Tens of thousands of scientists are zipping up their parkas for the latest International Polar Year initiative. The research endeavor, the third of its kind since 1882, is sending teams from 63 countries to the Antarctic and the Arctic in an unprecedented, billion-dollar exhibition of cold-weather geekery. The poles will be crawling with underwater gliders, robot observatories, and a laser-firing lidar (think '80s-era Pink Floyd shows). Here are a few of our favorite ice capades.
Wais Divide
In November, chief scientist Kendrick Taylor and a 50-member crew will use a 47-foot, $9 million drill tipped with four razor-sharp chisels to begin punching holes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, eventually boring down 11,614 feet. "This is the cleanest ice on the planet," Taylor says. The cores he removes could contain the most accurate record yet of Earth's temperature and CO2 concentrations over the past 100,000 or so years.
Larissa
The Southern Ice Cap has been shedding pounds like Amy Winehouse, and it's happening fastest on the Antarctic Peninsula. In fact, between January 31 and March 7, 2002, most of the Larsen B ice shelf disappeared. Teams from six countries will deploy glacier-measuring robots along the shelf, as well as an autonomous underwater vehicle to observe changes in ocean sediment and new life forms in waters once covered by ice.
Princess Elisabeth Research Station
Polar bases are usually powered by pollution- belching diesel generators. But in 2007, Belgium's International Polar Foundation built a sleek octagonal pod with solar panels and eight wind turbines that produce heat and electricity. (Bonus: Bioreactors recycle the wastewater.) The 4,921-square-foot station — transported to Antarctica in 106 containers on an ice-class cargo ship — will host its first scientists in November.
IASOA
The logistics of studying the Arctic atmosphere are a nightmare, so scientists from 10 observatories are coming together to share notes and instruments in an effort called the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere. Among the gadgets are ceilometers, to measure cloud height, and a lidar, which uses a laser to gauge aerosols and cloud particles. The goal: to create a panoramic snapshot of the environmental system, from sea to freezing sea.
Arctic Survey
Ice-thickness readings taken by submarines and satellites are not exactly exact, so British explorer Pen Hadow is going to do it on foot. Starting in February 2009, his team will trek 1,242 miles from Point Barrow, Alaska, to the North Pole. They'll be dragging a sledge decked out with a computer, a satellite uplink, and the "Sprite" — an impulse radar that takes readings every 3.9 inches. The measurements will help predict the date of the ice cap's final demise.
Damocles
The Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-Term Environmental Studies project is unleashing an armada of high tech vessels throughout the northern polar region. Researchers aboard the 155-foot Håkon Mosby, for example, are probing the waters of Fram Strait with acoustic waves to capture hyperprecise measurements of water temperature — data that will be fed into computer models for better climate forecasts.
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