Monitoring in Antarctica

Cautus Geo monitored the ice edge in Antarctica to ensure safe unloading of the annual supply to the Troll research station. "We want to expand the measurements and get automatic alerts," says Harvey Goodwin of the Norwegian Polar Institute.

- "We developed a customised solution based on previous experience of measuring snowfall in Norway. We are now continuing to work on the solution," says CTO Lars Krangnes of Cautus Geo.

- We want to minimise the risk to the crew working on unloading equipment. The operation is carried out annually. It takes a week's time. Safety is important. Nobody wants the ice to calve while work is in progress," says Goodwin.

Leading geo company

Cautus Geo is one of Europe's leading technology companies in automatic monitoring of structures, land, water, climate and the environment. The company has developed a wide range of sensor technology and a proprietary cloud solution, Cautus Web, for automatic and continuous collection, processing, analysis and notification based on data from various sources.

Geomonitoring is about automatic monitoring and warning of natural hazards, the environment and climate, building and construction, transport and structures. And now an uncertain ice edge in Antarctica.

- "The challenges in Antarctica are multifaceted. They include power supply and communication solutions," says Krangnes.

Extensive operation

The Norwegian Polar Institute is an authority, land manager and service provider at the Troll research station. Once a year, the research station's equipment is secured. It arrives by sea from Norway via Cape Town. The unloading operation at the ice edge, which is 300 kilometres from Troll, is a week-long operation. This involves unloading 100 containers. They will all be transported safely to Troll.

- Until 2021, we used a fixed unloading point where the ice had been stable over the years. It was well suited until a large iceberg sailed into the landing site and the ice there calved. Then the landing site was lost. It has been challenging to find a new and safe location. The 200 metre thick ice in Antarctica calves from time to time. This means that we need good data to monitor the conditions," says Goodwin.

In the autumn of 2024, the Norwegian Polar Institute began looking in earnest for automatic solutions for monitoring ice conditions.

- When we received this year's supplies, we had instrumented monitoring for the first time. It's all about keeping track of any movements in the ice. The experience has been good. Now we want to develop the solution further," says Goodwin.

Developing customisation

The aim is to develop automatic solutions. At the same time, the system that provides secure data must be easy to assemble, disassemble, store and reuse. Calving can take place all year round.

- All the equipment and sensors we used in the austral summer are now stored on Troll," says Goodwin.

Six weeks after this year's unloading, the ice calved at the unloading site.

During this year's unloading, the ice was at rest. "No movement was registered," says Goodwin.

- The measurements are at millimetre level. The sensors measure precisely between anchor points. This year's solution was semi-manual. Now it's about further developing the solution: Setting it up with Cautus Web and establishing tolerance limits with real-time alerts," says Krangnes.

FACTS: Equipment in the project

• Sensors - Drawire X 3 - with data transfer to local PC for manual reading.
• Total station - for reading data.
• Communication solutions - radio-based data loggers.
• Layout and design: provided by Cautus Geo.
• Rigged in place in the field by the Norwegian Polar Institute.
• Supported by Cautus Geo on support.

PHOTO: Harvey Goodwin at the Norwegian Polar Institute (all images)