scholarly journals Prototype wireless sensors for monitoring subsurface processes in snow and firn

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (248) ◽  
pp. 887-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH A. BAGSHAW ◽  
NANNA B. KARLSSON ◽  
LAI BUN LOK ◽  
BEN LISHMAN ◽  
LINDSAY CLARE ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe detection and monitoring of meltwater within firn presents a significant monitoring challenge. We explore the potential of small wireless sensors (ETracer+, ET+) to measure temperature, pressure, electrical conductivity and thus the presence or absence of meltwater within firn, through tests in the dry snow zone at the East Greenland Ice Core Project site. The tested sensor platforms are small, robust and low cost, and communicate data via a VHF radio link to surface receivers. The sensors were deployed in low-temperature firn at the centre and shear margins of an ice stream for 4 weeks, and a ‘bucket experiment’ was used to test the detection of water within otherwise dry firn. The tests showed the ET+ could log subsurface temperatures and transmit the recorded data through up to 150 m dry firn. Two VHF receivers were tested: an autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder (ApRES) and a WinRadio. The ApRES can combine high-resolution imaging of the firn layers (by radio-echo sounding) with in situ measurements from the sensors, to build up a high spatial and temporal resolution picture of the subsurface. These results indicate that wireless sensors have great potential for long-term monitoring of firn processes.

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (65) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.A. Bagshaw ◽  
B. Lishman ◽  
J.L. Wadham ◽  
J.A. Bowden ◽  
S.G. Burrow ◽  
...  

AbstractWireless sensors have the potential to provide significant insight into in situ physical and biogeochemical processes in sub-ice hydrologic systems. However, the nature of the glacial environment means that sensor deployment and data return is challenging. We describe two bespoke sensor platforms, electronic tracers or ‘ETracers’, and ‘cryoegg’, for untethered, wireless data collection from glacial hydrologic systems, including subglacial channels. Both employ radio frequencies for data transmission, are designed to endure harsh environmental conditions and can withstand low temperatures, high pressure, turbulence and abrasion. We discuss the design, optimization and field testing of the ETracers and cryoegg, culminating in test deployments beneath the Greenland ice sheet. The small, low-cost ETracers were able to travel through subglacial drainage channels, from where they returned water pressure measurements through 100 m of ice, and could measure water depth in crevasses. The larger cryoegg was able to return multi-parameter data from moulins through 500 m of wet ice to receivers up to 2 km away, and from 12 m depth in a proglacial lake to a receiver on the shore. The tests demonstrate that the cryoegg and ETracers are low-power, versatile, robust wireless sensor platforms suitable for glacial environments, which may be used with portable, low-cost receiving equipment.


2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (154) ◽  
pp. 369-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludwig Hempel ◽  
Franz Thyssen ◽  
Niels Gundestrup ◽  
Henrik B. Clausen ◽  
Heinz Miller

AbstractThe depth of reflecting layers in Arctic ice sheets has been determined by electromagnetic echo sounding, using a varying distance between transmitter and receiver to determine the radar wave velocity. The depth of the radar reflecting layers is compared with a profile of electrical conductivity measurements (ECMs) from the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) ice core, in order to determine the velocity of the radar waves in the ice cap. By using several reflecting layers, it is possible to isolate the firn correction of the wave velocity and to estimate the accuracy of the calculated electromagnetic wave velocity. The measured firn correction is compared with the correction calculated from the density profile, and a comparison between the depth profiles of ECM and radar based on the corrected electromagnetic wave velocity is presented. This profile shows that acid layers, which originate from major volcanic eruptions, show up as reflecting radar horizons.


1999 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Nixdorf ◽  
D. Steinhage ◽  
U. Meyer ◽  
L. Hempel ◽  
M. Jenett ◽  
...  

AbstractSince 1994 the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) has operated an airborne radio-echo sounding system for remote-sensing studies of the polar ice caps in Antarctica and in Greenland. It is used to map ice thicknesses and internal layernigs of glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves, and is capable of penetrating ice thicknesses of up to 4 km. The system was designed and built by AWI in cooperation with Aerodata Flugmeßtechnik GmbH, Technische Umversitat Hamburg-Harburg and the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. The system uses state-of-the-art techniques, and results in high vertical (5 m) as well as along-track (3.25 m) resolution. The radar signal is a 150 MHz burst with a duration of 60 or 600 ns. The peak power is 1.6 kW, and the system sensitivity is 190 dB. The short backfire principle has been adopted and optimized for antennae used on Polar2, a Dormer 228-100 aircraft, resulting in an antenna gain of 14 dB each. Digital data recording allows further processing. The quality of the recorded data can be monitored on screen and as online analogue plots during the flight.


