A team of researchers from the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) developed sensors equipped with temperature and humidity monitors as well as cameras that during the month of February were installed in a glacier near the Marambio base as part of a project that seeks to monitor in real time the great ice masses of Antarctica.
The images and meteorological data captured by the sensors are transmitted in real time and are available through the web in the next link that allows you to observe Antarctica from anywhere in the world with internet access.
The initiative of the Glaciology department of the IAA was financed by the Ministry of Defense through the Research and Development Program for Defense (Piddef) since the meteorological data collected by the sensors are also useful for the preparation of forecasts by the National Meteorological Service (SMN) and for the operation of planes and helicopters at the Marambio base aerodrome.
“The study of glaciers requires field work, to monitor the evolution of the ice body as often as possible.”
Sebastián Marinsek is an Electronic Engineer, graduated from the National Technological University (UTN), and works as head of the Department of Glaciology of the Coordination of Earth Sciences of the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA). His area of study is related to the mass balance and dynamics of Antarctic glaciers and remote sensing.
In a dialogue with Télam, Marinsek pointed out that “having been able to develop these sensors based on our needs and having been able to install them will provide us with much more information to understand the glaciers and their behavior; until now our way of getting to know them was through visits annual reports and satellite images”.
“We go every year in February to do field research and at most to collect data from a sensor that has been collecting data since our last visit, but If, for example, an important event was recorded or a sensor stopped working in March, we would not find out until the summer of the following year”he clarified.
“The Bahía del Diablo glacier is on Vega Island, about 60 kilometers north of the Marambio base. It is a glacier that we visit every summer to monitor its evolution and it was there that we did the first tests in 2012 with a link with the central station at the Marambio base to determine the signal level,” he recalled.
And he added that “based on that experience, the following year we began the development of these sensors thinking that it could be done through dedicated radio links”.
The researcher maintained that “with the financing of Piddef in 2015, we began to install equipment to evaluate the connectivity that could be achieved and what difficulties the meteorology presented for the operation of the sensors; in each device, the knowledge, experiences and lessons learned were applied. obtained from the previous ones”.
“The installation of 3G and 4G telephone networks at the Marambio base by Movistar greatly facilitated the development of this new version of monitors because for those closest to the base we no longer depended on satellite links that are more expensive to acquire and operate,” he explained.
Marinsek indicated that “also as a criterion, the development of the equipment was done by acquiring mid-range commercial sensors that may not be the ones with the highest precision on the market, but which remain within a more than acceptable range and due to their lower cost we They allowed us to build more monitors and reach more places and, in the case of losing one, they are cheaper to replace”.
The engineer explained that “During January, thanks to the logistical support of the Joint Antarctic Command (Cocoantar), three monitors connected via 4G could be installed and two other monitors connected to the Iridium satellite phone network. In addition, we have finished making adjustments to two other monitors that we did not manage to install due to the number of days in which we could not fly due to bad weather and we expect to be able to send them to Marambio soon to see if the base personnel can leave them installed. during the winter on James Ross Island and at the Matienzo base and to start producing data this year”.
“Before, we used to leave a weather station collecting data and go look for it a year later. If there was a heat wave like the one recorded in March, we found out a year later, now we are monitoring glaciers with data and photographs that are updated every 30 minutes. which in practice is the same as in real time, we can accurately identify when the winter season starts and when it ends based on the images of snow and ice on the surface of the glacier,” he stressed.
In this sense, he added that “The study of glaciers requires field work, to monitor the evolution of the ice body as frequently as possible. The breaking of the Conger ice shelf that was recorded a few weeks ago was detected by satellite images, but there are satellites that pass through certain areas every 16 days and if it was just cloudy, a month can go by without images.
“These sensors are an alternative that can also be replicated in any area where it is necessary, taking into account the availability of connectivity,” he stressed.
The “monitors include GPS global positioning systems, cameras, temperature and humidity sensors, the possibility of connecting through 4G networks or satellite telephony, and are powered by solar energy, so each piece of equipment can be configured to keep active only the components that are needed in each place, so that energy can be saved, taking into account that climatic conditions can affect the integrity of the solar panels or the sealing of the batteries”, he specified.
“In addition to the sensors that were installed in the Bahía del Diablo glacier, one was also placed in the Marambio base next to the SMN to calibrate the measurements., and we plan for next year to install monitors that could not be placed this year in the vicinity of other glaciers of the Larsen ice shelf and in the other Argentine Antarctic bases. Having the data available throughout the year will allow us to better plan our campaign for next summer and we also have the advantage that if any equipment is lost or damaged, the data has already been transmitted,” added Marinsek.
The Marambio base is located on the island of the same name in the Weddell Sea northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula and 3,304 kilometers from Buenos Aires.
The temperatures in the place reach thirty degrees below zero and the winds at 120 kilometers per hour.
These strong winds, in turn, are what prevent a large accumulation of snow in the area of its plateau.
