An ice stress beacon is a compact, expendable unit consisting of a battery pack/ARGOS transmitter module connected by cable to a sensor probe module. Three temperature compensated, low-cost, differential pressure transducers, connected to two sets of three plastic diaphragms, set at 120° to one another, are combined into a single machined aluminum unit. One set of diaphragms is exposed to the ice pressure while the other set, mounted inside the rigid enclosure of the probe, is protected from the pressure of the ice. The three measured pressures can be used to calculate major and minor principal ice stresses along with their orientation. The unit, along with a separate battery pack, is installed in two 10 cm diameter holes in the ice. Although the beacon has provided the designed-for pressure field at the centre of the floe, the actual pressure between the floes is required by the marine transportation industry. To infer the floe edge pressure, one requires floe geometry which is not available duet o continuous pack ice deformation.
Prinsenberg, S. J., G. A. Fowler, A. van der Baaren, and B. Beanlands. 1997. "Ice stress measurements from land-fast ice along Canada's Labrador Coast"
Prinsenberg, S. J., A. van der Baaren, G. A. Fowler, and I. K. Peterson. 1997. "Pack Ice Stress and Convergence Measurements by Satellite-Tracked Ice Beacons"
