Solar panels are used to produce the power to charge batteries needed to run a station.  The number and size of solar panels needed will depend on the amount of sunlight available at the site and the power draw of the station.  For stations at low to mid latitudes and at least moderate sun we recommend a power ratio of at least 20 to 1.  That is if the station draws 1 watt of power you need at least 20 watts of solar panel.  The Battery Usage Calculator  is helpful in determining power usage for stations.  To get the most power the solar panels need to be oriented to receive the maximum amount of sunlight using solar panel mounts.

To prepare for servicing the stations in your experiment, contact Landowners, contact EPIC, charge/check all necessary batteries: e.g. Clie, laptop, voltmeter, station spares, Battery for Baler downloads, handheld GPS. Review prior data, if this is not the first service trip.

Clie - Charge it BEFORE you go into the field
    Clie Power Supply
    Hot Sync Cable
    Serial Cable for RT-130 AND/OR
    Serial Cable for Q330 (i.e. you must have the cabling necessary to communicate with your dataloggers)

PH5, clearly a better choice as an archival data format.

Most electronic equipment and batteries used for seismic stations become unreliable at temperatures below -45C.  For this reason, it is very challenging to make year around seismic studies in the Arctic and especially the Antarctic, where winter temperature can dip below -80C. On the East Antarctica Plateau, ambient temperatures a couple of feet below the snow surface are between -50C and -60C.