Antartica's Only EV Had To Be Redesigned Because of Climate Change (engadget.com) 67
Most electric vehicles get upgrades to boost performance or range, but Antarctica's one and only EV has received a tune-up due to the realities of climate change. From a report: Venturi has revealed that it upgraded its Venturi Antarctica electric explorer early last year due to warmer conditions on the continent. The original machine was designed to operate in winter temperatures of -58F, but the southern polar region is now comparatively balmy at 14F -- and that affected both crews and performance.
The company has added a ventilation system and air intakes to the front of the Antarctica to prevent overheating in the cockpit, while additional intakes keep the power electronics from cooking. Redesigned wheel sprockets were also necessary to maximize the tracked EV's capabilities. The warmer snow was sticking to the sprockets, creating vibrations as it compacted and hardened. Future upgrades will help restore range lost to changing snow consistency. The Antarctica is built to cover 31 miles, but scientists have been limiting that to 25 miles.
The company has added a ventilation system and air intakes to the front of the Antarctica to prevent overheating in the cockpit, while additional intakes keep the power electronics from cooking. Redesigned wheel sprockets were also necessary to maximize the tracked EV's capabilities. The warmer snow was sticking to the sprockets, creating vibrations as it compacted and hardened. Future upgrades will help restore range lost to changing snow consistency. The Antarctica is built to cover 31 miles, but scientists have been limiting that to 25 miles.
Consumption-based civilization (Score:1, Informative)
We live in a global civilization based on greed and conspicuous consumption. Fortunately, this is self-limiting, as humanity will die off when the Earth runs out of resources to consume.
very important (Score:3, Funny)
I may have to stop reading slashdot because of climate change.
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I may have to stop reading slashdot because of climate change.
I only read /. when my windmill turns.
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I may have to stop reading slashdot because of climate change.
I only read /. when my windmill turns.
You and Dusty Springfield [youtube.com] ... :-)
That's a difference of 72F in two years! (Score:4, Insightful)
It's almost as though climate change had nothing to do with it, but then nobody would click the link.
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This is Slashdot. I don't know why the summaries include links.
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That is 40 centigrade for those of us who do not live in the USA.
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It's almost as though climate change had nothing to do with it
How has someone been on Slashdot so long and still doesn't understand how climate change is not just about averages, but also more extreme weather events?
I mean did you sign up for your account in the late 90s and not log in again until today?
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Worse, the base only operates during the summer -- it's never used in the weather it was designed for.
Powering IT though (Score:4, Informative)
This vehicle doesn't just magically charge itself though. How is it charged? Most likely diesel generators at the station where it is based.
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Because there's no such thing as sunlight in Antarctica.
Long/Short Days (Score:2)
Some times of the year they get a lot of sunlight. Some times of the year they get almost none. I guarantee that thing is mostly powered by diesel, albeit indirectly.
I don't understand the article. They designed the thing to only run at 60 below zero? If it gets warmer for some reason the whole thing overheats? My plug-in hybrid has to occasionally run the engine to keep the batteries warm if it creeps below 0C, and on the most aggressive eco setting the heat is on just barely enough to keep you from freezi
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Russia has several nuclear powered icebreakers that are unable to traverse the equator under their own power because the cooling systems were not built for anything other than operating in Arctic waters. They were not built with any air conditioning for the cabins. These ships would be needed in Arctic waters all year and so there was no need to build them to go anywhere else. Russia, United States, and other nations have diesel powered icebreakers that can cross the equator so it is not like all icebrea
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A bit of research for you "During its first summer it clocked up some 500 km (310 miles), with the battery bank replenished between trips by the research station's wind and solar installations. A spare battery pack can be carried in back with equipment for extended expeditions if required."
you can read the rest here [newatlas.com]
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This vehicle doesn't just magically charge itself though. How is it charged? Most likely diesel generators at the station where it is based.
Because there's no such thing as sunlight in Antarctica.
Or wind.
Re:Powering IT though (Score:5, Informative)
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Wind turbines would just freeze over and snap.
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A large diesel generator (which they may need for other purposes as well) is still going to be more efficient and be able to have better controls on emissions than an engine in a vehicle would.
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Ideally a cleaner power source would be used, but sometimes there isn't an alternative
Concordia station: Coldest January on record (Score:5, Informative)
https://watchers.news/2023/02/... [watchers.news]
The temperature at Concordia weather station in Antarctica dropped to -51.2 C (-60.1 F) at 18:18 UTC on January 31, 2023, marking the lowest January temperature in Antarctica since meteorological observations there started in 1956.
