Hi there!

This month, the autonomous Field Station Solander’s Eye passed 16,000 operating hours of observations at Breiðamerkurjökull, within the Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland. It was installed on-site in 2022 as a scientific collaboration between the IK Foundation, the University of Iceland, and the Embassy of Sweden. The Field Station is named after the famous Linnaeus apostle Daniel Solander, who, in 1772, travelled to Iceland with Joseph Banks.

The Field Station Lab, a division of the IK Foundation, develops the technical side of the field station concept. Since 2016, innovative thinking has renewed how small autonomous field stations can be used in different biospheres to increase our knowledge of Planet Earth and observe 24/7/365 without disturbing Nature.

Among many other things, this type of field station should be able to handle up to twelve months of operation without any technician visits. It should also be able to send observational data directly to mission control to become widely available – an example of this is Solander’s Eye LIVE SITE, which has had extensive visitor frequency from large parts of the world since the start!

Before the third and thus the final year of observation, 2024 to 2025, the Field Station Solander’s Eye underwent an annual inspection, update, and check-up of both hard and software during July. This was done with on-site visits and partly simultaneously with other experts at a distance – possible because the station is constantly connected to mission control. Responsible for this year's on-site visit at the Field Station, Jeff Snoxell, noted that minor physical wear and tear on hardware had occurred on parts of the construction, probably mainly due to that both reindeer and sheep used the station as an excellent and unique place in the treeless landscape to rub against. In addition to the optical inspection, all cables, instruments, cameras and crucial internal energy production have been checked and cleaned to continue delivering new observational meta-data, pictures and audio.

You are invited to see the five-minute instruction film to fully understand this unique Field Station concept. Perhaps it will inspire you or your organisation to establish a similar project in your area of interest.

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