Scientist Nick Frearson at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., works Jan. 22 on the
IcePod. / Tania Savayan, The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News
PALISADES, N.Y. - The best view of the ice sheet covering
Greenland won't come from inside a military plane but from a
fiberglass capsule filled with $2 million in instruments hanging
out of the plane's rear door. The IcePod, which scientists at
Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory here have
invented, is an eye in the sky for researchers focused on the
world's glaciers and ice sheets. Scientists assessing the
planet's health in the face of climate change will be able to
pursue secrets on top of, inside and beneath the massive ice
formations, some of which are shrinking. The pod is part of the
work Lamont-Doherty scientists are tackling at both ends of the
world. The 8-foot-long capsule is a means to get information
faster, more often and in finer detail than what satellites
orbiting the Earth can provide. Mone