Communicating from under the Greenland Ice Sheet
From 2010-2012 I worked on the cryo-egg project at Bristol University. The aim of the project was to get data back from wireless sensors deployed under the Greenland ice sheet. We designed and built a sensor package - the cryo-egg - which recorded pressure, temperature, and electrical conductivity, and transmitted this via a 500mW RF transmitter at 150MHz. Initial testing in Greenland in summer 2012 suggests that the range of this device, with a relatively simple handheld receiver, is around 700m through warm, wet ice. Colder ice, and a more sophisticated receiver apparatus, would improve this range. A full explanation of the technology is in review.
Alongside the main focus of radio transmission through glacial ice, I worked on the possibility of using acoustic and ultrasonic techniques for communication through ice (Lishman et al., 2013). I also worked on the e-tracers project (Bagshaw et al., 2012), developing low-cost sensors which can be widely distributed with the expectation of a low recovery rate.
See photos from the fieldwork: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.