Early data from the 2023 trackers

on Fjalls – node20 has moved steadily over these six days – showing the sensitivity we have to small movements

on Breida node21 has lost 85cm in altitude in 6 days – (some of that will be the legs melting in). Again the smooth readings show how sensitive the readings are

this early data from the Fjalls base station shows the box gets quite hot in the sun – and the solar panel benefits as the battery is permanently “full”

Breiðamerkurjökull speeds up in spring 2019

the distance moved by one of the Breiðamerkurjökull nodes shows us the glacier has started moving again – at a rate comparable to the previous autumn. Its also great that this prototype node has sent data so continuously – right through the winter!

Fjalls altitude rise

Fjalls tracker jumped in altitude in March! it is part if its general trend to rise – probably due to the presence of the large ice-cored moraine by the side of the glacier.

3D model fly through of Fjallsjokull

We captured thousands of images using a quadcopter, Survey 3 camera and then created the model with Agisoft Photoscan. Calibration targets on the ground geo-referenced the model. This fly-through is a screen capture from their viewer. The model-making process took around five days on a quad-core 4.4GHz PC. Models will be produced each year to monitor changes but they also help visualise moraine formation. The images captured were about 7mm/pixel resolution.

Good data coming in already from all nodes!

Here is a quick snapshot of some data from the new Fjalls site:

It is already approaching 2m distance from its original location – also the jitter on the positions is very small.

This is temperature from Rover4’s Peli case, which is the heighest on Breida and is showing good variations (X axis starts in August).

Sats used in the fixes

This long term plot for Breida’ show the number of satellites used for each fix. It shows the normal variation due to their paths in the sky. It is quite consistent throughout the winter.

Testing Piksi Multi with the 2018 fimware

In preparation for deploying more systems in Iceland this summer – I updated our spare Piksi Multis and did a garden test. It performed very well!

I set them up to fix at 10Hz but report every 5 readings – so its closer to our slow system in Iceland. The fix hopped around within about 1.5cm – which is good for my garden as the sky box is not that wide.