Starlink install at Scott Base. Photo: Antarctica New Zealand / Ed Anscombe
Antarctica New Zealand has installed a Starlink at Scott Base, which is expected to boost connection speeds by a factor of ten.
The satellite internet system means scientists at the Ross Island research station should experience similar speeds to those within New Zealand.
Chief scientific advisor Jordy Hendrikx said it would allow data to be shared and worked on from afar in near real-time.
He said previously, scientists dealt with slow connections and reduced bandwidths, meaning they often had to return to New Zealand with the data on hard drives. Every minute of data took an hour to upload.
"One of the things that we're seeing is increased cloud computing capacity. So if you can update and send information in real time up to a cloud server, you can then push that on to collaborators to start working on data in near real time.
"You don't realize just how integrated the internet is with our life," he said.
"When you're very restricted and when your inbox doesn't work and you're trying to find that email that was critical for a piece of work, having quick and easy access, like you would here in New Zealand, can really change the efficiency of what you're doing."
Starlink kit on its perch at Scott Base. Photo: Antarctica New Zealand / Ed Anscombe
It also opened up the possible for remote monitoring, with instruments able to be controlled and data harvested from anywhere in the world.
It would also improve the quality of communication between scientists, staff, and friends and family back home - a big boost for morale, he said.
Importantly, it was to boost the existing internet system. "This is really just a secondary backup, but a much larger pipeline of data. So should Starlink stop working for us on any given day, it doesn't mean everything goes dark," he said.
The Starlink system was successfully trailed at the end of the summer season, and was now being opened up to the base's 17 staff.