Low-power magnetometer observation with satellite data transmission at unmanned site in Antarctica

We will report technical experiences from 6 years of unmanned low power magnetometer observation in Antarctica with daily data transmission via Iridium satellite telephone link. One of the difficulties of unmanned observation in Antarctica is dark winter months in which power supply from solar panel can not be expected. One solution for this difficulty is to minimize the power consumption (as small as ~1 W) to manage the observation in winter months with limited amount of batteries (~400Ah). Another difficulty is to collect data from the observation site. It is quite expensive and laborious to send a party to the observation site to obtain the data in Antarctica. Although cost for satellite communication is expensive, it is much more economical to collect data via satellite data link by installing a telephone terminal into the observation system. It seems that power consumption of a satellite phone (~10 W) does not fit to the low power system. However, as long as the observed data is not too large (<1 Mbyte per day), turn on period of the satellite phone is short (<1 hour per day) and the daily average of total power consumption lies within the available power of ~1 W. We have developed low-power magnetometer system with Iridium satellite phone data link. Basic design of the low-power system is similar to that developed by British Antarctic Survey (intermittent operation of magnetometer and GPS). However, we have made some improvements; reduced power consumption (0.2 W) at high sampling rate (1Hz) and increased sensitivity (0.2nT), so that geomagnetic pulsation study can be possible. In our observation system, satellite data transfer is only made in sunlit season with the total power consumption of 1 W (0.8W for Iridium phone and 0.2W for others). During dark winter months, observed data are stored in CF memory with diminished power consumption of 0.2W. When the sun comes in spring, the stored data are transmitted along with the daily observed data. It takes nearly two months to complete the transmission of data stored in winter months. We have installed two sets of low-power magnetometer at inland and coastal area in January, 2007. We added one set every austral summer and, by January 2010, 5 magnetometers are deployed within a radius of 700km from Syowa Station. The observed data can be used for the study of magnetic pulsations, as well as small and medium scale structure of ionospheric currents at the time of auroral substorm.