Tools & Technology
Since camping on a glacier is expensive and would be very difficult in the winter, researchers have been studying the Greenland Ice Sheet using a variety of long-term data stations, which measure the environment over time. The research team placed instruments on the ice sheet in 2006. When they returned in 2007, they collected the data from the instruments and set them out to record another year’s worth of data. This year (2008) they will collect the data again. In this way, the researchers can determine how the glacial lakes behave over a number of years—automatically, without actually having to be there.
