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Remote Station Engineering - Niwot Ridge TundraLab

The Niwot Ridge TundraLab is located at 11,600 feet on the continental divide at the University of Colorado Mountain Research Station facility. This site is subject to extreme winds, spindrift, and rime icing. University of Colorado infrastructure at the site provides meteorological data and a web camera. Internet access makes it an ideal 'back-yard' test site for polar technology. UNAVCO maintains a test platform consisting of an enclosure and solar power system that is used for testing instrumentation, communications, and power system options.

October 2012:

The Aerogen 4 turbine has survived ~2 years operation under high winds and icing conditions found at this site. The turbine continues to operate, with power now diverted to a dump load while testing of the Trimble NetR9 is in progress. The power logic problems affecting remote polar operation of the NetR9 have been isolated, and testing is ongoing at Niwot Ridge and UNAVCO to verify that design modifications have addressed these problems.

September 2010:

Removed Forgen 500 turbine and installed Aerogen 4 turbine. The Aerogen turbine has performed very well on the Polar Plateau under extreme cold and relatively light winds; this test is to evaluate the suitability of this turbine for operation in high-wind environments with "mild" cold.

August 2009:

Retrofitted site with new small-size Margin-style structural frame, August 2009.
Installed new electronics board to match latest POLENET configuration.
Forgen 500 turbine entering fourth year of operation at this site.

October 2008:

Testing new GPS and Iridium configurations, new Iridium antenna, and evaluating
passive wind turbine regulation with inline heating elements.

September 2007:

Reconfiguring wiring and electronics to match POLENET systems.

October 2006:

Forgen 500 Wind turbine test.

August 2006:

MRI early version kit installation August 2006

February 2005:

Vaisala WXT510 weather station testing February 2005

January 2005:

Iridium communications validation January 2005

View the site live: Launch the CU Tundracam, and direct the
camera to the location of the yellow square in the bottom image below.
 

Last modified: 2019-12-24  02:12:27  America/Denver