Charles meets Catlin Arctic Survey team

The Prince of Wales has been shown equipment to be used by a group of explorers who are setting off this month on a scientific trek to the North Pole.

He also continued a royal tradition by presenting them with a pennant for their expedition.

Suitably, there was a little snow lingering in the heart of London for the event, which followed a reception Charles hosted for the adventurers at Clarence House.

The team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, will gather data to give scientists a better idea of just how long the ice cap will survive.

The group will travel 746 miles towards the Pole, dragging a radar unit which will take measurements every four inches of the thickness of the ice and snow.

The explorers hope the new data, which differentiates between the snow and ice, will give a better idea than measurements taken from satellites and submarines of exactly how thick the ice is, and enable scientists to project how long it has left.

There are wildly differing estimates of how long it will be before the permanent ice cover is lost from the Arctic - ranging from just a few years away to beyond the end of the century.

The Prince presented the pennant to Mr Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley.

Mr Hadow said afterwards: "Nearly all the data we have about the state of the sea ice is from satellites, observing remotely. Submarines are looking from underneath, up through the ice, but they are all estimates. To get actual measurements, you need to travel across the surface, which polar explorers are ideally placed to do."

Asked what the support of the Prince meant to him, he said: "It's a wonderful British polar tradition, that over the centuries, the Royal Family have, on occasion, given authorisation for a special pennant... The Prince is one of the world's thought-leaders on environmental issues, he's very interested in the rainforests and the polar regions."

Source: The Press Association