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2003-2004 USAP
Field Season
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Oceans & Climate
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Dr. Bernhard Lettau
Program Manager
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O-314-M
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NSF/OPP
DBI 01-19793
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Station:
McMurdo Station
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RPSC POC:
Curt LaBombard
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Research Site(s):
McMurdo Station, New Harbor
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Dates in Antarctica:
Late October to late January
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Solar/wind powered instrumentation module development for polar environmental research
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PI Tony Hansen stands beside one of two autonomous instrumentation modules this group installed in the Dry Valleys in the 2002-03 field season. In addition to a payload of scientific instrumentation, each installation is solar-powered and sends live webca
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Deploying Team Members:
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Anthony D. Hansen
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Joseph D. Mastroianni
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Research Objectives:
We will develop and test a self-contained, transportable module that will provide a sheltered, temperature-controlled interior environment for standard, rack-mounted equipment. Electric power will be provided by solar panels and a wind generator, backed up by batteries with several days' capacity. The module will offer both alternating and direct current for internal and external use and will include data logging and communications capability for practical application in a polar environment.
At South Pole Station, McMurdo Station, and almost all other inhabited camps in Antarctica, aircraft, helicopters, ground vehicles, diesel generators, and other sources release exhaust, which can affect the environment. The collection of real-time pollution data at downwind locations can be used to assess the amount of pollution and the effectiveness of efforts to improve air quality. At this time, optimal placement of measuring instruments is severely limited by the availability of power and shelter, a limitation that this module is intended to overcome.
Although designed to facilitate measurements at the South Pole, the module will be helpful in a variety of other situations where remotely located equipment is to be used for long-term monitoring of environmental phenomena. The module will have no emissions at all and therefore will not affect the environment that it is designed to study. Also, it could be placed anywhere it is needed.
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