Abstract
This chapter describes experiences with designing and deploying sensor networks in a glacial environment. In the final version of the system, the nodes were designed to be sufficiently robust for the harsh environment, to be small enough to fit into a borehole and to have a design lifespan of 4 years on a battery. The nodes were a completely custom design based on a PIC microcontroller and supporting sensors to measure and report pressure, case strain, conductivity, pitch, roll and an LED and photodiode to measure reflectivity. The nodes reported data via an RF transceiver to a basestation based on the Gumstix ARM/Linux module. Over the course of 4 years of development, the design of the system evolved and design changes were evident in nearly every element of the system, from the platform used at the base station to the design of the sensor node to the choice of radio frequencies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alley RB, Blankenship DD, Bentley CR, Rooney ST (1986) Deformation of till beneath ice stream B, West Antarctica. Nature 322:57–59
Applied Data (2009) BitsyX - PXA255. http://www.applieddata.net/products_bitsyX.asp. Accessed July 2009
BBC news (2006) Report on retreat of Briksdalsbreen glacier. BBC News, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY8AagMh_1M. Accessed Nov. 2009
Elsaify A, Padhy P, Martinez K, Zou G (2007) GWMAC – A TDMA Based MAC Protocol for a Glacial Sensor Network. In: 4th ACM PE-WASUN, October 22–26, Chania, Crete Island, Greece
Engelhardt H, Kamb B (1998) Basal sliding of Ice Stream B, West Antarctica. J Glaciology 44(147):223–230
Evans S, Smith BME (1969) A radio echo equipment for depth sounding in polar ice sheets. J Phys E 2(2):131–136
Fischer UH, Clarke GKC (2001) Review of subglacial hydro-mechanical coupling: Trapridge Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quat Int 86:29–44
Gumstix, www.gumstix.com - Accessed Nov. 2009
Hart JK, Martinez K, Ong R, Riddoch A, Rose KC, Padhy P (2006) An autonomous multi-sensor subglacial probe: design and preliminary results from Briksdalsbreen, Norway. J Glaciology 52(178):389–397
Hart JK, Rose KC, Martinez K, Ong R (2009) Subglacial clast behavior and its implication for till fabric development: new results derived from wireless subglacial probe experiments. Quat Sci Rev 28:597–607
Martinez K, Hart JK, Ong R (2004) Environmental sensor networks. IEEE Comput 37(8): 50–56
Martinez K, Basford P, Ellul J, Spanton R (2009a) Gumsense - a high power low power sensor node. In: 6th European Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks
Martinez K, Hart JK, Ong R (2009b) Deploying a Wireless Sensor Network in Iceland. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Proc. Geosensor Networks, vol. 5659, pp. 131–137
Nick FM, Vieli A, Howat IM, Joughin I (2009) Large-scale changes in Greenland outlet glacier dynamics triggered at the terminus. Nature Geoscience, 2, pp. 110–114
Murray T, Porter PR (2001) Basal conditions beneath a soft-bedded polythermal surge-type glacier: Bakaninbreen, Svalbard. Quat Int 86:103–116
Padhy P, Dash RK, Martinez K, Jennings NR (2006) A utility-based sensing and communication model for a glacial sensor network. In: 5th Int. Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Hakodate, Japan. pp. 1353–1360
Radiometrix BiM: http://www.radiometrix.co.uk/products/bim1.htm accessed Nov. 2009
Rose J, Hart JK (2009) Quaternary Glaciodynamics. Quat Sci Rev 28:577–579
Rose KC, Hart JK, Martinez K (2009) Seasonal changes in basal conditions at Briksdalsbreen, Norway: the winter–spring transition. Boreas 38:579–590
Vaughan DG, Sponge JR (2004) Risk estimation of collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Clim Change 52:65–91
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Martinez, K., Hart, J.K. (2010). Glacier Monitoring: Deploying Custom Hardware in Harsh Environments. In: Gaura, E., Allen, M., Girod, L., Brusey, J., Challen, G. (eds) Wireless Sensor Networks. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5834-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5834-1_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5833-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5834-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)