OCS Environmental Research Technology in Ice-Covered Waters

The presence of ice for nine to ten months each year over the continental shelves in the Arctic requires new methods and technology in environmental assessment programs. As part of the BLM/NOAA Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program in Alaska, biological and physical research is now carried out routinely throughout the year, by landing helicopters on the pack ice and lowering equipment through holes cut in the ice. Moored current meters have been designed for use under perennial ice, from which data can be transmitted acoustically on command. A number of ice buoys have been developed which are routinely interrogated by the Nimbus-6 satellite. These and other new developments have made it possible to conduct research in the coastal arctic marine environment year round; in the past, practically all existing environmental data were taken there during the brief summer only.