Into deep ice [ice monitoring]

  • Authors:
  • E. Guizzo

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Spectrum
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

A team of researchers has embarked on a project called Glacsweb, which aims to determine how the Earth's ice masses will respond to the continued warming of the globe. By installing a wireless monitoring network of probes on the Briksdalsbreen, a large mass of frozen water in the town of Olden in southwestern Norway, the team hopes to record temperature, pressure and other variables for several months. By correlating these data with those obtained by other means such as GPS surveys and satellite imagery, a better understanding of how the ice and sediment interact to affect the motion of the glacier can be gained. In turn, this knowledge could help scientists improve their glacier models and simulations.