1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 1689-1692 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Schmitt ◽  
Shaun Lovejoy ◽  
Daniel Schertzer

1997 ◽  
Vol 51 (8) ◽  
pp. 1106-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Weidner ◽  
R. E. Peale

A low-cost method of adding time-resolving capability to commercial Fourier transform spectrometers with a continuously scanning Michelson interferometer has been developed. This method is specifically designed to eliminate noise and artifacts caused by mirror-speed variations in the interferometer. The method exists of two parts: (1) a novel timing scheme for synchronizing the transient events under study and the digitizing of the interferogram and (2) a mathematical algorithm for extracting the spectral information from the recorded data. The novel timing scheme is a modification of the well-known interleaved, or stroboscopic, method. It achieves the same timing accuracy, signal-to-noise ratio, and freedom from artifacts as step-scan time-resolving Fourier spectrometers by locking the sampling of the interferogram to a stable time base rather than to the occurrences of the HeNe fringes. The necessary pathlength-difference information at which samples are taken is obtained from a record of the mirror speed. The resulting interferograms with uneven pathlength-difference spacings are transformed into wavenumber space by least-squares fits of periodic functions. Spectra from the far-infrared to the upper visible at resolutions up to 0.2 cm−1 are used to demonstrate the utility of this method.


2008 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 100-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne L. Buchardt ◽  
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

AbstractNo continuous record from Greenland of the Eemian interglacial period (130–115 ka BP) currently exists. However, a new ice-core drill site has been suggested at 77.449˚ N, 51.056˚Win north-west Greenland (North Eemian or NEEM). Radio-echo sounding images and flow model investigations indicate that an undisturbed Eemian record may be obtained at NEEM. In this work, a two-dimensional ice flow model with time-dependent accumulation rate and ice thickness is used to estimate the location of the Eemian layer at the new drill site. The model is used to simulate the ice flow along the ice ridge leading to the drill site. Unknown flow parameters are found through a Monte Carlo analysis of the flow model constrained by observed isochrones in the ice. The results indicate that the Eemian layer is approximately 60m thick and that its base is located approximately 100m above bedrock.


1999 ◽  
Vol 45 (149) ◽  
pp. 22-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Pauer ◽  
S. Kipfstuhl ◽  
W. F. Kuhs ◽  
H. Shoji

AbstractWe performed microscopic observations and a statistical study of the number, size and shape distribution of clathrates in the GRIP (Greenland Ice Core Project) deep ice core, using 185 samples from a depth range of 1016–3014 m, spanning a period of 6 to >110 ka BP and encompassing the Holocene, Wisconsin and Eemian periods. The number concentration of the clathrates varied considerably with climatic changes. It was possible to detect the rapid climatic oscillations in the last glacial between 13 and 110 ka BP, the Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles, in the number-concentration profile of clathrates. The mean volume of clathrates is less clearly influenced by climatic factors, with a tendency towards greater volumes in warmer periods, but also a growth of clathrates with depth could be detected. This growth rate was calculated to be 3.1 × 10-12 cm3 a-1. The amount of gases captured in the clathrates is estimated to be significantly smaller than the total amount of air determined by gas-concentration measurements. This points to diffusion processes of atmospheric gases within the ice matrix.


The frequency of the forest fires that have occurred in the different parts of the world, In recent decades significant population problems and causing the death if the wild animals as the impact of these fires extend beyond the destruction of the natural habitats. The proliferation of the Internet of Things industry, resolutions for initial fire detection should be developed. The valuation of the fire risk of an area and communication of this realities to the population could reduce the amount of fires originated by accident or due to carelessness of the public user. This paper proposes a low-cost network based on NXP Rapid IOT kit and Long Range (Lora) technology to autonomously estimate the level of fire risk in the forest. The system comprises of NXP Rapid IOT kit which humidity, air quality and detection of the tree fall. The data from each node stored and processed in a in a web server or the mobile application that sendsthe recorded data to a web server for graphical conception of collected data.


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