Remote & Harsh Locations; Renewable Power

Build Instrumentation That Can Survive The Harsh Conditions

The IDL has developed skills, born of experience, for operating in remote locations. Extreme temperatures, high pressure, high humidity are some of the harsh conditions that require special considerations.

There are several Antarctic examples for the 2013-2014 season in addition to renewable power, described below:

Instrumentation for the traverse to the Russian station at Vostok.
A high power pulser, deployed and operated on the roof of the IceCube Lab at the South Pole.
Significant assistance for Aerospace Engineering, developing the FPGA-based autopilot system.

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ARA Rooftop Pulser, South Pole IDL Engineer Rob Young working on a South Pole wind-power installation.

Provide Renewable Energy for Ongoing Field Experiments

The IDL has been developing renewable sources of power for small experiments in remote and harsh locations: the Antarctic plateau with limited sunlight and -70C temperatures, and the Utah desert with high temperatures and longer communication distances. These stations use the IDL's System Health Monitor (SHM) for control, data collection, and communications.

Several test systems were deployed on the Antarctic plateau.
A remote power system was deployed in Utah in anticipation of an array of sites.
Developments on the Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf also use IDL-prepared equipment.

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Renewable Energy at the South Pole with both wind and photovoltaic sources. ARA Poster featuring our turbine for the 100th anniversary of Amundsen's arrival.