8 | Reporter 66 ’ Island Seabirds’ GNSS to Study ing and solving all of the logistics aspects, DRIGOT’s DRIGOT’s aspects, logistics ofthe all solving and ing discuss after August, In Grande. ofSelvagem island remote the on installed to be Planning) Land and (Regional Directorate for Information Geographic to DRIGOT solution station reference GNSS a turnkey provided of2011, Geosystems Leica beginning At the island. remote this on research ornithologists’ is supporting sensors orological mete connected several with station reference GNSS Geosystems A Leica behavior. birds’ the on effect an having be to appears change mate peaceful appearance can be deceiving, as cli as deceiving, be can appearance peaceful the But breed. to here come that birds marine the for asanctuary is ecosystem untouched This seabirds. of species rare some to home Selvagens), (Ilhas Islands Savage the lie of south the to kilometers hundred Several Santos Luís by - - - solution included a MET4 meteo station. GNSS and and GNSS station. meteo aMET4 included solution to the autonomous power supply. Furthermore, the choke-ring antenna were installed and connected AR25 aLeica and receiver Pro GRX1200 A Leica noise. and presence its through risk at population bird young local the of putting risk high to the due system supply power the from dropped overnight. An originally planned wind generator was power system to maintain batteries gel two as well as included, was panels solar sor, ofthree aset sen ofeach needs consumption to the According supply all system components with sufficient power. to built was system solar/wind designed a custom Grande, Selvagem on electricity no also is there Since Navy. Portuguese the with lift hour a14 got team the there, to get transport regular no is there As components. other and station ence refer GNSS the to install island to the travelled team - -

© Luís Ferreira meteo data are pushed via the satellite Internet con- nection to the Leica GNSS Spider server installed at the DRIGOT headquarters in (Madeira), which also manages the Madeira GNSS network REPGRAM.

The GNSS raw data collected on the island is of major relevance to geodynamic studies of the region, as it represents the behavior between Madeira and the . This data is used for scientific pur- poses by Portuguese universities as well as some international institutions and universities, such as EUREF and IGS.

Since the meteorological data was one of the main products demanded in this project, a high accuracy meteorological sensor, the Paroscientific MET4, was installed on site. Temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity are recorded every 10 minutes, and are a fundamental tool for all major scientific studies taking place on the island, in particular ornithologi- cal studies. The global climate has warmed up, and all models point towards this being the trend for Selvagens Islands decades to come.

These changes in climate are affecting the distribu- The Selvagens (“Wild”) Islands are situated in the tion and phenology of countless species. It is vital North Atlantic, 163 nautical miles from Madeira to study and better know the links between these Island, including three volcanic islands, Selvagem changes and the behavior, physiology, and demog- Grande, Selvagem Pequena and Ilhéu de Fora. The raphy of top predators, such as Cory’s Shearwater. terrestrial and marine of the Selvagens Islands as well as the importance of their habitats The demographic data collected over the past 30 make these islands a unique Nature Reserve. years on Selvagem Grande Island will be correlat- ed with past climate data to better understand the The fauna of the Selvagens Islands is diversified, demographic responses of the Cory’s Shearwater mostly for nesting birds. The nature reserve is a population. In the future, with the availability of very refuge for an interesting community of several spe- accurate meteo data, the main task will be to create cies of seabirds such as Cory’s Shearwater, the larg- new models that help better understand the popu- est colony of this species in the world, White-faced lation trends, to be used as a reference point for Storm-petrel, one of the largest populations in the future comparisons. Atlantic and forms the northern boundary of the species distribution, Bulwer’s Petrel and Madeiran The preliminary analysis of the GNSS data collected Storm-petrel. reveals that the Leica GRX1200 Pro and the Leica AR25 choke-ring antenna are providing GNSS mea- More information about Madeira´s protected areas surements of superior quality. can be found at: www.pnm.pt

About the author: More information about Madeira can be found at: Luís Santos is a Surveying Engineer and is a Leica www.geocidmadeira.com Geosystems GNSS and HDS Product Specialist in Por- tugal. ([email protected]) For more information about the Madeira’s GNSS Maria João Seiça Neves ist Regional Director at reference service REPGRAM, please visit: DRIGOT. ([email protected]) www.repgram.org.pt

The Global Magazine of Leica Geosystems | 9