For many scientific studies, the best way to collect data in the polar oceans is to build a camp on the pack ice. The camp can be set up by aircraft or from an icebreaker. Pack ice moves slowly (a few km per day) in response to ocean currents and winds. In many places the ice motion is somewhat predictable, and so a camp can be set up and be expected to drift across the area where data need to be collected. ESR scientists have been involved in several ice camp experiments, in collaboration with other institutions. These experiments include: the Arctic Internal Wave Experiment (AIWEX: Beaufort Sea, 1985); the Coordinated Eastern Arctic Experiment (CEAREX: north of Svalbard, 1989); the Arctic Leads Experiment (LEADEX: Beaufort Sea, 1992); the joint US/Russian Ice Station Weddell 1 (ISW: Weddell Sea, Antarctica, 1992); the Antarctic Flux Experiment (ANZFLUX: eastern Weddell Sea, Antarctica, 1994); and Resolute-95 (RES-95: Barrow Strait, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, 1995).

When an ice camp is established, holes are cut through the ice so that oceanographic instruments can be lowered into the water.