Automatic Digital Cameras

Ole Humlum, The University Courses on Svalbard (UNIS), Norway.

General

Most cold-climate scientific field work is carried out during the summer season for obvious reasons. The winter season thereby is underrepresented when it comes to observations. This drawback is somewhat counteracted by the introduction of various dataloggers (click here for an example), but reliable visual information has proved more difficult to obtain throughout the autumn, winter and spring seasons.

A rugged automatic digital camera producing color images of good resolution is now being produced by MetSupport ApS and J.E.Teknik in Denmark. Click here to obtain detailed technical information on the camera and how to obtain it. 

The camera is powered by a battery, charged by solar panels  and can be programmed to obtain one or several pictures daily.  Mounting in nature may be directly on the ground, on a large boulder or in a stone cairn. The camera is prepared for easy mounting on a tripod, as well.

Prototypes of these digital cameras have been tested in a number of harsh environments since 1998; e.g. Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands and in Svalbard. Click here or here for examples of image series obtained. The camera type has proven itself able to operate satisfactorily during several months of winter darkness and prolonged, low temperatures, as well as in very humid environments.

References

Christiansen, H.H. (2001): Snow-cover, depth, distribution and duration data from northeast Greenland obtained by continuous automatic digital photography. Annals of Glaciology, 32, 102-108.

Latest update: 23. December 2002.