Cryologger Ice Tracking Beacon: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Platform for Tracking Icebergs and Ice Islands

Abstract

Icebergs and ice islands (large, tabular icebergs) present a significant hazard to marine vessels and infrastructure at a time when demand for access to Arctic waters is increasing. There is a growing demand for in situ iceberg tracking data to monitor their drift trajectories and improve models used for operational forecasting of ice hazards, yet the high cost of commercial tracking devices often prevents monitoring at optimal spatial and temporal resolutions. Here, we provide a detailed description of the Cryologger Ice Tracking Beacon (ITB), a low-cost, robust, and user-friendly data logger and telemeter for tracking icebergs and ice islands based on the Arduino open-source electronics platform. Designed for deployments of at least 2 years with an hourly sampling interval that is remotely modifiable by the end user, the Cryologger ITB provides long-term measurements of position, temperature, pressure, pitch, roll, heading, and battery voltage. Data are transmitted via the Iridium satellite network at user-specified intervals. We present the results of field campaigns in 2018 and 2019, which saw the deployment of 16 ITBs along the coasts of Greenland and Ellesmere and Baffin islands. The overall success of these ITB deployments has demonstrated that inexpensive, open-source hardware and software can provide a reliable and cost-effective method of monitoring icebergs and ice islands in the polar regions.

Sea Ice‐Driven Iceberg Drift in Baffin Bay

“…We have selected three tabular icebergs whose hourly position were tracked with a Cryologger Ice Tracking Beacon (ITB, Garbo & Mueller, 2024). The Cryologger ITB is a low-cost Arduino-based data logging and telemetry platform that uses a Global Navigation Satellite Systems receiver to position itself (Garbo & Mueller, 2024). The IDs we use to identify them (Table 2) are the last 4 digits of their official tags.…”

“…Given that most observations of icebergs getting locked in sea ice have been made in the Southern Ocean, we investigate if the same mechanism occurs in Baffin Bay. We used hourly positions from three tabular icebergs (identified as 5110, 5310, and 1950) obtained with Cryologger ITBs (Garbo & Mueller, 2024), and compared their daily averaged velocities to daily sea ice velocities obtained from the Polar Pathfinder data set (see Sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.3 for more details). Those velocities were put into context with SIC data derived from AMSR-E and AMSR2.…”

“…We have carried out two NEMO simulations: a control run (CTL) where F → si is parameterized as a drag force (Marsh et al, 2015), and a "sea ice locking" (SIL) run where F → si takes one of the three forms described above, based on Lichey and Hellmer (2001) and Rackow et al (2017). Their outputs, combined with observations of icebergs through satellite imagery (Crawford et al, 2018) and tracking beacons (Garbo & Mueller, 2024), are used to answer the following questions:…”