e-Science from the Antarctic to the GRID

Monitoring life-processes in a frozen lake in the Antarctic raises many practical challenges. To supplement manual monitoring we have designed, built and successfully deployed a remote monitoring device on one of the lakes of interest. This returns data to the Antarctic base over the Iridium satellite phone network. This provides us with a new and uniquely detailed view of the lifeprocesses in that environment, and is allowing us to understand that environment in new ways, for example exploring diurnal effects, and detailed energy flow models. We have integrated this sensing device into a common Grid-based software infrastructure; this makes the device and its sensors visible on the Grid as services, and also maintains an archive of sensor measurements. A desktop user interface allows non-programmers to work with this data in a flexible way. The experience of creating and deploying this device has given us a rich view of the many elements and processes that must be brought together to make possible this kind of e-Science.