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discussion / Acoustics  / 2 July 2026

AudioMoths in Arctic conditions?

Barbara Francik

Barbara Francik

I am an early career researcher, particularly interested in animal behaviour and ecology. My previous experience is mostly in bioacoustics, and much of my work has focused on seabirds.
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Hi all,

I'm working on a project looking at seabird bioacoustics in Svalbard this August. We're hoping to capture diel activity patterns in Atlantic puffins, Little auks, and Black-legged kittiwakes under constant daylight conditions at their breeding colonies. Similar to this study on Little auks in Greenland. We'd aim to measure things like relative sound intensity (within colonies, not comparing between) to try get an idea of how colony activity changes throughout the day. Possibly also try counting individual calls if they're clear enough on the recordings.
 
We're currently in the process of accumulating recording devices for this. I was considering using AudioMoths and wanted to see if anyone here has experience using them in similar conditions (I've only ever used them for recording at very close range from within shearwater nests, never for wider soundscape recording).
 
We'd be setting them up about 30-50m away from the colonies themselves, about 50cm off the ground with windshields. I'm hoping to get 72hrs of continuous recording from each one, recording at 48kHz. 
 
I was wondering if anyone knows whether this is realistic. In terms of whether they'd be able to pick up colony sounds from 30-50m, and whether they would be able to run non-stop for 72hrs (also considering having them run only part time, e.g. 1 minute every 5 minutes). I'm aware that cold can reduce battery life. Any recommendations for good batteries would be greatly appreciated. We're expecting temperatures of about 1-7°C and probably strong wind. I was thinking of just using the in-built microphone, rather than any external ones, to save battery.
 
Thanks for any help you can give! If anyone has other suggestions besides AudioMoths I would also love to hear those - we're trying to stay budget friendly but it's important we get robust data so if AudioMoths are not great for this then please do share.
 
Thanks!
 
 
 
One thing to mention is that we would need to transport any devices and batteries by plane. So lithium batteries might be tricky? Although I think Lithium AA types should be fine.


Victorio Maximiliano Rocchi
@VMRocchi  | Maxi
I am an Argentine biologist and a doctoral fellow at CONICET and APN, researching the conservation of Darwin’s frog. I have worked on biodiversity projects in Patagonia and Antarctica with frogs and marine mammals. Beyond my academic work, I am passionate about nature photography
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3 July 2026 2:10am

Hi! i´m Maxi from Argentina. That's interesting. Perhaps it's similar to the battery problems we have in Patagonia. We're using "regular" batteries because rechargeable ones suffer from self-discharge. Lithium rechargeable batteries might be better. But some alkaline batteries should work fine, especially since they won't be used for long periods. The main problem I foresee is the wind noise. Often, those frequencies drown out all the sound, so you'd have to think about something to mask it and point the microphone towards the sound source, constantly monitoring the wind direction. I hope this helps!

I'll show you the noise that sometimes "contaminates" the recordings.

Akiba
@Freaklabs  | He/Him
Freaklabs
I'm an engineer and product designer working in conservation technology. I specialize in technology for landscape restoration and wildlife behavioral ecology.
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3 July 2026 4:50am

Hi Barbara. 

If you are able to power the Audiomoth externally from a lithium-ion source, the lithium-ion batteries can be used down to -20 deg C. They can't be charged below 0 deg C though so if you were thinking of a solar charging setup as well, then you'd need to look at the temperature range you're planning to use them in. 

In regards to the battery life for continuous recording, I found this information from here:
 

The recording lifespan of the AudioMoth on one set of batteries has previously been measured only for a subset of the possible configuration settings. Hill et al. reported the battery life of the AudioMoth using 3000 mAh lithium batteries for some common configurations [15], reporting that an AudioMoth could record for 115 days recording at 8 kHz, the lowest sample rate, for 30 s every 5 min. The developers also reported the AudioMoth lasted 9 days recording nonstop at a 48 kHz sample rate. While the AudioMoth configuration app provides estimates of battery life for any chosen configuration settings, these estimates have not to our knowledge been validated empirically.

Even derating the battery life by a factor of 2 due to cold temperature conditions would seem to get you over the finish line. One experiment you can try is to record continuously in a refrigerator and look at the recording duration. Typical refrigerators are around 2 deg C which could approximate conditions you mentioned. 

If you will be using stock Audiomoths with no modification for rechargeable batteries, then I'd recommend using Energizer Lithium AA batteries which have some of the highest battery capacities for disposable batteries. Those are airplane safe if they go in your carry-on luggage. 

Hope that helps.

Akiba