Project Title

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) support: South Pole Station

Summary

Event Number:
T-942-S
NSF Agreement

NSF Contact:
Ms. Carla Haroz

ASC POC/Implementer:
Matthew Erickson / Jessica Palen / Sheryl Seagraves

Principal Investigator(s)

Ms. Renee Melendy
Renee.D.Melendy@usace.army.mil
US Army Cold Regions Research & Engineering Lab
Hanover, New Hampshire

Location

Supporting Stations: South Pole Station
Research Locations: South Pole Station

Description

The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) activities encompass engineering and basic research in support of a variety of projects at both McMurdo Station and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Snow drifting poses a significant challenge to polar infrastructure due to increased loads on buildings and the challenges drifts pose to access and maneuverability. Each year, personnel at the South Pole Station must remove significant amounts of deposited snow that accumulate via drifting to prevent overload on buildings and denial of access to facilities. Of particular concern at South Pole Station is the upwind drift, which prevents the Station from acting as a snow-catchment and pushes blowing snow toward the buried power plant, logistics building, garage (Arches) and Elevated Station stairwell structures on Station. The project will develop and deploy the Snow Drift Observation System (SnowDOS), a low SWaP (size, weight, power) kinematic mapping system and associated automated processing software suite for monitoring deposited snow drift distribution and volumes at South Pole Station. Resulting observations will provide near-real time maps of the snow drift distribution, depth, accumulation rates and volumetric measurements to be used in both assessing drift mitigation techniques and in snow removal planning.

Field Season Overview

Two CRREL participants will deploy to South Pole Station for 1 - 1.5 weeks to set up a snow drift observing system, collect initial data, and train on-site staff to operate the system throughout the following year.

Deploying Team Members