A team of scientists and engineers will head to Greenland next month to test fly drones in the Arctic, in the hope of pioneering a new low-cost surveillance system that will transform monitoring of ice sheets.
Currently most data on the state of the Greenland ice sheet comes from satellite monitoring and crewed flights. Drones could provide a cheaper, more accurate solution, say researchers, unlocking near real-time monitoring of the rapidly melting feature.
The ultimate vision is to operate a fleet of autonomous drones across Greenland to map changes in its ice sheet, says at UK drone manufacturer Marble. 鈥淓very 12 hours, you get a new map of the whole of Greenland at high resolution.鈥�
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Accurately assessing how fast the ice is melting there is a critical question for climate scientists. If the entire sheet went, it would increase global sea levels by more than 7 metres, but that process is expected to take hundreds of years, possibly thousands.
Researchers are instead focused on trying to establish how much its decline could raise sea levels by the end of the century. Upper estimates suggest a 1-metre rise on this timescale due to Greenland ice melt, but the modelling is highly uncertain.
Better surveillance of changes in the ice sheet 鈥� specifically of the behaviour of outlet glaciers such as Sermeq Kujalleq on the west coast 鈥� will help us pin down the expected rise this century.
Working with researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway, Marble plans to take its high-speed drones to Greenland next month to test their performance in Arctic conditions. The craft will use cameras, radar and lidar sensors to track the retreat of Sermeq Kujalleq, which is a major drainage point for the Greenland sheet.
鈥淲e are observing it today with satellites, but the data is not sufficient,鈥� says at the University of Bergen. Computer models have revealed a critical threshold for ice thickness in the area that, once reached, will lead to rapid retreat, but accurately gauging ice thickness requires better data. 鈥淣ow we鈥檒l be able to continuously monitor this.鈥�
The two-year project is backed by 拢2 million (ARIA). The aim is to cut the cost of drone surveillance by a factor of 1000 using fleets of fast, small craft deployed from robotic hangars. This would eliminate the cost of stationing people in the Arctic permanently to maintain the drones, says Johnsson.
But first Marble has to assess how well its drones, which are currently used to conduct maritime surveillance, perform in the Arctic鈥檚 extreme conditions. 鈥淭he main way we are going to do it is by going there and seeing what ends up breaking,鈥� says Johnsson. 鈥淵ou do that enough times, until it becomes reliable.鈥�
