Sensors are playing a critical role in research mapping Greeland’s perilous ice sheets, by tracking current flow and using GPS and IMU sensors to monitor ice position and movement. Radar and strain sensors will play a part as well.
A fleet of drones, subs and satellites equipped with these and other sensors are being deployed this summer with $26 million in funding by the British government’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency to gather data to be fed into new climate models in hopes of forecasting when ice melt will hit a tipping point. That tipping point is described as when ocean currents that naturally regulate global climate will enter what scientists describe as a shutdown.
The project is named GIANT for Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points from ice loss.
“With autonomous vehicles, advanced sensors and powerful modeling boosted by AI, we can explore glacier-ocean interactions in ways that were unimaginable a few years ago,” said Kelly Hogan, marine geophysicist and lead creator on GIANT, in a statement. The uncrewed drones and subs are making possible what was not possible in recent years.
“If we want to understand how glaciers melt and fracture, we need to be where the action happens, where the ice meets the ocean. The latest generation of robotic sensors are needed to work in this hazardous environment, which is otherwise impossible to access,” said Pierre Dutrieux, an oceanographer and GIANT co-creator.
The AI-enhanced early warning system is designed to give global policymakers data needed to possibly limit ice loss.
The expedition this summer is focused on the vertical glacier faces near Kangerlussuaq Glacier, while another expedition in 2027 is planned to Petermann Glacier’s floating ice shelf.
Here’s a breakdown of many of the types of sensors involved in the research. Temperature sensors will measure ocean heat driving glacier melt; salinity and conductivity sensors will track freshwater released by melting ice from glaciers; current and flow sensors will monitor circulation in fiords;, ice-penetrating radar will provide images of glacier thickness and bedrock; position and motion sensors, both GPS and IMU, will track glacier and vehicle movement; embedded strain/deformation sensors will detect cracking and structural weakening; satellite optical and radar sensors will monitor glacier change at a regional scale; acoustic monitoring will detect sounds of glacier calving and more.
Ice-penetrating radar, also known as ground-penetrating radar for ice, transmits radio waves into ice and analyzing the bounce back from below the surface. Unlike sonar, it uses radio waves instead of sound.
Drones will monitor ice from above, while embedded robotic sensors track melting below the surface. The robots were given some fanciful names to map the underwater face of the glaciers: DriX, Gavia and Autosub Long-Range, also known as Boaty McBoatface. Here’s how GIANT illustrates some of the robots:
