scholarly journals Modeling hole size, lifetime and fuel consumption in hot-water ice drilling

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (68) ◽  
pp. 115-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Greenler ◽  
T. Benson ◽  
J. Cherwinka ◽  
A. Elcheikh ◽  
F. Feyzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Flow Rate ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Hole Size ◽  
South Pole ◽  
Neutrino Detector ◽  
Water Ice ◽  
Fuel Savings ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Drill System

AbstractIceCube, a cubic-kilometer neutrino detector, was built at the South Pole using a hot-water drill system. Deep holes were drilled into the Antarctic ice sheet and filled with highly sensitive optical instrumentation. For the hot-water drilling, a computer model was developed to predict the hole sizes and hole lifetimes during construction. The goal was to predict ultimate size and freezeback rates based on water flow rate and temperature, drill speed, ice temperature and ream parameters (for a secondary operation where hot water continues to flow as the drill is withdrawn). This model proved to be very successful. It increased confidence that the holes would remain open long enough after drilling to allow the deployment of the necessary instrumentation. It also allowed for a decrease, over the course of the project, in the amount of overdrilling that was used as a margin against a too-rapid freeze-in. This resulted in significant fuel savings.

THE AMANDA NEUTRINO TELESCOPE

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 3096-3098 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
ANDREA SILVESTRI
Keyword(s):  
High Energy ◽  
Neutrino Telescope ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
South Pole ◽  
Ultra High Energy ◽  
Neutrino Detector ◽  
High Energy Neutrino ◽  
Diffuse Sources ◽  
Ultra High Energy Neutrinos ◽  
The Antarctic

We present recent results from the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA), located at the South Pole in Antarctica. AMANDA-II, commissioned in 2000, is a multipurpose high energy neutrino telescope with a broad physics and astrophysics scope. We summarize the results from searches for a variety of sources of ultra-high energy neutrinos: TeV-PeV diffuse sources by measuring either muon tracks or cascades, neutrinos in excess of PeV by searching for muons traveling in the down-going direction and point sources.

RESULTS FROM AMANDA

2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (31) ◽  
pp. 2019-2037 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
CHRISTOPHER WIEBUSCH ◽  
J. AHRENS ◽  
X. BAI ◽  
S. W. BARWICK ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Energy ◽  
Neutrino Telescope ◽  
Detector Array ◽  
South Pole ◽  
Neutrino Detector ◽  
Polar Ice ◽  
High Energy Neutrino ◽  
Icecube Detector ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Methods Of Operation

The Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a high-energy neutrino telescope operating at the geographic South Pole. It is a lattice of photo-multiplier tubes buried deep in the polar ice. The primary goal of this detector is to discover astrophysical sources of high energy neutrinos. We describe the detector methods of operation and present results from the AMANDA-B10 prototype. We demonstrate the improved sensitivity of the current AMANDA-II detector. We conclude with an outlook to the envisioned sensitivity of the future IceCube detector.

scholarly journals Developing a hot-water drill system for the WISSARD project: 2. In situ water production

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (68) ◽  
pp. 298-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daren S. Blythe ◽  
Dennis V. Duling ◽  
Dar E. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Waste Heat ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Water Production ◽  
Initial Water ◽  
Diameter Hole ◽  
Water Heaters ◽  
Whillans Ice Stream ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Drill System

AbstractSuccessful hot-water drilling in the Antarctic is predicated on utilization of the abundant water supply available in the form of the Antarctic ice sheet. For WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) field operations, a snowmelting system was developed that could adequately provide water for a 1000 kW hot-water drill. The system employs ∼100 kW of waste heat from a 225 kW generator to melt snow for initial water (known as seed water) to prime the drill’s high-pressure pumps and water heaters; once the water heaters can be engaged in snowmelting, enough water can be supplied directly to the WISSARD drill to successfully melt a 40 cm diameter hole through 800 m of ice.

