Arctic-hardened mobile observatory set to redefine polar research
Scientists are set to build a pioneering polar observatory this year, which will deliver critical insights into the impacts of climate change in some of the most remote and under-sampled regions of the Arctic.
Breaking barriers in Arctic science
A state of the art automated and mobile observatory – that will bridge critical air-ice observational gaps and lay the groundwork for an early warning system for ice sheet melt – is the brainchild of a team at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), University of Colorado Boulder, Menapia Ltd, and Polar Field Services.
As climate change accelerates, the need for innovative and adaptive scientific solutions has never been greater. We’re at the forefront of this effort, creating an observatory “in a box” that’ll equip researchers with the tools necessary to identify critical tipping points in Greenland’s ice loss trajectory.
Dr Ryan Neely, Associate Professor of Observational Atmospheric Science at NCAS and the University of Leeds
Until now, researchers have had to overcome logistical challenges, extreme weather, and a reliance on low powered and basic weather stations which often lack the means to make all the precise atmospheric and ice measurements they require – or extremely resource intensive manned research stations.
By leveraging advancements in renewable energy, remote-sensing and in-situ instruments, automated aerial robotics, satellite communications, and machine learning, a brand new Arctic-hardened and self-sustaining modular observatory will be designed and built in 2025.
Dr Michael Gallagher, researcher with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder explains how the new observatory “in a box” will bring bigger impacts from a modest setup: “We are shooting for the data quality and quantity of a large research station, but with a fraction of the footprint and resource requirements, and the deployability akin to that of a much smaller weather station.”
Focusing on the atmosphere-ice interface, the new observatory will be optimised to continuously collect high-resolution data in even the most challenging cold environments – redefining how scientists observe and understand the climate tipping points of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Understanding a rapidly changing environment
In the Arctic, we are witnessing an alarming rate of ice sheet melt across Greenland. In 2012, an unprecedented melt event saw the highest recorded ice loss in Greenland’s history, with subsequent years experiencing an increasing frequency of extreme melting episodes, including the first-ever documented rainfall at Summit Station in 2021.
These events underscore the urgency of understanding the processes driving these changes, and the implications for global sea levels and climate stability.
Ice loss from Greenland is the single-largest contributor to global sea level rise, followed by ocean thermal expansion. Freshwater influx from the melting ice sheet also has the potential to disrupt ocean currents and marine ecosystems, influencing climate patterns on a global scale.
To better predict and mitigate the impacts of ice loss, we are developing a way to get a deeper understanding of the physical processes governing the exchange of energy and mass between the Greenland Ice Sheet and the atmosphere.
Dr Sarah Barr, NCAS meteorology researcher at the University of Manchester and Leeds.
Testing the limits – from Iceland to Greenland
Before full-scale deployment in Greenland, the team will conduct operational trials of the mobile and modular observatory in Iceland. Testing the performance of the Arctic-hardened automated drones and the miniaturised ground-based instruments will be the priority, making sure the system is refined and resilient for even harsher environments.
The long-term plan will be to establish a new benchmark for automated polar research, deploy the observatory across previously inaccessible regions of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and deliver vital insights that will shape global climate strategies for years to come.
Dr Heather Guy, Research Fellow in Polar Observational Meteorology at NCAS and the University of Leeds.
Heather goes on to describe the observatory’s capabilities: “We’ll be measuring meteorological conditions, such as temperature near the ice surface, humidity, winds, turbulence, precipitation, pressure, and solar radiation. We’ll be collecting cloud information too.”
Sarah adds: “Our specially-developed optical sensor, fitted to an icephobic-coated and insulated drone, will also allow us to observe the properties of climate-important clouds up to 4km above the ice sheet.”
“We’ll also have a range of visual photogrammetry and infrared camera technology, which will survey accumulated snow, ice surface roughness, ice sheet velocity, ice sheet surface melting, air to ice heat transfer, and keep a check on the general conditions and health of the instruments,” explains Heather.
Further information
The NCAS-led team has been funded, subject to final contract negotiation, to develop this new observatory by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency, better known as ARIA, which is sponsored by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology.
Co-led by Programme Directors Gemma Bale and Sarah Bohndiek, ARIA’s Forecasting Tipping Points programme looks to create an early warning system capable of equipping us with the information, understanding and time we need to accelerate proactive climate adaptation and mitigation.
Backed by £81m over five years, the programme will unite 27 international teams in a collaborative effort to detect the earliest signs of climate tipping points.
For more information on NCAS’s new Arctic observatory and its latest developments as part of the GAMB2LE project, please contact comms@ncas.ac.uk. For ARIA media enquiries, message press@aria.org.uk.