The Antarctic GPS project involves measuring the variations in height on a transect of GPS
sites from the coast up to 600 km inland. The intention is to continue recording GPS measurements
at the sites for as long as possible each season over several years.
The equipment installed at each of the sites comprises an Ashtech Z-XII GPS receiver, an in-house designed and build power controlling system, PC-104 card computer and, in some cases, a satellite phone for transmitting the data directly to Canberra on a daily basis. The equipment is housed inside an aluminium-clad, wooden box which is insulated with Styrofoam to maintain an operating temperature between 5 and 40 degrees C. We use the radiated heat of the GPS equipment (12.5 W) as the heat source for all the equipment.
In contrast, the system installed at Landing Bluff has work reliably as programmed since
it was first installed in December 2000. The system successfully recorded and transmitted
GPS data from this time until May 2001. A
timeseries
of the Landing Bluff GPS data analysis shows that the equipment is working normally.
(See
photos
of the Landing Bluff equipment)
The Dalton Corner site was first installed in February 2000. Owing to transportation problems,
the first full solar panel frame was not installed until January 2001. At this stage, only
a simple, solar powered system has run at Dalton Corner (comprising GPS receiver and a laptop
computer). Due to flight limitations, only a 3 hour visit to the site is likely to occur in
the 2001/02 season. We intend upgrading the site installation in 2002/03 to include our
power controlling system which will enable the site to hibernate, thereby allowing it to
collect more data that is presently occurring (typically Jan-March each year).
For further information please contact pault@rses.anu.edu.au