Robotic Research in Antarctica
18.03.2008 - Other
Tested during the austral summer of 2007, the first ever autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be used in polar research were successfully flown over the Antarctic continent. This joint initiative conducted by the British Antarctica Survey (BAS) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TUBS) in Germany opens up a new era for the gathering of scientific data in harsh environments.
Fitted with instruments recording the heat exchange between the lower atmosphere and the sea ice, the UAVs are ideal to study areas that are too costly for ships and conventional aircraft to reach. This is due to the fact that, apart from take-off and landing when they are guided by radio, UAVs are completely unpiloted.
Lasting 40 minutes and covering an area of 45 km, the vehicles are able to take 100 measurements per second. The future deployment of such technology could greatly contribute to scientific research by reaching parts of the world that people cannot reach (either because they are too remote or because their climate is too harsh). So much so, in fact, that Dr. Phil Anderson of BAS claims "the future of much atmospheric research will be robotic".
The next challenge is to test the vehicles in the Antarctic winter, so as to discover more about the sea ice and its sensitivity to climate change.
