The Development of a Low Power GNSS System, as Part of a Drone Assisted Environmental Sensor Network for a Glacial Environment

Abstract

We show the development of an innovative Internet of Things Real Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System, to study the short-term changes in surface velocity of two adjacent Icelandic glaciers, in order to understand the response of glaciers to climate change. We show for the first time that we are able to deploy such a system using an Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle, which allows inaccessible areas of the glacier to be studied. This system is low power, cost effective, with centimeter-level accuracy and transmits its data to the web server daily. Whilst there were variations in transmission success, overall our data indicate clear similarities in temporal velocity variations between the rovers at the individual sites, both at Breiðamerkurjökull where the rovers were only ∼200 m apart as well as Fjallsjökull where they were ∼1 km apart. This demonstrates how velocity patterns (but not magnitudes) were similar across the glacier.