FD115 Draw Wire Sensor in ice ablation tracker

Tracker with draw wire sensors measures ice ablation of the Sermilik glacier in Greenland
The company Greenland Guidance installed an ice ablation tracker, the DWIAT (draw wire ice ablation tracker), at the location where in 2010 the largest annual melt ever on the Greenland ice sheet was measured. The Sermilik glacier is located in the southern tip of the ice sheet, where temperatures are relatively high in summer and where the ice surface is incredibly dark and absorbs much of the sunlight. Recently, four more DWIATs have been installed on the Russell glacier on the west side of the ice cap.

The special ice ablation trackers use a draw sensor from Althen Sensors & Controls. To measure the ice ablation, deep holes are drilled and the tensile wire is fixed. The units can follow up to 14 m ablation until the wire has to be drilled again. The DWIATs work on solar energy and also follow the ice movement using GNSS positioning. Measurement data is stored locally in the data logger and also sent to the Greenland Guidance data portal.