In 2004, after taking part in a meeting organised by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research of the International Council for Science, a co-sponsor of IPY, Vieira became the national contact point for IPY in Portugal.
The current 4th IPY covers the period March 2007 to March 2009, although it is officially designated IPY 2007 2008.
The team has, however, started up again and recently announced that they plan to breach the lake during the IPY.
That understanding has become so pressing that some 60 countries are planning to spend a total of $1.5 billion to send more than 10,000 researchers north and south for the International Polar Year (IPY), which started this month.One reason why Antarctica matters so much is historical.
The IPY "is a great opportunity for Portugal to become involved in polar research," Vieira says.
In the 125 years since the first IPY, concerns have shifted toward climate change.
The fourth IPY, which extends over the next 2 years, promises to go better.
The vertical dashed lines indicate the period of the IPY observations.
Beginning in March 2007, the IPY experiment was carried out using both dishes of the ESR.
The vertical dashed lines indicate the IPY period of the ESR observations.
"The government now has a strong commitment to the North and so the timing of IPY is very fortuitous".
