Exploring Glacier Dynamics on Iceland’s Skalafellsjökull Glacier
22.10.2010 - Ice & Snow, Arctic
A team of researchers from the University of Southampton will plans to use wireless sensors to gain better insight into a phenomenon affecting glacier movement at the Skalafellsjökull Glacier in Iceland. According to the team, the natural “stick-slip” manner in which ice sheets move has been little studied to date.
The study will feature two phases during which the “stick” and “slip” phases of glacier movement will be studied independently. In their study of the “stick” phase, the team will deploy an innovative wireless multisensory probe; the study of the “slip” phase will require deploying a GPS and accelerometers on the glacier surface.
The pioneering research will use the most recent technology in wireless sensor network research to “understand a fundamental property of glacier dynamics” over a period of three years. The data gathered will be sent back to the United Kingdom before being published on the web as a resource for other researchers.
