* The content and opinions expressed in this interview are attributable to Dr. Francesco Montomoli in a personal capacity
LSI LASTEM solutions among the ice caps of the South Pole
Research Project
Francesco Montomoli and his Research Team have used LSI LASTEM instruments during the environmental monitoring project in the Antarctic continent. The analyses have been carried out for over 10 years, at the Italian-French Concordia Station, one of the three permanent research bases operating in continental Antarctica, realized thanks to a cooperation agreement between IPEV (Institut Polaire Français Paul-Émile-Victor) and PNRA (National Research Program in Antarctica).
Specifically, the station is located at the Dome C site on the Antarctic plateau: a region with particularly harsh and inhospitable climatic conditions, recording temperatures up to -80°C, in winter. Characteristics that make it the ideal place for conducting different research programmes, including simulations of survival in space and studies on the interaction between the atmosphere and ice.
The goal of the monitoring
In this extreme environment, the Research Team has been performing observations on deep ice temperature profiles in order to develop models for long-term weather forecasts. In particular, LSI LASTEM solutions facilitate the obtaining of temperature profiles from the first 10m of depth in order to estimate the interchange of heat flows with the atmosphere. The data collected are subsequently fed into the international Oscar database, created by the World Meteorological Organisation and made public for consultation.
To meet these complex monitoring needs, researchers use LSI LASTEM soil temperature sensors, positioned at different depths below the snow cover and connected to the E-Log data logger.
Soil temperature sensors
- Positionable in the ground at the required depth without creating air pockets;
- Maximum accuracy thanks to 4-wire technology;
- Fitted with a sturdy waterproof steel shaft;
- High resistance in environments with rigid temperatures.
E-Log
- Designed to work for several years without outside intervention;
- High reliability even in the most critical climatic environments;
- Data storage in instantaneous values and as statistical processing;
- Modbus-RTU Master/Slave Protocol, TTY.