Unmanned observation in Antarctica(II)-Outline and result obtained in the 20th and 21st Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions-

Abstract

As part of the POLEX-South program of the 20th to 22nd Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) (1979-1981), unmanned meteorological observation was made on the Antarctic Ice Sheet. As JARE has been conducting unmanned observation since JARE-18,improvement of renewal of the parts of the system was made taking into account the previous works. As for electric source, wind generator of 12V200W was adopted and was set one or four in parallel. Insulation box was mainly made by styroform, and was strengthened by the use of FRP. Charge controller was made in order to prevent overcharge and control the heaters. Meteorological observation system was composed of sensors for wind speed and direction, air temperature, snow temperature, solar radiation and air pressure, and recording part using cassette tape recorder. This unmanned meteorological system was built at Y100 and H180. However, due mainly to troubles in the electric source part, this system did not function well continuously. There is still some room for improvement. The data taken seem to be helpful in understanding the areal meteorological phenomena.