Three person 'Vanco Artic survey' to test polar ice caps
Where satellites and submarines have failed, Pen Hadlow and his intrepid team hope to succeed. Hadlow was the first man ever to trek to the North Pole alone, and now he's making the same journey again, albeit this time with a very serious purpose in mind.
Scientists have had problems using satellites and submarines to make accurate assessments of how thick the Artic ice is, due to the fact that neither is able to differentiate between the ice and the snow which lies on top of it. Learning how thick the ice is is imperative if we are to discover exactly how long it is before the ice cap disappears completely. This is where Hadlow and co. come in. They plan to set off on a trip to the Arctic next February, with the express purpose of maintaining the precise thickness of the polar ice cap.
Despite its size in relation to the rest of the world (it covers only three percent of it),
the future of the polar ice cap is extremely important. Its disappearance would rapidly accelerate climate change and cause sea levels to rise drastically.
Related: Heatwave sees record temperatures hit the Arctic | Arctic ice will be gone by 2030 say scientists | An early spring in the Arctic: global warming threatens
