Ice Borehole Camera

Tests in Iceland 1999

This camera was designed as a first cheap prototype. It uses a small unit which includes its own six IR leds for illumination on its motherboard. The vessel was made using a stainless steel internal case (adapted from a cocoa shaker!), a rubber-ring seal to a thick perspex window, held together with an exterior plastic case bolted tight. A coax cable was used to lower it and feed video back to a laptop equipped with a video capture PCMCIA card. Six reflections appear in the image due to the lights being on the inside of the window.

This photo shows the truely gruesome nature of doing electronics on glaciers. The possibility of treading on cables with crampons is ever present. The borehole is visible on the bottom right corner as its water overflow makes a clean channel.

Videos: Test during construction first test in glacier

Carried out in collaboration with Dr J.Hart, Geography dept. during a field trip to Langajokull