Antarctic research station Troll acquires research drones with a range of 1000 km

TONe will enhance Norway's research and monitoring capabilities in Antarctica, providing Norwegian and international scientists with access to observational data that will form the basis for new polar knowledge. As part of the project, NORCE has been tasked with acquiring drones suitable for Antarctic conditions. The choice fell on Windracers ULTRA, an unmanned aircraft that has previously been used in Antarctica and has proven capable of handling extreme weather conditions.

The Jeep of the skies

The manufacturer refers to the drone as the “Jeep of the skies”. It has a range of 1000 km, a flight time of up to 10 hours, and a capacity for 100 kg payload.

– NORCE har kjøpt to Windracers ULTRA-fly som skal bidra til å gjennomføre et miljøoppdrag av global betydning, nemlig å øke kunnskapen om de fysiske, biologiske, kjemiske og geologiske prosessene som foregår nå i Antarktis, sier Simon Muderack, administrerende direktør i Windracers. Windracers ULTRA er spesielt egnet til oppdraget på grunn av sin kapasitet og den spesifikke oppdragserfaringen fra undersøkelser i Antarktis i januar 2024.

– NORCE will employ two Windracers ULTRAs to help carry out a critical environmental mission of global importance, namely, to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the physical, biological, chemical and geological processes taking place now in Antarctica, said Simon Muderack, CEO of Windracers. “Windracers ULTRA is uniquely suited to support NORCE through its multi-mission capability and its specific mission experience having surveyed the Antarctic in January 2024.

NORCE will operate the drone infrastructure in collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute, which coordinates the TONe project:

–The drones are part of a infrastructure project that includes eight science observatories, a data management system and the drone service based on the Windracers ULTRA aircraft that allow us to carry a comprehensive optical and radar payload and cover the region from the nearby ocean to the Antarctic Plateau, explains Rune Storvold, Head of Observation Systems at NORCE.

The drones will support four observatories

Vast distances and challenging working conditions for researchers make it practical to use drones for research in Queen Maud Land. The drones will support four of the observatories in TONe and potential tasks for the drones include mapping bedrock and boundaries, using GHz radar for snowfall mapping, and utilizing cameras for seabird, marine mammal, and sea ice mapping. Additionally, sensors are used for various atmospheric profiling measurements (meteorological parameters, cloud properties, and aerosols), as well as hyperspectral sensors for measurements of chlorophyll and primary production in the ocean.

The drones will be test-flown in Norway before being put into operation in 2027.