Query about ice thickness loggers

[Lisa Doner]

Has anyone had any experience finding or developing tools to measure ice thickness remotely? We do over-winter monitoring of lakes but safety concerns drive us off the lakes during critical seasons of change, as ice is forming but may not be thick enough to support our weight, and as ice is melting (usually from underneath).

I'm wondering if a pressure sensor, or maybe in situ temperature probe would work.

Lisa Doner
lad...@plymouth.edu

[Dan Beavers]

I do not live in a climate where this is an issue but perhaps my idea
can help.

Construct a floating device that has a measuring device consisting of a
horizontal oriented probe that contacts the underside of the ice when
pulled up by a motor with a measuring module attached to it. The way it
would operate is to deploy it with the probe extended past the maximum
expected ice thickness. To take a measurement the rod attached to the
probe is heated to free it from any ice and it is then retracted until
it reaches a stopping point on the underside of the ice. The thickness
can thus be determined. Subsequently the probe is extended and the
heater turned off until the next measurement.
Of course this is a concept and I have not determined how to make it
robust or how to deal with fouling or unknown problems.

Dan

[Lisa Doner]

I like it! Clever.

> --
> Post to this group at plots-wat...@googlegroups.com
>
> Public Lab mailing lists (http://publiclab.org/lists) are great for discussion, but to get attribution, open source your work, and make it easy for others to find and cite your contributions, please publish your work at http://publiclab.org
> --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "plots-waterquality" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to plots-waterqual...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.