Since 1998, ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) has been carrying on researches to develop a plant based greenhouse facility for producing plant fresh food at the Italian bases of TNB (Terra Nova Bay) and Dome C (Concordia base) in Antarctica. Accordingly, at the base TNB “Mario Zucchelli” was installed a sustainable closed greenhouse facility PULSA (Plant-based Unit for Life Support in Antarctica). PULSA has been in operation during four campaigns in Antarctica. 1) A complete automatic hydroponics system for plant cultivation in artificial environmental (C.H.G.S., Closed Hydroponic Greenhouse System); 2. A closed module PULSA Unit. A prototype greenhouse module has been conceived and designed as a transportable unit made of a standard container, dimensions of 6055 (l)*2435(w)*2585(h) mm. The installed microclimate conditioning unit included an air heater of about 6.0 kW which can also act as inside air cooling as well as dehumidifier for removing the internal humidity (up to 2.5 kg/h of water) by forcing the air into a drying service. An air ventilation device composed of two fans each of 400 W and air capacity exchanging of 1200 m3/h was also installed to keep necessary air exchange and CO2 concentration. 3) A treating and recycling wastes unit for the purification of water and for the recycling of residual biomass wastes from the hydroponic cycles, 4) A complete automated and remote-controlling system for the germination and the production of the plantlets (Box-Nursery); 5) A simulator for the growth and the yield production of lettuce (SLS) in function of the temperature and the light applied to the crops. Other prototypes still under developing are: a) the multilevel hydroponics design; b) the solar photovoltaic system of 1.1 kWp, to optimize the yield and the autonomy of the enclosed growing volume using artificial and/or Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as light sources for plant crop growth. Considerations and comments are reported on the on-going challenge to use PULSA as scientific platform for implementing activities of research and demonstration on plant growth technologies for Space.

Data of the precipitation fallen during the summer months (November-December-January) on four expeditions, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19, in the Terra Nova Bay area, were obtained using a vertically pointing radar, disdrometer and snow gauge. The vertical pointing METEK Micro Rain Radar 2 (MRR) was installed in MZS at the end of November 2015. It records Doppler velocity spectra every 10 s at 32 range gates. The radar gate spacing was set to 100 m allowing the profiler to sound heights ranging from 100 to 3100 m above the surface. The raw K-band power spectra, collected by the MRR, were processed applying the method proposed by Maahn and Kollias (2012) to correct for noise and aliasing effects, making them suitable for snow observation. A Thies CLIMA laser disdrometer (LPM), has been operational since December 2014.The disdrometer can simultaneously count and measure the size and fall velocity of hydrometeors. A Total Rain weighing Sensor (TRwS) manufactured by MPS system was installed during the december 2018 - January 2019 campaign within the YOPP observing period. The TRwS is a total rain/snowfall weighing gauge with an orifice area of 400 cm2, a depth accuracy of 0.01 mm of w.e. and a one -minute sampling time resolution (Savina and others, 2012). The TRwS was protected by an alter shield in order to minimize wind effect over the accumulation inside the instrumentation.

A permanent seismological observatory, international code TNV, is operating at MZS Italian Antarctic station: Seismological VBB data are recorded and collected according to the international SEED standard. Two independent parallel chains are running: 1) Streckeisen STS-1 Sensors + Quanterra Q330HR datalogger, marked with location code 01; 2) Streckeisen STS-2 Seismometer + Quanterra Q330HR datalogger, marked with location code 02. All data are available for the international seismological community. Research activities: global seismicity of the Earth studies; studies of local and regional seismicity; lithospheric structure studies.

Monitoring the ionosphere is an essential part of the “Space Weather”, a research field that deals with the study of phenomena involving the Sun, the solar wind, the magnetosphere, the ionosphere and the thermosphere. The polar regions are a natural laboratory for the research in this field and the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) currently manages, among others, an ionospheric observatory at the Italian Mario Zucchelli station. The observatory hosts a GNSS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitor (GISTM) receiver, which collects ionospheric data 24/7 since 2006. To monitor such transient effects as ionospheric scintillations, the receivers sample the signals of different GNSS constellations in both amplitude and phase, with a frequency of at least 50Hz. The raw data are collected and processed at the OASI laboratory by dedicated software and transmitted in Italy, where the INGV-eSWua system provides near real-time ionospheric scintillation data and products (amplitude scintillation index, phase scintillation index, Total Electron Content, scintillation maps, etc.) harmonized among different instruments and accessible in a standardized and interoperable distribution format.

The project is focused on the acquisition of data using the MZS_FRAD2008-02 interference filter radiometer, installed in November 2009 at Mario Zucchelli station, on the roof of the building OASI (74°41.6059' S 164°05.9423' E). The radiometer is active all year round and measures the global solar irradiance (watt / m2nm) at the values ​​of 9 different wavelengths (about one spectrum per minute), where the filters are centered, and obtained from these the measure of the spectral irradiance with a resolution of 0.5 nm. The data is transferred to Italy on a daily basis via an Ethernet link. Data are acquired in the summer station of MZS from November 2009 to May 2013.

Installation of two radiometers with interference filters (F_RAD) operating in the spectral region from 296 nm to 400 nm. The purpose is to measure the global solar irradiance at the values ​​of the wavelengths where the filters are centered and from these derive the spectral irradiance with a resolution of 0.5 nm. The radiometers are currently positioned in the Antarctic stations of Mario Zucchelli and DomeC Concordia and operate permanently throughout the year. Measurements of absorbance of polysulphone dosimeters before and after exposure to UV solar radiation by laboratory spectrophotometer, data analysis, determination of the UV dose response curve vs absorbance variation and comparison of the results detected in the two sites. It can be used for the measurement of solar UV irradiance for research on the climate and the physics of the atmosphere.

The geomagnetic observatory MZS has been installed during the 1986-87 Campaign. The regular operation of the observatory consists of unmanned, continuous measurement of the variations of the geomagnetic field. Also, absolute magnetic field measurements are manually taken during each summer campaign. The recorded data are: - 1 sec measurements of the variations of the three geomagnetic field components - 1 min averages of the variations of the three geomagnetic field components - 5 sec measurements of the geomagnetic field scalar intensity - 1 min averages of the geomagnetic field scalar intensity - absolute measurements only during the summer campaign. All the automatic recordings are delivered in real-time to the INGV data portal. For each campaign, data and activities are reported in the yearbook.

The IPICS-2kyr-Italia project, through multiple perforations in the Antarctic ice sheet, aims to provide new data on climatic variability over the last 2000 years. The ice caps are natural archives of the Earth's climatic and environmental history. The extraction of snow and ice cores have taken place during the summer Antarctic campaign (November 2013 - January 2014). The drilling site GV7 (70°41'S, 158°52'E; 1950 m), was chosen for the high snow accumulation and was located about 500 km from Mario Zucchelli Station.