Networks of Sensors in Extreme Environments: High-Resolution Glacier Dynamic Monitoring

极端环境下的传感器网络：高分辨率冰川动态监测

• 批准号: NE/I007148/1
• 负责人: Tavi Murray
• 金额: $ 112.3万
• 依托单位: Swansea University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FI007148%2F1
• 关键词: Networks; Sensors; Extreme; Environments; Resolution

Our work brings together two important areas of science and engineering: wireless communications technology and glaciology. Using innovative techniques currently being developed for wireless communications to install a network of sensors, we will increase our understanding of how the world's large ice sheets will respond to climate change, while the knowledge gained by experimenting with wireless networks in an extreme environment will be of benefit to engineers developing the next generation of wireless networks such as mobile phone networks. Around the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet are outlet glaciers, which allow ice to flow from the centre of the ice sheet into the sea. Where the ice meets the sea, icebergs are formed, and about half of the ice which leaves the ice sheet does so in this way. These glaciers are thought to be very sensitive to changes in air and ocean temperatures, but we do not yet know enough about them to be able to predict future changes, or understand those already observed. The processes leading to iceberg formation ('calving') are particularly important, but poorly understood. In particular, there is an urgent need to address the question of how changes in glacier flow ('dynamics') relate to changes in terminus position and calving rates. Does one drive the other, or is it more complex than that? To understand this, we need to know what the primary mechanisms are for calving in Greenland outlet glaciers, and we need characterise these mechanisms in a consistent, quantitative way across all such glaciers. Only then can the relevant processes be represented in computer models of the ice sheet and its outlet glaciers, allowing us to improve our predictions of how they will respond to climate change. To improve our understanding, it is vital to have detailed observations of iceberg calving events, but these are hard to obtain because of the difficulty of placing and maintaining instrumentation on the heavily-crevassed ice surface. To overcome the problem of getting the right observations, a network of expendable GPS receivers will be deployed on Helheim Glacier, an important calving glacier in south-east Greenland. Using special data processing techniques, GPS can be used to make measurements which are accurate to a few centimetres. The GPS receivers will be connected to each other and to a base station via a network of expendable, low-power wireless transceivers. The design of the network will mean that data can still be collected if parts of it are lost: it will be self-healing. The innovative nature of the network and its components make it economically and logistically possible to deploy a large number of sensors by helicopter in the calving region of the glacier. During the lifetime of the project, we expect to observe several calving events in detail. The data from the GPS receivers will be combined with other data sources, from aircraft, satellites and stereo photography, to obtain an unprecedented insight into iceberg formation. The data will be combined with computer models of ice flow, enabling various theories about iceberg formation to be explored and tested. This part of the project has the potential to deliver new science well beyond the end of the funded work.

我们的工作汇集了科学和工程的两个重要领域：无线通信技术和冰川学。使用目前正在开发的无线通信创新技术来安装传感器网络，我们将增加对世界大冰原如何应对气候变化的理解，而在极端环境中进行无线网络试验所获得的知识将有利于开发下一代无线网络（如移动的电话网络）的工程师。格陵兰冰盖的边缘是出口冰川，它允许冰从冰盖的中心流入大海。在冰与海相遇的地方，冰山形成了，大约一半的冰以这种方式离开冰盖。这些冰川被认为对空气和海洋温度的变化非常敏感，但我们对它们的了解还不足以预测未来的变化，或者理解已经观察到的变化。导致冰山形成的过程（“冰解”）特别重要，但人们对此知之甚少。特别是，迫切需要解决冰川流动（“动态”）的变化如何与终点位置和崩解率的变化相关的问题。是一个驱动另一个，还是比这更复杂？为了理解这一点，我们需要知道格陵兰出口冰川产犊的主要机制是什么，我们需要在所有此类冰川中以一致的、定量的方式研究这些机制。只有这样，相关的过程才能在冰盖及其出口冰川的计算机模型中表现出来，使我们能够更好地预测它们将如何应对气候变化。为了提高我们的理解，对冰山崩解事件进行详细的观察至关重要，但由于在严重裂缝的冰面上放置和维护仪器的困难，这些观测很难获得。为了克服获得正确观测的问题，将在格陵兰东南部的一个重要的冰解冰川赫尔海姆冰川上部署一个一次性全球定位系统接收器网络。利用特殊的数据处理技术，全球定位系统可用来进行精确到几厘米的测量。全球定位系统接收器将相互连接，并通过一个一次性低功率无线收发器网络连接到一个基站。网络的设计将意味着，即使数据的一部分丢失了，它仍然可以被收集：它将自我修复。该网络及其组件的创新性质使其在经济上和后勤上可以通过直升机在冰川的崩解区域部署大量传感器。在项目的生命周期中，我们希望详细观察几次产犊事件。来自全球定位系统接收器的数据将与来自飞机、卫星和立体摄影的其他数据源相结合，以获得对冰山形成的前所未有的洞察力。这些数据将与冰流的计算机模型相结合，使有关冰山形成的各种理论得以探索和测试。该项目的这一部分有可能在资助工作结束后提供新的科学。

项目成果

Glacier dynamics over the last quarter of a century at Helheim, Kangerdlugssuaq and 14 other major Greenland outlet glaciers

Helheim、Kangerdlugssuaq 和其他 14 个主要格陵兰出口冰川过去 25 年的冰川动态

• DOI: 10.5194/tcd-6-1637-2012
• 发表时间: 2012
• 作者: Bevan S

The deglaciation of coastal areas of southeast Greenland

格陵兰岛东南部沿海地区的冰川消融

• DOI: 10.1177/0959683618777067
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: The Holocene
• 作者: Dyke L

Stable dynamics in a Greenland tidewater glacier over 26 years despite reported thinning

尽管有报道称格陵兰岛潮水冰川变薄，但 26 年来其动态保持稳定

• DOI: 10.3189/2102aog60a076
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: Annals of Glaciology
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Bevan S

Minimal Holocene retreat of large tidewater glaciers in Køge Bugt, southeast Greenland.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12018-x
• 发表时间: 2017-09-26
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Dyke LM;Andresen CS;Seidenkrantz MS;Hughes ALC;Hiemstra JF;Murray T;Bjørk AA;Sutherland DA;Vermassen F
• 通讯作者: Vermassen F

Holocene history of the Helheim Glacier, southeast Greenland

格陵兰东南部赫尔海姆冰川的全新世历史

• DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.06.018
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Quaternary Science Reviews
• 影响因子: 4
• 作者: Bjørk A