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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."
This is great. Now I don't need to worry about being run over by a speeding glacier next time the ice age comes around.
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
Ahem! The global warming --> ice age link was about the only good science in it.
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
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 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.
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.
drunk chemists
Yeah, I'm in the glacier. Looks like we're sliding about three centimetres a year. I guess I might be late for the meeting...sorry, you're breaking up. That's better. Look, if I give you the readings could you turn them into a quick Powerpoint?
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I think it would be interesting if they could put these on Mars sometime in the future.
Click for offensive t-sh
It's all BS it's part of an extension to the Patriot Act that allows them to wiretap eskimos. They don't care about the glacier's, they are trying to spy on eskimoan extremists.
I'm surprised they got a radio link to work through 60m of ice. They're apparently using 1.8 ghz radios.
-jim
Are there any standard protocols for data transmission from these things (I mean above the wireless/transport layer)? just curious.
meh
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?
Careful measurements of the glaciers and polar ice caps is one of the most important types of research done at the polar research labs. The figures are used for calculations of global warming, polution, and tidal currents among other things. This new method means less people having to endure the extreme cold and horrible weather in order to achieve the much valued information. Currently sensors are placed on top of the ice to measure movement and laser measurement is done to determine shrinkage.
Sig temporarily out of service.
I saw the movie, but I was a little disappointed... I expected more CGI devastation though!
The plot was alright IMO, considering it's not exactly scientifically accurate.
I thought that the vice-president character was so Dick-Cheney-like that it was scary.
Well, let's be careful here. We DO have data from ice cores, sediment beds, tree rings and other similar sources that indicate when these changes in ocean circulation have occurred. In the past, these events have happened at the end of Ice Ages, when large amounts of meltwater have entered the oceans . They don't "just happen" for various reasons; there are pretty well-defined condistions for when the circulation changes.
But its no reason to start moving to the higher places on Earth anytime soon.
If the Gulf Stream shuts down you'll want to move SOUTH, not UP. At least if you live in Europe.
I haven't seen the movie, so I have no idea how badly they butchered the science. But I am concerned that "skeptics" are using this crappy movie as an excuse to belittle the very valid science that is being done in this area....
Human genome = 3 billion base pairs = 6 GBit. Windows + Office = 20 Gbit. Which is more impressive?
Thus then affecting the ocean current and temperatures of said currents. Then cause the climate to abruptly change.
Then when you think it couldnt get any worse, super storms would emerge and cause hurricanes to form over land. The hurricanes would have such a strong force that they'd (bear with me here) ...
That they'd cause the STRATOSPHERE to come to the surface of the earth. Causing instantaneous freezign of everything in the eye of said land based hurricanes.
As if that wasn't bad enough I predict this would cause 3/4 of the north america, europe and asia's populations to be killed. Thus causing the rest of the populations to move to mexico.
But alas, this can all be prevented if we stop burning fossil fuels, hug a tree, and act like RMS.
Also note, in the event a land based hurricane does bring the STRATOSPHERE down to the earths surface immediately find the nearest library or wendy's and stay there. If you have a tent, be sure to set the tent up in the kitchen of wendy's.
You know what, this whole plot seems like the story for a HORRIBLE movie, I better write it down and call 20th century fox.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
....cool!
Great now they have a tool to measure progress in Congress.
It doesn't mention that they're using anything special to do the wireless, but IIRC 60M of ice (or water) will defeat a fairly powerful radio signal. Anyone know if (a) I'm simply wrong, or (b) they're using something special? If the latter, how is it done and how well would it penetrate say 60M of rock?
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
UP is for when a hunks of ice fall off the polar cap and raises sea level by 20 meters overnight.
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
Here's another good site.
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories
"You'll find more details and pictures in this overview."
Hey Roland, stop being MISLEADING and DISHONEST and say up front that you've taken other people's pictures and links (NOT more details), posted them at your BLOG, and that you want everyone to visit your BLOG so you can make more MONEY from increased traffic and ADVERTISING.
I have never seen anyone so shameless about directing so much traffic to their own blog for financial self-gain. It brings a new definition to the term blog spam
This overview of Roland Piquepaille spam activities is the most insightful that I have ever read. Even Slashdot's moderators agree that it's insightful.
I saw the movie last night, and when they started talking about the polar caps melting and dumping tons of fresh water into the ocean and the rapid desalinization being a bad thing, I was thinking, "Morton to the rescue!"
(Morton makes salt, for those who aren't in Morton's distribution area...)
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
And I'm wondering how sticking electronic devices inside the iceberg affects their immediate surrounding, and how that affects their reports. All electronic devices that I know of, even LEDs, emit heat...
Simpy
*Moves to the equator*
Ahahhahaa Now I'm going to build my massive island fortress... Humorously shaped like a gigantic head, carved into the side of a volcano!
This may be a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyways.
.. 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?
The big question for me is
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
I don't see why NASA can't name the movie.. the movie named NASA after all :)
Poster is a slashdot spammer.
Skirts the line? This movie is fantasy from the opening credits. Global warming is still just a theory and to think that us humans are capable of causing it is bad science from the start.
Case in point, the 1990 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo ejected more "greenhouse" gasses into the atmosphere than the human race has created since the start of the industrial revolution. This one volcano cooled the planet by half a degree for two years. How can we be causing "global warming" if a volcano capable of more than all of us together only slightly affect the earth's temperatures?
Global warming is a scare tactic to make us all guilty for having cars.
"which relays the readings to a server in the UK by mobile phone". I wonder if they have to pay roaming charges.
...can the sensors float?
"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces." --Aldo Leopold (Paraphrased)
But we could start with the BBC.
This technology might also be useful for avalanche detection. I saw a program on PBS about the Mt. Blanc glacier. 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.
Now I won't be able to enjoy the movie.
If "pro" is the opposite of "con"....
There was an episode of Nova a while back called Descent into the Ice, 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.
How is it that they can get a mobile phone signal from ontop a glacier yet I can't get a signal from my house?
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
i hate spammers,
maybe a few catalogues and mail order leaflets to rolands house might do the trick
It's all just a cover story... really the sensors are for tracking intruders that might stumble upon the Pentagon's secret Area 52 base in the Arctic Circle...
Mark my words, some poor penguin is going to get hauled off in the middle of the night for "tampering with US Government Property"...
Mechanik
Web-cam shows grass growing...
Your post is theoretically a bad troll from the start. In case it's not, bear in mind Mt. Pinatubo did nothing of the sort. It *did* eject about as much sulfur dioxide as the human race does in a decade. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain and exacerbates ozone depletion. It is *not* a greenhouse gas. Also bear in mind Pinatubo was a single event, with very different effect than humans' gradual pressure. Human behavior modifies climate all over the place, from urban heat islands to irrigation humidifying to desertification.
Global warming denial is a symptom of people's memories being limited by their lifespan.
What happens when the batteries run out?