By Gemma Simpson, 17 October 2007 15:05
Attached to the sledge is a smaller, yellow vessel which measures the ice and snow thickness and is called the Sprite - or surface penetrating radar for ice thickness establishment.
The Sprite will collect the raw radar data - which is expected to comprise some 10 million readings in total - using an ice-penetrating impulse radar.
This raw data is then processed by Sprite's on-board computer before being sent to the central sledge computer and compressed so it can be sent back to the UK headquarters via a satelite system.
The team will also be able to transmit video, web cam and still image footage from the expedition.
Pictured are the expedition team and Lady Herbert at the naming of the survey vessel with the customary champagne dowsing.
The survey vessel is named after Lady Herbert - the widow of Sir Wally Herbert who trekked across the North Pole on a dog-sledding expedition in the late 1960s and collected similar data on ice thickness.
Hadow said Herbert's 40-year-old data-set will give the team a comparison of how the ice thickness has altered.
Photo credit: Gemma Simpson
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