By Nick Heath, 16 March 2009 16:02
This yellow box is the Sprite radar system, which stands for Surface Penetrating Radar for Ice Thickness Establishment.
The system will take millions of measurements of the thickness of the remaining Arctic ice, assessing its density and the depth of the overlying snow.
This data, combined with weather and sea temperature readings, will give vital evidence of how fast global warming is melting the Arctic ice - providing insights into the speed of climate change, the rate that sea levels are rising and the future of Arctic wildlife.
Photo credit: Copyright Martin Hartley www.martinhartley.com
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1. Ellen O
The article slips in a typical global warming trope - "to map the retreating Arctic ice sheet".
Trouble is the Arctic ice sheet has grown this last year not shrunk as the article states.
Assuming the rest of the article was as inaccurate as the first few lines I did not read further.......