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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."
I think it would be interesting if they could put these on Mars sometime in the future.
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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?
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?