Wireless Sensors Monitor Glacier Behavior

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a world premiere, an interdisciplinary team of the University of Southampton, GlacsWeb, has deployed a network of wireless sensors inside a Norwegian glacier to record its behavior. This news release, "Sensor Technology Comes in from the Cold" says that the sensor probes, housed in 'electronic pebbles,' are buried 60 meters under the surface of the glacier. And they transmit wirelessly their observations about temperature, pressure or ice movement to a base station located on the surface, which relays the readings to a server in the UK by mobile phone. The researchers think that similar sensor webs will soon be deployed around the world to watch what is changing in our environment. You'll find more details and pictures in this overview."

Re:Is it just me?

[(Maly)]

Speaking of that movie. I saw it on the weekend, and I and my friends had a nice long discussion about the difference between improbable and impossible. This movie skirts that line, to say the least.

NASA's web site has a short article called Sudden Climate Change [nasa.gov] which briefly discusses the plausibility of that movie's scenario. It goes to great lengths to avoid naming the movie but it deals with the possibility of sudden climate change (prossibly to avoid legal trouble?).

An interesting read for anyone wondering about it. Not very long though. The conclusion is essentially to not believe everything you see in the movies.

Re:Is it just me?

[detritus`]

Actually the concept of a large influx of cold water into the ocean altering the major currents is quite possible, at least in theory, but as a theory it must as always be taken with a grain of salt. (who's to say that such current changes dont occur every couple thousand years for various reasons? we just dont have enough data) But its no reason to start moving to the higher places on Earth anytime soon.

Standards?

[bigattichouse]

Are there any standard protocols for data transmission from these things (I mean above the wireless/transport layer)? just curious.

Carrier

[SeaFox]

What mobile phone carrier has towers in that region? Perhaps they meant satellite phone instead?

Also, what kind of battery life do transmitters packed in ice get?

Re:Carrier

[arcade]

Without exact knowledge, I would think most norwegian mobile phone carriers has towers in that regions - just as most of the rest of norway is covered by the mobile phone carriers.

We're talking about norway here, not the uS. ;-) Norawy has _very_ good mobile phone coverage.

(NB: I'm a norwegian).

How are these pebbles powered?

[arcade]

This may be a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyways.

The big question for me is .. how is these pebbles powered? They have to be powered by battery, but are they turned on/off with certain interval, doing measurements, then turned off? Or are they continously online? In either case, how does one make batteries last this long? How long has they already been deployed? The article mentiones 1988, but I really, really doubt that the batteries have been active in those tiny pebbles since that long ago ... when were they put into the ice?

Re:Is it just me?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see why NASA can't name the movie.. the movie named NASA after all :)

Possible Application?

[Bowling Moses]

This technology might also be useful for avalanche detection. I saw a program on PBS about the Mt. Blanc glacier [pbs.org]. In 1892 a lake hidden in the interior of the glacier breached the glacial ice it was trapped in, and the resulting flood/avalanche killed 200 people in the town of Saint Gervais. The glaciers on Mt. Blanc have been retreating, but in melting process have developed large liquid water filled caves--which on the PBS program they got some loonies to go dive in. Other mountains probably have similar melting features, so if you could deposit sensors like those in the article into these glaciers you might be able to avert disaster.

Nova

[Dachannien]

There was an episode of Nova a while back called Descent into the Ice [pbs.org], which talked about a group of glacier explorers who were concerned about huge lakes of water forming inside glaciers.

Anyway, one of the people they talked to also did observation/research underneath a glacier. There had been tunnels dug through the mountain and up to the bottom of the glacier, and he set up a time lapse camera underneath the glacier.

It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Ever.

Re:icecap measuring

[Anonymous Coward]

Norwegian glaciers were unusual in that a large number are actually advancing

It's not just Norwegian glaciers. There are a lot of glaciers worldwide that are advancing. Ice Age Now [iceagenow.com]