A floating-station structure

Long-term maintenance of camp constructions on snow and ice surfaces involves repeated adjustments of the vertical position of buildings due to snow accumulation or ice ablation. The principle of a low-effort vertical-adjustment station structure is presented. The basic idea is to construct a floatable spherical-shaped building that can be lifted by adding water underneath, which will then refreeze, or can be lowered by melting ice away from the base. Under cold polar conditions, the power requirement for melting the base free is approximately 100 Wm–2 and is usually available as waste heat from the electric power generator of the station.