SCIENTISTS may be one small step nearer to making an accurate estimate of meltdown date of the North Pole ice cap ? and the significant consequences of its disappearance ? with the successful trialling of the first ever portable radar, developed by West Devon-based veteran explorer and polar environmentalist, Pen Hadow. Based at Eureka Weather Station in Northern Canada, just 700 miles south of the Pole, working at temperatures of -32C in the darkness of the Arctic winter, at times surrounded by a pack of wolves, Hadow?s Vanco Arctic Survey team successfully transmitted live accurate data of the thickness of a variety of ice types using a portable radar . Last Thursday evening, the team successfully transmitted the first ?as live? video footage ever broadcast from the high Arctic. This is believed to be the first time video footage has been transmitted from north of 80 degrees. Pen Hadow said: ?Everything has fallen into place this week. Two years of hard work and planning has paid off and the equipment has stood up to tough testing in extreme conditions. ?We have been able to take readings of the ice and snow around Eureka and we are really hopeful when we use the radar next year, it will give us the accurate data that scientists all around the world need.? During the trials, the team used special drilling, or coring, equipment needed to take measurements of the density of the ice. During one drilling session, the team was surrounded by a pack of Arctic wolves. Using hi-tech telecommunications equipment, Pen was able to record his reaction to the 17 wolves at the moment they surrounded him. He said: ?They have been circling the team for the past two to three minutes. They are coming closer and closer but we are confident that they will run off if we make any threatening movements but we are on our guard and trying to continue drilling, which is not easy in these circumstances.? Current estimates of the total meltdown of the ice cap vary from 100 to just 16 years from now, making it almost impossible to plan for its catastrophic consequences. They may include unrest over previously inacessible oil and mineral reserves, accelerated global warming, the extinction of the polar bear, decimation of fish stocks, opening up of new shipping routes, and the end of the indigenous people?s way of life. Climatologists around the world including NASA are waiting for the outcome of the survey. Satellites and submarines are unable to distinguish between snow and ice layers, making accurate measurements impossible. The future of the expedition depended on the success of these trials. The Vanco Arctic Survey will start in February 2008 when Pen, who lives near Hexworthy on Dartmoor, and team members Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley, will walk to the North Pole taking 10 million readings of the thickness of the ice cap as they go. This week, the team has used the 4kg radar known as SPRITE to take accurate readings of the depth and density of the ice and snow. The team has also been trialling a pioneering data uplink system which can transmit video footage, images and radar data via six Iridium Satellite phones, developed by Perran Newman, from Chagford. Pen and the team returned to the UK on Sunday.
