OCS Study BOEM 2017-076. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Region and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 37 pp.
OCS Study BOEM 2017-076. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Region and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 37 pp.
The IceTracker project successfully demonstrated the durability, longevity, and utility of simple, low-cost IceTracker buoys. During the course of the project, the IceTracker platform, equipped with a GPS sensor for accurate positioning and an Iridium communications chip for data transmission, proved to be robust and functional in the challenging Arctic environment. IceTrackers were safely and easily deployed by snowmobile and helicopter. Of the 25 trackers deployed between March 2015 and May 2017, one tracker operated for over two years, and multiple units persisted through at least one cycle of break-up and refreezing. The longest surviving tracker transited ~8034 km from its starting point north of Point Barrow and transmitted its position continuously from March 2015 until its batteries ran out in May 2017. Several trackers deployed during the course of the project were beached and subsequently deactivated. Thirteen trackers stopped transmitting data before their battery voltage dropped below the critical transmission level (~7 V) and were presumably crushed by ice. Based on the deployments in this study, it appears that the trackers have sufficient energy in their battery packs to last more than two years at low data transmission rates (12-hour sampling interval). On average, the trackers lasted for 147 (+/- 144) days (median deployment length of 122 days) and had an average speed of 12x10-2 (+/- 6.2) m s-1 . The average distance traveled by the 25 trackers was 1750 (+/- 1745) km (median displacement of 1237 km)...