## 2 Observing-System and Power-System Considerations
### Environmental Analysis  
A power system of the special observation equipment for the polar regions should fully consider the characteristics of the polar natural environment. China's Zhongshan Station was selected as the one of the deployment locations of the observing system in Antarctica, and its monthly meteorological data (69.37\({}^{\circ}\) S, 76.38\({}^{\circ}\) E) in Antarctica in recent years are shown in Figure 3, including monthly average wind speed, radiation, day length, and air temperature. The meteorological data in Figure 3 were obtained from NASA's atmospheric science data center. In Figure 3a, we can see that the distribution of wind speed was approximately parabolic, and monthly average wind speed for the whole year was greater than 7.50 m/s. The maximum monthly average wind speed (9.88 m/s) was in June. The minimum monthly average wind speed (7.50 m/s) was in January. The monthly mean wind speed was consistent with seasonal changes in the southern hemisphere. The average monthly wind speed reached 9.02 m/s. Thus, wind resources around Zhongshan Station were relatively rich to establish power-supply systems for wind-power generation. Figure 3b shows the monthly average radiation near Zhongshan Station. Radiation decreased from 6.05 KWh/m\({}^{2}\)/day in January to 0.05, 0.00, and 0.01 KWh/m\({}^{2}\)/day in May, June, and July, respectively. After that, radiation rose from August until December, reaching maximum value (6.69 KWh/m\({}^{2}\)/day) in one year. The average monthly radiation was 2.49 KWh/m\({}^{2}\)/day. The results of monthly average day length are shown in Figure 3c. Similar to the results of the radiation shown in Figure 3b, day length decreased from January (24 h) to the minimum value of 0 h in June. Then, day length increased from July until December, reaching the maximum value of 24 h. As can be seen from Figure 1c, Zhongshan Station was in the polar day from December to January of the following year. In June and July, Zhongshan Station was in the polar night, and solar-radiation energy was equal to zero. Average monthly day length was 12.2 h. Figure 3d shows the monthly average air temperature near Zhongshan Station. The maximum monthly mean  
Figure 2: Air temperature and power voltage of the observing system from October 2016 to July 2017.  
temperature was \(-7.13\)\({}^{\circ}\)C in January. The minimum monthly mean temperature was \(-27.3\)\({}^{\circ}\)C in July. Average monthly air temperature was \(-19.1\)\({}^{\circ}\)C.  
Solar power is the most widely used field power supply in the polar regions, but the polar night limits the time of its application. Although the polar night is only two months, this period has the lowest temperature of the year, which often leads to the obstruction of power-supply systems. When solar energy is minimal in June or July, this happens when wind energy is the strongest, so a hybrid wind-solar power-supply system could be established. We also planned to deploy our observing system in the Arctic Ocean to observe sea ice parameters. The drift trajectory (Figure 4a) of an Ice Mass-Balance (IMB) buoy and the observed temperature data (Figure 4b) from 10 September 2012 to 16 January 2014 are shown in Figure 4. Figure 4b shows that maximum temperature was 5.93 \({}^{\circ}\)C on July 2013. Minimum temperature was \(-45.06\)\({}^{\circ}\)C on February 2013. Average temperature was \(-15.34\)\({}^{\circ}\)C.  
Based on analysis of meteorological data in the polar regions, the operating temperature range of the power-supply system in this study should be \(-50\)-\(30\)\({}^{\circ}\)C. The design of the observing system and the power-supply system should consider the effects of low temperatures and other meteorological elements. Figure 4: (**a**) Drift trajectory (green line) of an Ice Mass-Balance buoy from 10 September 2012 to 16 January 2014 in the Arctic Ocean. (**b**) Air temperature measured by the buoy. Figure 3: Monthly meteorological data of Zhongshan Station, Antarctica.