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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“it is clear the buoy is free-floating in a melt pond.”
I wonder…
Did the buoy cause the melt pond?
Do the measurements get altered because of the melt pond?
“SteveSadlov says:
July 15, 2011 at 9:51 am
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.”
My memory is that the satellite sensors have difficulty telling even a thin layer of water on top of ice, as there would be with quick melting, from open water. Hence some of the qualifications in the ice extent data.
My understanding is that ice blows around, perhaps gets pushed around by currents as well.
Indeed ice piles up, that’s a known challenge in measuring thickness and amount of ice (area not being volume exactly).
I’ve tuned in to the “North Pole Camera” for years. (It now can be found on the WUWT “Sea Ice” Side-bar) It’s interesting to watch the degree of thawing, day by day. Occationally you can see a lead form, or a pressure ridge buckle up in the distance. I’m not sure whether it qualifies as an “o-buoy” or not.
This year they had bad luck with the camera. It swiftly tilted to a 45 degree angle, and you get a crick in your neck viewing it. Last year, however, they picked a pretty good spot. A small lead opened up in the mid distance, but refroze as winter came on. The camera shut down as the sun set, perhaps because it was solar powered.
I wonder if anyone knows what became of last year’s camera? If it didn’t get sucked south and plunked into the sea, during the winter, is there any way of turning the camera back on?
Beautiful movie! I’d love to sit there with a Caipirinha in my hand and enjoy the red hot arctics.
“The only buoy that is currently deployed (and not sitting on the ocean floor) is near the Beaufort.”
Maybe the buoy constructor ought to be exchanged for a new one.
Why would the person feel they would be ostracized?
Remember… “Your views on climate change, as I understand them, are not aligned with those of my administration. In light of my position and due to the confusion surrounding your role with the state, I am directing you to offer any future statements on this or other public policy matters only on behalf of yourself or the University of Delaware, and not as state climatologist.”governor Ruth Ann Minner .
David Legates Asked To Step Down As Delaware State Climatologist.
From: David R. Legates
Date: Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:48 AM
Subject: New State Climatologist
Dear All,
I want to notify you of a change in the Office of the Delaware State
Climatologist. I have been asked by our Dean’s office to step down and
the former Deputy Dean, Dr. Daniel J. Leathers, will be reassuming the
title of the Delaware State Climatologist. He will be representing the
Office in Asheville and I hope you will welcome him.
I thank you for the opportunity to serve as the Delaware State
Climatologist for the last seven years and to work alongside each of you.
Sincerely,
David R. Legates
I wonder if the buoy has a gyro system to keep it oriented in a fixed direction when it is free-floating, so that the symmer sun flying by represents the rotation of the earth, or if it is free to spin when floating. Does anyone know?
tchannon says: July 15, 2011 at 9:23 am
” The only buoy that is currently deployed (and not sitting on the ocean floor)”
What is the ocean floor bit about?
—————————————————————
It means there’s only one still working. The others sank to the ocean floor. Buoys are supposed to be…………… buoyant. That’s a tough environment to design equipment for. The moving ice crushes ships rather easily.
I had to chuckle at the accent in pronouncing “buoy”. We would say this word the same as “boy”, and “Oh boy…” is usually followed by something like “…are you in trouble now!”
As a rootin’-tootin’ socialist thinking green I think it’s neat that someone posted something related to the real world here. Shame it doesn’t happen more often.
Hu McCulloch says:
I wonder if the buoy has a gyro system to keep it oriented in a fixed direction when it is free-floating, so that the symmer sun flying by represents the rotation of the earth, or if it is free to spin when floating. Does anyone know?
Seems to me that if it were spinning, that hill in the foreground wouldn’t remain in the same basic place in the picture. Also, you wouldn’t have the shadows changing like you do if the apparent motion of the sun were due to the buoy spinning. I would say it’s a pretty safe bet that the camera is, indeed, maintaining its orientation.
Was it really necessary to put out the cones?
‘Why would the person feel they would be ostracized?’
WUWT is the most popular science blog in the western world and the views of sceptics and heretics can be read any day of the week, so he thought it prudent…..
It occurs to me if no one else, that the rest of the O-buoys are obviously sitting on the ocean floor since the ice floes on which they were deployed melted away to nothingness, leaving them with no support. (The buoys are, after all, ice-tethered, and not intended to float atop the water.)
Buoy oh buoy… Anthony, this video provided to you underscores the reach of WUWT. You and your great site are respected — or hated! — both for the same reasons! Keep up the great work!
Jay says:
July 15, 2011 at 1:43 pm
As a rootin’-tootin’ socialist thinking green I think it’s neat that someone posted something related to the real world here. Shame it doesn’t happen more often. )))
Aahhh!! THC content.. The real world for rootin’-tootin’ socialist thinking greens
cheers.
Cool…
At the end when the weather clears I was watching as the sun whirled around and around. As I watched I realized, of course the sun isn’t going around, the Earth is rotating. Suddenly things flipped and I was spinning and spinning and started to feel a bit of nausea.
I liked to watch the water pools growing over time…time lapse photography is very cool sometimes.
MikeEE
Dan in California says:
July 15, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Thanks Dan, video is inaccessible otherwise I might have worked it out.
I’ve always pronounce buoy as “boo-ee”.
Thanks for the explanations about ostracizing. I kind of figured that, but since no opinion was given about AGW one way or the other…
If you explore the other OBouys, you’ll find
#2 deployed
#3 web cam running, shows what appears to be onshore, snow cover
#4 web cam running pointed skyward, no GPS data
#5 is still on the workshop floor, only the web cam on, showing under the trestle bench
#6 is still on the workshop floor, web cam running, showing under the trestle bench, GPS on but indicates in Vermont US
These units will be an interesting source of near real time information if all are deployed.
The address shown for Bigelow Research is 180 McKown Point Road,
West Boothbay Harbour Maine.
This is not available for onground views on Google Maps, but adjacent areas are.
Is there some security status on this area ?
Reminded me of scenes in H. G. Wells’, The Time Machine.
I see the temperature over the last month reported by that buoy matches the DMI re-analysis pretty well:
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
They smash up the ice in the Beaufort Sea with an icebreaker whilst deploying these buoys every year and then wonder why CO2 is affecting the Arctic environment.
Anyone else see the irony there?
If you put a cracks into brittle material they tend to propagate.
Why call them buoys if they don’t float. According to agw people the ice is almost gone and the poorly designed buoy would have to float or it would sink . Stupid people to call a non-floating object a buoy.Ahh-I forget- it was a”team event” That explains it. They are always right no matter. If I had not lived on bell buoy st. at one time -hell, I might not have been able to spell buoy, much less know how to spell it as most of my mail I recieved spelled it bouy. Boy!! I love this site.
Very interesting video. Thanks!
with all this information I am starting to think that I am a climate scientist and I am thinking of applying for a very large grant so i can watch the cam full time