Wired Probe for Measuring the Temperature Profile on Icecaps

In recent years, the author has developed a new thermal probe system which promises to reach depths of a more than 3 km. Heating is provided electrically from above via a pair of copper wires insulated from each other. However, these wires are not delivered from above downward but initially they are wound within the probe and unwind from here outward. Soon after its exit from the probe, the wire pair freezes into the ice. This provides additional electrical institutions. The copper wires are flexible enough so that they do not become broken from the steady deformation of the ice. The probe is cylindrical about 10 cm in diameter and 2 m in length. The heating unit is located on the very bottom; above that is the chamber containing the measuring instruments (thermistors, geophone, manometer, inclinometer and so forth): both wire reels are mounted above this; they take up the most space. The heating current flowing through the wire reels develops resistive heat in them. This is proportioned in such a way that the side walls of the probe can not become frozen in. For measuring the ice temperature at the desired depth, electric heating is cut off, after which the probe freezes in. Accordingly, the disturbed temperature approximates a hyperbolic function of the original ice temperature, which it in effect attains after a few days. Switching from the thermistores to temperature measurement and from the other measuring instruments occurs though a relay.