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Scientists hatch plans to send egg beneath Antarctic ice sheets

Meltwaters plunge to the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet

Meltwaters plunge to the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet Dr Greg Lis

Press release issued: 11 December 2009

£225,000 has been awarded to the University of Bristol to develop a new instrument to probe the depths of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, in order to monitor their behaviour in a warming climate.

£225,000 has been awarded to the University of Bristol to develop a new instrument to probe the depths of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, in order to monitor their behaviour in a warming climate.

The two-year project will develop an autonomous capsule, christened ‘Cryo-Egg’, which will be placed on the ice sheet bed and will have free range of the environments it encounters. It will beam back data from the bottom of the ice sheets to scientists on the surface as it monitors this largely uncharted, subterranean landscape.

As this week’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen underlined, there is a pressing need to improve our understanding of glacier and ice sheet response to climate change, in order to help predict future sea level rise.

Project leader, Dr Jemma Wadham from the University's School of Geographical Sciences, said: “The engineering challenges for Cryo-Egg are vast. In addition to the need to survive crushing by ice and extreme cold, the probe must be able to communicate with scientists on the surface through kilometers of ice. This will be the first goal of the project, and is the focus of the current funding”.

Glacial ice deforms and slides over its bed. Hence, a probe linked by cables to the surface would not survive long before the cable snaps. The only solution will be to employ wireless communications.

Professor Ian Craddock from the University’s Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Centre for Communications Research, said: “Trying to communicate data through several kilometres of glacial ice is a major technical challenge. It will require highly novel solutions using a suite of communications technologies, along with innovative methods to unscramble the data”.

This unique collaboration between glaciologists, Earth scientists and engineers at the University aims to overcome the immense technical challenges involved.  The data transmitted back will help them understand one of the most important processes associated with climate warming.

The funding has been awarded to the University by the Natural Environment Research Council. The research will draw upon expertise from a University of Bristol multi-disciplinary team including Dr Jemma Wadham from the School of Geographical Sciences, Professor Ian Craddock and Dr Geoff Hilton from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Professor Bruce Drinkwater from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr Stephen Burrow from the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Professor Mike Kendall from the Department of Earth Sciences.

Further information

Please contact Cherry Lewis for further information.
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