Ice Instruments and Met-Ocean Stations

Position Beacons 

Canatec makes Iridium GPS beacons that can be used for measuring drift of sea ice. They are specifically designed for air dropping in polar regions. They last up to 2 years and function in extremely low temperatures. The ice drift beacons can be modified to float or sink, and programmed for different sensing and recording rates as required by the user. A more compact version is suitable for personnel tracking and a more complex version for measuring air pressure and temperature.

Approaching drop site on multiyear hummock field off Prince Patrick Island in the Arctic Ocean

Beacon during parachute descent

Ongoing R&D projects in house are innovating new instruments with more sensors, launching from drones and spatial resolution in centimeters. Field testing is going on in Calgary, a mountaintop in Alberta, the Arctic and the Antarctic. Locations and tracks of field tested instruments can be seen on this website at Tracking Beacon Map.

Beacon being tested in Antarctica at Patriot Hills Camp
Image supplied by Departamento Ant�rtico del Ej�rcito Chileno

For further information and the latest specifications, use the Contacts Page with your questions.

Rapid Deployed Polar Meteorological and Oceanographic Stations

Canatec has a great deal of experience in designing, fabricating and deploying complex instrument platforms for measuring meteorological and oceanographic conditions in arctic and other ice-covered regions. These instrument systems are rapid deployed by an experienced field team. Data are transmitted by Iridium satellite, so there is real time data collection and no need to recover the instrument, which is usually extremely difficult and expensive in remote polar regions. Instrument packages can be configured to meet user requirements.

Test assembly of integrated meteorological-oceanographic station for Beaufort Sea