An engineer who helped deploy “obuoys” in the Arctic submitted this story, but wishes to remain nameless since he feels that he’ll be ostracized for sharing here. I’ll respect his wishes, and pass along the information. He writes via the “submit story” feature in the WUWT header:
I’ve had a small part in getting a series of buoys ready for arctic deployment and a few have been successfully sent out already. They are very large and take met data, O3 and BrO data (looking for O3 depletions), CO2 data, and as an afterthought a simple webcam was thrown on board.
This last bit I thought several people might be interested in. The only buoy that is currently deployed (and not sitting on the ocean floor) is near the Beaufort. See a movie of the last three months of webcam images here:
Initially the webcam only took one image a day, but with the ice breaking up the PI’s decided to increase that to once an hour. Towards the end you can really see ice flowing back and forth a distance away from the buoy, and it is clear the buoy is free-floating in a melt pond.
You can monitor this buoy and others, once they deploy, through this interface: http://obuoy.datatransport.org/monitor
The head principal investigator is Dr. Paty Matrai: http://www.bigelow.org/research/srs/paty_matrai/paty_matrai_laboratory/
Here is a movie on the deployment:
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This will sound obtuse, but I thank old-school NASA for the ability to keep cameras like this powered in such extreme environments and take this wonderful data. Here’s hoping we can have more sensors up there.
Anthony:
Is there an issue or are we simply being alerted to a new source of data, especially the state of sea ice?
That was one of the coolest (no pun intended) things I’ve ever seen.
Why would the person feel they would be ostracized?
One of the graphs under the GPS tab for each buoy is speed — expressed in “m/s” if my eyes aren’t deceiving me. With a range of 100-400 shown, for #s 2 & 6.
Is that rotational speed of the earth at that latitude? Ice drift speed? 100 m/s equates to about 225 mph!!
Jeff Alberts says: July 15, 2011 at 7:50 am
Why would the person feel they would be ostracized?
I’m left wondering the same. There seems to be nothing contentious, ice melts, I thought it does that every year…
Jeff;
For sharing insider data with the hoi-polloi, especially d******ist hoi-polloi like you and me and Anthony!
Since it’s a fairly small group involved, I’m sure the anonymous posting will cause the group to look suspiciously at each other and semi-ostracize likely suspects anyhow! A fascinating little social psychology experiment and intervention …
I think he meant that his peers on the project would not be happy to know that he posted to the heretical WUWT. I’m glad he did.
Jeff Alberts says:
July 15, 2011 at 7:50 am
Why would the person feel they would be ostracized?
They probably feared to be in any way connected to the number 1 science blog and the most viewed climate website on the planet.
Climate science is about belief. You need to believe AGW is real and a clear and present danger to the planet to be a climate scientist. If you visit WUWT you will be exposes to skeptical science, which has no place in belief based science. Contributing to WUWT is clear evidence you as a climate scientist have been contaminated by doubt and must be isolated to prevent the infection from spreading to other climate scientists.
Great video. Quite a contrast to Gavin’s science movie. Good to see someone is still doing science. Now we know why the shuttle program is cancelled and why NASA plans to de-orbit and destroy the ISS. So that folks like Gavin can be paid by the taxpayers to maintain the RC website where “real scientists discuss real science”. Indeed. Since the science is settled, what is there left to discuss?
Within the scientific and academic community, simply posting here could be perceived as a threat by some.
Scientists can be remarkably protective of their “territory”, and defensive. You’d be amazed at some of the things that can trigger career ending attacks.
communicating with WUWT is considered “bad form” by some …
Engaging here, in whatever manner, could be seen as a provocative act.
Have they found that CFCs don´t damage O3 yet?
Interesting! The time lapse movie shows long periods of little ice movement interspersed with periods of fairly rapid change in the ice pack topography. When the wind occasionally blows hard, the ice really moves around.
Reminds me of spring ‘ice out’, on the large lakes of Wisconsin. If a hard blow coincided with the lake ice being just ‘rotten’ enough and the wind was aligned with the longest fetch down a large lake, the shore line on the down wind end could end up with massive piles of ice driven ashore! I remember areas of shoreline peeled back like a bulldozer had hit it, shoreline trees pushed over, and woe to any cottages that were built ‘too close’ to that shoreline! It happened rarely… but when it happened, it was a sight to behold!
Nice fogbow at 2011-07-10 0100 UTC.
The engineer who triggered this post had written: “The only buoy that is currently deployed (and not sitting on the ocean floor) is near the Beaufort.”
Er, so how many of these OBuoy gadgets are now “sitting on the ocean floor” and therefore incapable of either reporting as designed or being recovered, anyway?
Could this be why the reporting engineer feared that he would “be ostracized for sharing here” on WUWT?
I don’t think we’ve gotten the full story on this warmist “research” effort yet.
” The only buoy that is currently deployed (and not sitting on the ocean floor)”
What is the ocean floor bit about?
Yeah one buoy don’t tells much.
Enjoyed both videos. Thanks for sharing them.
But why do we see the legend “CO2 CLIMATE CHANGE” popping up on the second one?
Is it a subliminal attempt to reinforce the fallacy?
Interesting. By the way, a melt pond is something different from open ocean / a polyanna. It is literally a small lake or pond that forms from melting snow atop the ice (and perhaps some of the upper layers of ice). I’ve long wondered if satellite based ice cover measurements counted melt ponds as open ocean, which would artificially deflate the ice coverage figure.
SteveSadlov says:
July 15, 2011 at 9:51 am
> By the way, a melt pond is something different from open ocean / a polyanna
which is different from a polynya, I trust. 🙂
Heck, I’m glad he has a job . . . .
Knowing heavy ocean ice , the power of wind shifting ice and current, I tend to believe most of the OBuoy were crushed by wind aided ice. I’ve seen steel ship ripped apart by that power and sunk in minutes. Ice ridges, caused by wind and current aided ice can pile on one another over time and reach all the way down to the ocean bottom. It is not unusual for OBuoy to be crushed and driven to the bottom of ice ridges. After all you have the power of hundreds of miles of moving ice piling up on a ridge driving ice below the surface on those ridges. Crushing OBuoys is child’s play to that power. I’m actually surprised one OBuoy survived at all. And I’m betting that one bites the depths before this year comes to a close.
Apparently only a few are deployed each summer. Two this year. A tube in the ice holds the electronics, a mast carries sensors and solar panels, and a flotation collar helps when the ice melts. It’s rather obvious what happens to the cylindrical flotation collar and circuitry tube when the wind piles up ice around and over it.
http://www.o-buoy.org/
Sigh. Make that 4 will be deployed this year, if I properly untangled the chatty summary. Apparently there will also be two recoveries, whatever that means. They’re just map dots.
http://www.o-buoy.org/?page_id=152