Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Among the electromagnetic guns and aquatic drones demonstrated earlier this month by the US Navy’s research office was a robotic seaglider – one of many that the Navy has commissioned to study Arctic ice, according to online reports published Sunday by NPR.
The seaglider, described by the media outlet as a yellow machine shaped like a torpedo that had wings sticking out of the side, is capable of surfing ocean currents for up to 12 months at a time. The Navy reportedly used several of them to monitor a breaking patch of ice last summer.
Martin Jeffries, a researcher with the Office for Naval Research, said that the device resembled a “straightened out banana,” and that the operation it participated in last summer was “the largest experiment of its kind. Nothing like it had ever been done before in the Arctic Ocean.”
A new step in research
It also marked new ground for the Navy, noted NPR. While the military branch has used its submarines for scientific research beneath the ice for decades, it had never really took part in any projects involved in monitoring what was happening on the surface in the Arctic.
“The Arctic essentially has been a closed ocean [to surface ships] because of the ice cover, which did not retreat so much in the summer,” Jefferies said. However, with the ocean thawing due to climate change, the Navy has turned its attention to developing gliders and other gadgets that can be used to help determine how quickly the thawing in the area will come.
Craig Lee, a scientist at the University of Washington who led the Arctic study sponsored by the Navy, said that it appears that the ice is melting faster than he and his colleagues were expecting. He added that analysis of last summer’s data was still ongoing, but the early indication was that the Arctic waters are absorbing more sunlight and melting more ice than in past years.
New equipment may be necessary
As the ice gives way and the Arctic waters open up, ships will begin travelling through the area during the summer months – which means that the Navy will be tasked with protecting territorial waters belonging to the US while helping commercial vessels that encounter problems. At this point, NPR said, the military branch simply does not have the experience needed to do so.
“The only time we currently operate U.S. Navy warships in the arctic is along the coast of Norway up to Russia,” explained Commander Blake McBride, who helped author the Navy’s 2014 Arctic strategy. Such journeys along the Norwegian coastline are rare, and the majority of Naval vessels have never operated in the icy cold environment of the Arctic region.
“Even if it’s ice-free, there will be times and places where the temperature is extremely low, and things break in ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” McBride added.
Thus, the Navy needs to test its equipment, as well as develop new gizmos, including anti-ice coatings for its boats so that they don’t become bogged down by freezing waters and sea-spray. With the knowledge gained by studies such as this one, the military branch said that it hopes to be ready to operate in the Arctic region by the year 2030.
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