UAVs as a Leverage to Provide Energy and Network for Cyber-Physical Observation Units on the Arctic Tundra

Observing an environment is essential to its understanding. This is certainly true for the arctic tundra as it is extremely sensitive to climate change. Satellites are used to observe large areas of the arctic tundra. However, the measurements are not at sufficient spatial resolution to be used to determine the species of animals, and to measure humidity, temperature, and CO2 levels for small areas. Ground-based measurements, which represent less that one percent of the experiments carried on the arctic tundra, must be done. Deploying and maintaining ground-based instruments is hard to do because visiting the arctic tundra is expensive, time consuming, and dangerous. Instead, automation is needed, where instruments can operate independently for long periods of time, and allow interaction with remote users for reporting of data and control of the instruments. However, the arctic tundra also has, as a common case, limited data network and energy coverage. We present the Distributed Arctic Observatory, where instruments called Observation Units (OUs) are distributed across the arctic tundra to measure a range of environmental state variables, and report them to where they are needed for further analysis. The DAO project uses Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to provide backhaul network access and energy to OUs. The modifications applied to the UAV and to OUs are presented. We describe the experiences gathered from practical use of the UAV to provide network access and energy to OUs located on the ground at 70°N. We show that it is feasible to apply UAVs to provide network access and energy to OUs on the arctic tundra, albeit practical restrictions.