Essentially SPRITE comprises a portable, ice-penetrating impulse radar. At just 4kg in weight it is lighter than previous systems that traditionally have been attached to aircraft.

SPRITE will be mounted behind the survey’s sledge-boat effectively converting the traditional sledge into a small survey vessel, as part of a high-profile, high-resolution surface survey of the ice.

High-resolution cross-profiles of the snow and ice will be gathered every 10cm along the 1,000-km survey route. The raw data will then be processed by SPRITE’s own computer, before being transferred across to the central on-board sledge computer for compression, and then up-linked, via the Iridium satellites back to the survey’s UK Headquarters.

It will then be re-formatted and distributed to our Science Partners.

By differentiating between snow and ice layers the radar can provide data on the thickness of the sea ice. From here, scientists are then in a position to model with greater accuracy when the Arctic Ocean will first be ice-free in summer.