Mapping out Jan Mayen

[Mgellis]

So...I'm trying to map out Jan Mayen for a Cold War scenario and I'm trying to figure out what I should put in.

I'm all right using generic "medium" and "small" buildings for most of the structures, but there are a couple of things I'm not sure about.

First, in the satellite image, you'll notice there are some round structures that look like towers of some kind. Are those water towers? Tanks of diesel fuel? What are they?

Second, in the OpenTopo map, there are several structures that don't show up on the map that are listed as "towers" in the online legend. (https://www.geograph.org/leaflet/otm-legend.php). What are these? They're supposedly not water towers (there's a different symbol for that). Are they radio masts? But why would there be more than one? Any ideas what those would be, given Jan Mayen's role as a meteorological station. Are they weather radar masts?

Third, the airport (using the word loosely) at Jan Mayen only has a dirt/gravel runway. Are there any special limitations that should be added (e.g., only planes of a certain size can land, etc.) to model this? I know C-130s can land there, but are there any aircraft that simply can't land there?

(I'm trying to get as much detail as possible because Soviet paratroopers may be showing up.)

Thanks in advance!

I've realized, by the way, that one attraction of Command is kind of like model railroading, making a scale model of a real or imagined place...except all the trains and stuff are cheaper (because you've already paid for the game), and they take up a LOT less space (because they're not physical objects, just data on your hard drive), and you get to blow stuff up (which I suppose you could do for real, like Gomez Addams, but that would certainly add to the cost).

Jan Mayen 5.JPG (99.4 KiB) Viewed 598 times

Jan Mayen 7.JPG (86.41 KiB) Viewed 598 times

[Kushan04]

I think those towers are the transmitters.

https://www.loran-history.info/jan_mayen/jan_mayen.htm

None of the pictures I've found show what the round structures. My best guess is they're dishes with the standard ball covering. The ones south of the main site could be this radar: https://satellitegroundstation.com/grou ... ation-esa/

Others to the SW may be for comms?

Third, the airport (using the word loosely) at Jan Mayen only has a dirt/gravel runway. Are there any special limitations that should be added (e.g., only planes of a certain size can land, etc.) to model this? I know C-130s can land there, but are there any aircraft that simply can't land there?

Command only restricts by size not by the surface type. Anything that uses the C-130s TO/LD would be able to land there. I'd use the minimum runway length of a C-130. I like to go super realistic with my imports too but sometimes you have to accept a little bit of inaccuracies due to game mechanics.

[Mark352]

First, in the satellite image, you'll notice there are some round structures that look like towers of some kind. Are those water towers? Tanks of diesel fuel? What are they?

I believe those are fuel tanks. Vertical sides with a slightly peaked roof. The team there needs fuel to power there generators; this must be where they are storing it.

Jan Mayan is an interesting place. Good luck with the scenario.

[Nikel]

There is a collection of pics in the link, this one is named fuel depot.

Click on "continue without supporting" to see them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/storegga/ ... otostream/


The towers must be antennas

https://www.flickr.com/photos/storegga/ ... otostream/



The airport has a wikipedia article, with size and weather limitations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Mayensfield


Video, C-130 landing. 4:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fKyE-JTYfY

[Mgellis]

I ended up going with the Structure (Mast) unit for the various towers. They're not radars, as far as I know.

As I understand it, a lot of the equipment on Jan Mayen was for Loran-C radio navigation. Maybe the towers are the transmitters. I have no idea how to model this in Command or if it even matters. For the time being, it is probably easier to just make losing the masts worth a certain number of points--NATO does not want it to happen, so if the player lets it happen, they lose points.

[Kushan04]

As I understand it, a lot of the equipment on Jan Mayen was for Loran-C radio navigation. Maybe the towers are the transmitters. I have no idea how to model this in Command or if it even matters.

Use Loran-C towers? They're in the DB.

[Gunner98]

I used Jan Mayen in the NF series way back and the Sat photo you have seems fairly modern. In the early 90's the Norwegians only had a detachment of between 12 and 18 guys there. I don't have CMO loaded at the moment but from memory, I think there was:

-900 foot C-130 capable runway. From what I understand, during winter, other AC could use it as it was essentially an ice-crete surface, but summer limited it to C-130/C-160 and other rugged aircraft.
-a control building and a couple of barracks-type structures, a kitchen, a garage for a couple of trucks, a fuel tank and a single lane road up to the Loran station.
-The Loran station was several hundred meters upslope from the runway with one building, the Loran receiver and I put in a radar, but am not sure it was actually there.

It is featured in NF-4 A Cold and Lonely Place.

Hope that helps

B

[Mgellis]

I could not find them in the Cold War database, but I did find Structure (Antenna), so that will work.

As I understand it, a lot of the equipment on Jan Mayen was for Loran-C radio navigation. Maybe the towers are the transmitters. I have no idea how to model this in Command or if it even matters.

Use Loran-C towers? They're in the DB.

[Mgellis]

Thanks.

I used Jan Mayen in the NF series way back and the Sat photo you have seems fairly modern. In the early 90's the Norwegians only had a detachment of between 12 and 18 guys there. I don't have CMO loaded at the moment but from memory, I think there was:

-900 foot C-130 capable runway. From what I understand, during winter, other AC could use it as it was essentially an ice-crete surface, but summer limited it to C-130/C-160 and other rugged aircraft.
-a control building and a couple of barracks-type structures, a kitchen, a garage for a couple of trucks, a fuel tank and a single lane road up to the Loran station.
-The Loran station was several hundred meters upslope from the runway with one building, the Loran receiver and I put in a radar, but am not sure it was actually there.

It is featured in NF-4 A Cold and Lonely Place.

Hope that helps

B

[turmoil]

You probably tried these, but I'll mention them in case.
Firstly, Google Earth Pro has a pretty solid historical archive of the last couple of decades (plus the ~WW2 photos of some locations are super cool!) to see any changes and the imagery is sometimes taken in different seasons thus different lighting. They don't always show the most up-to-date imagery on the website for various reasons (usually visibility). For Jan Mayen I guess it's a pretty low priority so the imagery by default is from July 2011. The most recent is only from 2013 but was mostly just snow. Using Google Earth Pro is also a good way to find out the date as it'll show it in the bottom right when you hover over imagery

Also a good idea to check the locations on Google maps for the photos people have posted, sometimes you can get really good photos from reviews etc. and are often fairly recent and good quality. Even better when it's someone with a drone.

[Mgellis]

Good suggestions. Thank you.

You probably tried these, but I'll mention them in case.
Firstly, Google Earth Pro has a pretty solid historical archive of the last couple of decades (plus the ~WW2 photos of some locations are super cool!) to see any changes and the imagery is sometimes taken in different seasons thus different lighting. They don't always show the most up-to-date imagery on the website for various reasons (usually visibility). For Jan Mayen I guess it's a pretty low priority so the imagery by default is from July 2011. The most recent is only from 2013 but was mostly just snow. Using Google Earth Pro is also a good way to find out the date as it'll show it in the bottom right when you hover over imagery

Also a good idea to check the locations on Google maps for the photos people have posted, sometimes you can get really good photos from reviews etc. and are often fairly recent and good quality. Even better when it's someone with a drone.