CRYOEGG – GLACIER RESEARCH WITH KELLER PRESSURE MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY
Glaciers are the most important freshwater reservoir on Earth – around three-quarters of our freshwater reserves are stored in glacier ice across the planet. At the poles, the large ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland contain enough stored water that if they melt, they will signifi cantly raise global sea levels, causing widespread coastal fl ooding. With rapid increases in global temperatures as a result of carbon emissions, we are now losing many mountain glaciers altogether, and there is a real risk of losing very signifi cant volumes of ice from the polar regions too.
In order to more closely understand how climate change will affect both mountain glaciers and polar ice sheets, Cardiff University in Wales has developed a new piece of equipment which the team has named Cryoegg. It contains the KELLER PA-20D pressure transmitter, a reliable sensor for measuring water pressure, and initial studies have produced impressive results.
Cryoegg is intended to help improve research and gain more specifi c information about the precise course of the fl ows of liquid water within and beneath glaciers and ice sheets going forward. The results of the research are expected to suggest new ways in which we can protect our glaciers for subsequent generations.
The cryosphere and climate change
The term «cryosphere» is used by scientists refer to all sources of frozen water on a planet. Here on Earth, the cryosphere also has a very signifi cant infl uence on the climate system as ice defl ects a large amount of sunlight and heat back into space due to its high degree of refl ectivity. This effect is referred to as the «albedo effect» and is responsible for indirectly cooling our planet.
The persistently cold polar regions also form part of the global climate system – the fl ow of heat in the atmosphere and in the oceans helps drive weather and ocean circulation. For example, the waters within the Gulf Stream transport heat energy from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic to Norway, creating a mild climate in Europe.
However, greenhouse gas emissions have risen constantly since the age of industrialization began, and so, unfortunately, in turn has the base temperature of our planet. This means our glaciers and poles are melting more and more each year, which is already leading to a number of ecological and social impacts on our ecosystem. But it is not only the fl ora and fauna of our world that are under threat. We are also experiencing more frequent environmental catastrophes that are increasingly impacting our human existence. Looking further ahead, the melting of our glaciers could lead to even more signifi cant problems such as a global shortage of drinking water. Researching and protecting our glaciers and poles is therefore crucial to our current and future life on Earth.
How glaciers work
Glaciers are not just solid ice if you walk across a glacier in summer, you will often see small streams or rivers fl owing across
IET SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
WWW.ENVIROTECH-ONLINE.COM The Cryoegg
their icy surface. This is meltwater. If you were to follow one of these streams, it is very likely that at some point it would disappear into a hole and continue its journey underground. These holes are called «moulins», French for «mill», as they resemble the fast- fl owing water of a traditional watermill.
The water disappears into the moulin and fl ows within and beneath the glacier ice until it emerges at the end of the glacier – either into the valley below or into the sea. Because we cannot see beneath the glacier ice, it is very diffi cult to understand how these water fl ows behave, and how they infl uence how the glaciers fl ow. Research has shown that on mountain glaciers the water pressure builds up in the springtime, lubricating the glacier and making it fl ow faster. Later in the summer and autumn, the water
carves out channels beneath the ice, reducing the pressure and slowing the glacier down again.
Researchers are not studying these moulins solely to gain a deeper insight into the hidden channels of our mountain glaciers. More importantly, they are looking for better ways to study and understand how the large polar regions and their underground channels work in places such as Greenland.
Moulins are very dangerous. Filled with ice-cold, fast-fl owing water, they are subject to strong currents. For this reason, glaciers cannot be studied by divers. Research carried out up to this point has used «subglacial probes» to study how glaciers fl ow. Subglacial means «beneath the ice». Subglacial probes contain a variety of sensors and are specifi cally designed for glacier research.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