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As does the single data point that they had a warm day and their device wasn't designed to handle that.
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As does the single data point that they had a warm day and their device wasn't designed to handle that.
I think you're underplaying "single data point that they had a warm day". Let's go back to the source: https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
The coldest location on the planet has experienced an episode of warm weather this week unlike any ever observed, with temperatures over the eastern Antarctic ice sheet soaring 50 to 90 degrees above normal. The warmth has smashed records and shocked scientists.
"This event is completely unprecedented and upended our expectations about the Antarctic climate system," said Jonathan Wille, a researcher studying polar meteorology at Université Grenoble Alpes in France, in an email.
"Antarctic climatology has been rewritten," tweeted Stefano Di Battista, a researcher who has published studies on Antarctic temperatures. He added that such temperature anomalies would have been considered "impossible" and "unthinkable" before they actually occurred. ...
Wille said the warm conditions over Antarctica were spurred by an extreme atmospheric river, or a narrow corridor of water vapor in the sky, on its east coast. According to computer models, the atmospheric river made landfall on Tuesday between the Dumont d’Urville and Casey Stations and dropped an intense amount of rainfall, potentially causing a significant melt event in the area.
The moisture from the storm diffused and spread over the interior of the continent. However, a strong blocking high pressure system or "heat dome," moved in over east Antarctica, preventing the moisture from escaping. The heat dome was exceptionally intense, five standard deviations above normal.
The excessive moisture from the atmospheric river was able to retain large amounts of heat, while the liquid-rich clouds radiated the heat down to the surface -- known as downward long-wave radiation.
Wille explained warm air is often transported over the Antarctic interior this way but not to this extent or intensity. "[T]his is not something we’ve seen before," he said. "This moisture is the reason why the temperatures have gotten just so high."
"This event happened in a location that doesn’t often have melt. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that from now on we’re worried that melting will happen," Wille said. "It’s more of like, 'Oh, that is weird, that could happen more in the future and then this could be bad.'"
Wille said it’s difficult to attribute this one event to climate change at the moment, but he does think rising temperatures helped prime conditions for such an event. Climate change is "loading the dice" for more situations like this, he said.
I naturally included the point that it's difficult to attribute this one event to climate change.
The record cold was -60.1 F, compared to previous records of -58.7 F and -57.1 F. Compare to the record heat, which was five standard deviations above normal. They're so different I think it's outright wrong to compare the two.
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As does the single data point that they had a warm day and their device wasn't designed to handle that.
Actually all the data points including these two point to climate change making severe weather events more severe, including hot and cold ones. But you knew that because you've read slashdot before right? ... Right?
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Meanwhile, in Texas [msn.com] ...
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on January 31, 2023, marking the lowest January temperature in Antarctica since meteorological observations there started in 1956.
Yes exactly. You're proving the point. Climate change is causing more severe weather events so a system not designed for them needs to be adjusted. You link to the cold severe, here's a link to the warm severe https://www.oca.eu/en/home-ast... [www.oca.eu]
Summer time (Score:3, Informative)
The original machine was designed to operate in winter temperatures of -58F, but the southern polar region is now comparatively balmy at 14F -- and that affected both crews and performance.
The Venturi Antarctica, the world’s first electrically-powered polar exploration vehicle, has been assigned to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station since December 2021. For its second year in operation, a series of technical upgrades have been made to this unique machine.
So this device has been operating for two years, and it needs upgrades due to climate change? No. This article is just sensational crap. The temperature is 14F because it's summer time. The climate did not change so much in 2 years that the Venturi designers were caught unawares by climate change. The source article from Venturi doesn't mention climate change at all, it literally says they are making changes because of snow handling issues they ran into *last summer.* Engadget spiced it up and added their climate change spin.
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Why do we even bother paying scientists anymore when everyone could just come to slashdot for the overly generalized and uninformed commentary instead? Why bother figuring out the answers by using facts, experiments, and mathematics, when you can just look at a tiny summary of the problem and handwave the answer instead! How stupid were these scientists who never noticed it was summer - hah, Slashdot anonymous cowards to the rescue!
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True, it's summer, but summer highs in Antartica are usually -30, according to the graph here [www.oca.eu].
The unseasonal warmth is apparently the result of an atmospheric river, similar to ones bringing rain to CA and cold air to the midwest. Whether this is related to climate change or just an extremely unlikely event popping up is of course hard to say.
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McMurdo is close to the coast, similar to Princess Elisabeth (but on opposite sides of the continent), so they might have similar temperature variations.
"Redesigned" (Score:2)
No, the vehicle was not "redesigned".
Having nothing to say, I'll say nothing. (Score:2)
Except that there was a whole lot of the (triggered) opposite viewpoint above.
It's summer down there. (Score:2)
They don't know that?
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True, but summer there is usually still -30 according to the graph here [www.oca.eu].
It wasn't redisigned due to climate change! (Score:5, Informative)
From the actual Venturi paper:
The vehicle was initially designed to operate in the Antarctic winter when temperatures of -50C, whereas currently the conditions are warmer at -10C.
Well Duh, of course highs are -10C now and not -50C because IT'S SUMMER in the southern hemisphere, and like every year, Antarctica experiences it's warmest temperatures January.
You can click on the "Venturi" link in the article and nowhere in the Venturi paper do they mention the changes were done because of climate change, but instead the upgrades were done to fix unforseen issues that occur in summer with equiment that was designed for -50C winter.
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Not so much of course; -10 is still quite warm for Antartica. -30 is more typical [www.oca.eu].
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Comparing apple to oranges. Your link contains data for a completely different station, the Concordia station, which is located 1000km from the Belgium station and is 6000 ft higher in latitude. That's like saying the temperature of Los Angeles and the peak of a 6000ft mountain peak in the Canadian Rockies should be the same temperature.
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Ah, excellent point, thank you! I think I saw someone else mention Concordia and since the summary didn't mention Princess Elizabeth Base I got them conflated.
Chef Ramsey (Score:2)
Conflating seasons with climate change is good seasoning, as it leads to spicy commentary. Look at this news! It's RAW. Do something with it.
Um. (Score:3, Insightful)
"The original machine was designed to operate in winter temperatures of -58F, but the southern polar region is /now/ comparatively balmy at 14F " (Emphasis mine.)
WINTER temps of -58F.
It's now -14F....because it's SUMMER there you idiotic fucks.
Princess Eliz Base is only at 72d S. According to https://www.meteoblue.com/en/w... [meteoblue.com] the Jan temps at that station are +7 to +25F...-14 is A LOT COLDER than usual.
Even in July (you know, actual WINTER) their temps are -11F - -28F, this is a very average WINTER temp.
Oh, and in other info that we're ignoring: 2015 NASA study shows that Antarctica is gaining more ice than losing. Remember that next time someone is whinging about all the ice melting and raising sea level.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/g... [nasa.gov]
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Two facts:
1. Climate change is real.
2. Journalists are terrible at science reporting.
The EV was designed to work in the snow conditions of winter, but has been used extensively in the summer with problems with range and consistency of the snow conditions during the summer. (picked this up by searching for other articles that were better written)
Climate change isn't impacting the Southern hemisphere in the same way or to the same degree as it does in the Northern hemisphere. The models and data show this. Th
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1) who said it wasn't? And, follow-up question: can you name a point in history where climate wasn't changing?
2) yes, we agree.
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My bad, it said 14, not -14. Making the temperature exactly average for January.
Otherwise points are still valid.
Why would they build an EV that is GROSSLY misengineered for the actual conditions at the station that uses it?
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Average for January is more commonly in the -30 range, according to the graph here [www.oca.eu]; where are you seeing 14 as exactly average?
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I linked it: https://www.meteoblue.com/en/w... [meteoblue.com]
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psst - that's not a _negative_ 14 in the quote
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my bad, you caught that already
Delete this misleading headline and summary (Score:2)
Meanwhile, in Antarctica (Score:5, Insightful)
And if it wasn't designed to operate at 14F from the outset, then someone apparently can't even look up Wikipedia [usap.gov]
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That link isn't Wikipedia, it's www.usap.gov. The rest of my comments stand.
What summer temps did they design for? (Score:2)
Need to know what summer temps they designed for, and how much hotter it is now than it was when they designed it. Average temps seem to have gone up by around 3C in recent years. Is that really outside their design parameters?
Absent any info on this critical point one suspects its just that they did a bad job of designing for normal Antarctic summer warmth, and when the machine started having problems, reached for the obvious excuse.
Yes, there have been recent heat waves in the Antarctic. But how unusua
The Problem is With the Design Spec (Score:2, Insightful)
Clown time (Score:2)
Yet another moronic article approved and posted by Slashdot editors completely obviously to concept of North and South hemispheres.