Lichens of the Oasis Molodyozhnyi and adjacent areas (Enderby Land, Antarctic)

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 167-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Andreev
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Water ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Water Ice ◽  
Buellia Frigida ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
Harsh Climate ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
First Time ◽  
Lichen Flora

Lichen flora and vegetation in the vicinity of the Russian base «Molodyozhnaya» (Enderby Land, Antarctica) were investigated in 2010–2011 in details for the first time. About 500 specimens were collected in 100 localities in all available ecotopes. The lichen flora is the richest in the region and numbers 39 species (21 genera, 11 families). The studied vegetation is very poor and sparse, but typical for coastal oases of the Antarctic continent. The poorness is caused by the extremely harsh climate conditions, insufficient availability of liquid water, ice-free land, and high insolation levels. The dominant and most common lichens are Rinodina olivaceobrunnea, Amandinea punctata, Candelariella flava, Physcia caesia, Caloplaca tominii, Lecanora expectans, Caloplaca ammiospila, Lecidea cancriformis, Pseudephebe minuscula, Lecidella siplei, Umbilicaria decussata, Buellia frigida, Lecanora fuscobrunnea, Usnea sphacelata, Lepraria and Buellia spp.

scholarly journals South Pole glacial climate reconstruction from multi-borehole laser particulate stratigraphy

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (218) ◽  
pp. 1117-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Particle Physics ◽  
Volcanic Ash ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Radiometric Dating ◽  
South Pole ◽  
Last Glacial Period ◽  
Annual Layer ◽  
Paleoclimate Records ◽  
The Last Glacial

AbstractThe IceCube Neutrino Observatory and its prototype, AMANDA, were built in South Pole ice, using powerful hot-water drills to cleanly bore >100 holes to depths up to 2500 m. The construction of these particle physics detectors provided a unique opportunity to examine the deep ice sheet using a variety of novel techniques. We made high-resolution particulate profiles with a laser dust logger in eight of the boreholes during detector commissioning between 2004 and 2010. The South Pole laser logs are among the most clearly resolved measurements of Antarctic dust strata during the last glacial period and can be used to reconstruct paleoclimate records in exceptional detail. Here we use manual and algorithmic matching to synthesize our South Pole measurements with ice-core and logging data from Dome C, East Antarctica. We derive impurity concentration, precision chronology, annual-layer thickness, local spatial variability, and identify several widespread volcanic ash depositions useful for dating. We also examine the interval around ∼74 ka recently isolated with radiometric dating to bracket the Toba (Sumatra) supereruption.

Sfida all’ultimo parallelo: la conquista del Polo Sud cento anni dopo

2012 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Paolo Bernat
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The South ◽  
The Antarctic

100 years ago, Antarctica was still mostly unknown and unexplored. The first landings on the Antarctic coast took place in the early decades of the nineteenth century and were made by whalers and sealers. In the following years the first scientific expeditions began and European and US expeditions started the geographical discovery and the mapping of the Antarctic coasts. But it was only in the years 1911-1912 that two expeditions, very different but equally well prepared, arrived almost simultaneously at the South Pole. The events that happened in the Antarctic together with the different nature of the two leaders Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott determined the outcome of these expeditions and the fate of their teams. The centenary of the conquest of the South Pole (December 14, 1911) is an opportunity to remember the passion for science, the spirit of adventure and the fierce perseverance that characterized those extraordinary men and that even now form the basis of scientific research and of human progress, not only in Antarctica but in all areas of knowledge and life.

scholarly journals A hot-water ice-coring drill

2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (153) ◽  
pp. 341-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Engelhardt ◽  
B. Kamb ◽  
R. Bolsey
Keyword(s):  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
New Method ◽  
Core Drilling ◽  
Water Ice ◽  
Water Jets

AbstractA new method of ice-core drilling uses an annulus of hot-water jets to melt out a cylindrical ice core. This lightweight device used in combination with a fast hot-water drill can quickly obtain ice cores from any depth.

L’Antartide è veramente un "awful place"? I caratteri ambientali del continente più freddo della Terra

2012 ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Claudio Smiraglia
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
South Pole ◽  
The Past ◽  
Unique Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
Harsh Climate ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Antarctic

The Antarctic continent is certainly made an "awful" place by its harsh climate: in the past, explorers and researchers endured terrible hardships and the climate remains a challenge today, in spite of the many improvements in knowledge and technology. The Antarctic may be termed "the continent of the extremes", as it occupies an area unlike any other on earth. It is the farthest and most inaccessible and isolated continent; the most regular because of its rounded shape, with the South Pole at the centre; the coldest continent, with temperatures falling to -90°C; the driest (with an average of 130 mm of precipitation); the windiest, the highest, the most glacialized (it contains 91% of the volume of the earth’s ice). It also displays the most monotonous landscapes and presents the greatest contrast between marine and terrestrial ecosystems. But the Antarctic is also "extreme" because it is the least populated continent, with no indigenous population at all, while its few settlements (consisting in scientific bases) are concentrated on the coast; it is the only place that does not belong to one nation, but to all the world; it is the place where unique information on the past, present and future of humankind is revealed.

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