The project

Between Glaciology and Autonomous Systems, Sun2ice's ETHZ project aims to use a state-of-the-art, solar-powered UAV, AtlantikSolar, for multi-days surveys of glaciers in the Arctic. The ''midnight sun'' in polar regions offers unique conditions for perpetual solar-powered UAV flights. This cutting-edge technology serves to monitor iceberg calving, a still poorly understood process which plays a major role in the sea-level rise.

Challenges

Flying an experimental solar-powered UAV as AtlantikSolar in Arctic conditions is very challenging due to the narrow sun angle, extreme climatic conditions, the weakness of the magnetic field used for the compass, and the absence of smooth grass-covered terrain to land a fragile airplane.

Objectives

• Perform the first-ever autonomous, energetically perpetual, and solar-powered flight of a UAV above or below the Arctic or Antarctic circles, respectively.
• Perform the first-ever real-life application mission of a solar-powered perpertual-flight capable UAV, and assess its performance for future monitoring of the Cryosphere.
• Acquire frequent high-resolution orthoimages of active calving glaciers to track the initiation, propagation and collapse of fractures responsible for large iceberg calving events.

Funding

Sun2ice is an ETHZ project supported by the Dr. Alfred and Flora Spaetli Fund and the ETH Foundation, Grant ETH-12 16-2 (PI: G. Jouvet, co-PIs: R. Siegwart and M. Funk).