by the Ministry.
The Centre has a well-focused scientific mandate of
initiating and supporting basic and applied research in
a variety of scientific disciplines and themes that are
otherwise not being pursued by any institution or
laboratory in the country. This scientific mandate
recognizes, as its backdrop, the need to understand
the relationships of the polar, cryospheric, atmospheric,
geological and oceanic realms vis-à-vis global
processes, the importance of the polar regions for
our understanding of the global environment, the need
to understand these regions as unique entities, and
the opportunities presented by these realms as
research platforms.

Published
2017-02-09