POLAR scientists could soon be calling back to base by sending radio signals
through sea ice—allowing them to communicate over distances six times as
great as would be possible with signals sent through the air.
Radio communications at the Earth’s poles are often unreliable because
charged particles from the Sun are attracted to the poles’ strong magnetic
field, creating electrical disturbances in the atmosphere, such as the Northern
lights. These disturbances cause so much interference that they prevent people
employing the usual technique of bouncing radio signals off the ionosphere on
their way to a distant receiver.
“The ionosphere can become so energetic, it disrupts…
