Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc.

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Studies

The accelerated melting of glaciers and ice sheets around the Earth has been gaining ever increasing attention from scientists. Decades of study on the frozen Greenland ice sheet has shown record changes. Recently reported in the June 2007 edition of National Geographic, scientists now studying the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland found its melt rate has doubled in the past decade with the resulting ice stream moving nearly 120 feet per day. In an August 2007 article in Popular Science, Glaciologist, Dr. Konrad Steffen, explained dynamic response,: "What happens is that the melting accelerates as meltwater funnels down to the bedrock. At the bottom, the water acts as a lubricant, flowing under the outlet glaciers and allowing the ice to slip into the sea more quickly." According to NASA satellite measurements the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting at a rate of 57.3 cubic miles per year.

The impact of the dynamic response processes need to be better understood. Studies of the supra-glacial meltpools and their drainage system on the Greenland ice sheet are an important part of the dynamic response processes. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being evaluated for use in the study of the meltpools and their application to polar research. Currently there are no practical methods of measuring the depths of the meltpools and scientists lack accurate values on the amount of meltwater involved in the dynamic response processes which are accelerating the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Sensors, such as a hyperspectral imager, flown autonomously are a potential solution to measuring the depth of the remote meltpools. Integrating the sensor on board a UAV will provide scientists with a safe and automated way of measuring the volume of pooled water on glacier surfaces. The use of low cost, simple to operate UAVs, that have a small footprint for flight operations in this challenging terrain is a promising tool for polar field work. Small UAVs, such as the Silver Fox and Manta can be launched and recovered from remote field camps allowing safe and autonomous access to numerous areas in Greenland.

Advanced Ceramics Research (ACR) supported recent field efforts in Greenland by Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) investigators in evaluating the potential of UAVs and their sensor capabilities in support of arctic research. ACR's own Earth Scientist, Dr. Lois Wardell, was part of the flight team for the August expedition to Greenland. The slides below provide a glimpse of some the activities in support of the expedition using UAVs that were flown autonomously capturing data and images over several days.

ACR Flight team readies a Manta UAV for flight operations test in preparation of the Greenland expedition.

The weather office in Kangerlassuaq provided the ACR flight team with meteorological data to support flight planning.

An ACR Autonomous Vehicle Operator sends an auto landing command to the Silver Fox UAV as the weather moves in.

A Greenland flat sandy area near the glaciers was used for launch/recovery site for Silver Fox UAV flight operations.

At the edge of the ice sheet are the expedition team of (from l to r) Casey Smith, Resonon; John Adler, CIRES; Rafael Gaytan, ACR Autonomous Vehicle Operator; Mark Angier, ACR President; Dr Lois Wardell, ACR Scientist/Autonomous Vehicle Operator.

Autonomous launch of the Silver Fox-E UAV with its optical payload for imagery reconnaissance mission.

High resolution image of a glacier taken by ACR’s Silver Fox-E UAV

The Silver Fox-E UAV with micro-synthetic aperture radar antennas mounted being readied for flight operations in a Greenland fjord.

Aerial view taken from the Silver Fox-E UAV showing the edge of a massive ice sheet.

Aerial view of a glacier valley taken from Silver Fox–E UAV. The glacier toe in visible in the upper left.

An ACR autonomous vehicle operator prepares the Silver Fox-E UAV for autonomous take-off from its launcher.

The red boxes outline authorized flight operation areas and green circles are information by the autonomous vehicle operator for hands free landing at 4000 feet mean sea level.

ACR’s Manta UAV ready for its first Greenland mission.

An autonomous launch of a Silver Fox-E UAV in-flight to capture images of the glaciers under a CIRES and NOAA study project.

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Greenland Expedition

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