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1. Summary
2. Recommendations
3. Action Items
4. Index of Appendices
5. Minutes
The 2003 winter meeting of the Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee was hosted by the USCG in Seattle. The committee members met with members of the USCG, representatives of NSF, NOAA, ONR, ARC and with guests from the SBI project, the Swedish Polar Secretariat, JAMSTEC, and the SeaKeepers program. The agenda included reports from UNOLS committees, the Federal Agencies, the Arctic Reseach Commission, ARVOC, and the Coast Guard. Summaries of the debriefs of Principal Investigators for last year’s cruises on the HEALY and POLAR STAR were reviewed. The action items and recommendations from these debriefs were discussed with the Coast Guard. Plans for the 2003 operating year on HEALY and potential expeditions in future years were discussed, in particular, the possibility of having HEALY join an expedition in 2005 with the Swedish Icebreaker ODEN was discussed. Specifically, Magnus Augner reported on Sweden’s plans for the “Berengia 2005” expedition, and Bernie Coakley presented plans for proposals that might generate a companion HEALY expedition if funded. Additionally, a PowerPoint report was provided by Martin Fortier (presented by Lisa Clough) regarding future Canadian research plans including the Canadian Artic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) and refit of the Canadian vessel Franklin. Such presentations help move the discussion on how to conduct long range expeditionary planning forward.
A major issue presented by the Coast Guard was the need for decisions and planning to extend the life of the POLAR class icebreakers. These vessels are nearing 30 years of operation and are faced with increasingly difficult Antarctic ice conditions and a very limited life for the existing machinery (~5-10 years remaining). The hulls are in good shape, but a program to extend their life will be costly and will be competing for funds in a tough fiscal environment. The need for science input into refit plans and to help justify refit or replacement was identified as a priority issue for AICC and ARVOC.
Other issues discussed include interactions with native communities, equipment requirements and plans, high latitude communications, medical protocols, underway data collection, multibeam system status, SeaKeepers meteorological data collection, helicopter support, cruise planning information and the status of the Alaska Region Research Vessel design. Recommendations and action items from this meeting and those outstanding from previous meetings are provided below.
Recommendations for USCG and Science Funding Agencies:
New recommendations from the AICC meeting:
Past Recommendations with Status:
Recommendations from POLAR STAR Debriefs:
Recommendations from HEALY debriefs:
Action Items for AICC and UNOLS:
New Action Items:
Past Action Items with Status:
- Agenda
- Attendees
- DESSC Report - Hedy Edmonds (1.9 MB)
- PACAREA Report – Neil Meister (1.1 MB)
- ONR Report - Robin Muench (3.4 MB)
- International Seakeepers Society - Rod Zika (38.4 MB)
- Dredge Videos (3.2 MB)
Minutes of the AICC Meeting – February 6 & 7, 2003
0830 Meeting called to order by Lisa Clough.
Introductions made around the room, participants list attached
Announcements regarding lunch, dinner and book signing by Kathy Crane
Reviewed the agenda.
Approved the minutes from September with minor edits to be provided by Lisa
Lisa reviewed the status of action items and recommendations (see attached list)
UNOLS report: Mike Prince introduced the organization and Peter Wiebe as chair elect. Peter talked about his interests and background. Reviewed the other committees, their relationship to AICC and the Coast Guard
FIC Report: Terry Whitledge (Alaska) reviewed the SMRs and their purpose and the call for community input. He discussed the two different class vessels (OCEAN and REGIONAL). Terry urged people to review the draft documents and provide feedback.
DESSC Report: (PDF file of report 2MB) Hedy Edmonds (UT) discussed the problem of expeditionary planning with the ALVIN and the YO-YO and how well expeditionary planning worked. Arctic research will be somewhat different than the problem for DESSC. There are only two areas to consider and there are not any alternative assets other than icebreakers from other countries. Kathy raised the idea that international cooperation seems to be a solution and wondered if there was a formal mechanism within DESSC to promote the international trading of asset time. Will work later on the idea of a “hero” approach.
RVOC: Dan Schwartz invited the Coast Guard folks to attend the RVOC meeting in Duluth October 8 - 10 and discussed what the organization deals with.
RVTEC: Dale reviewed the organization and purpose of RVTEC. He addressed the issues being addressed by RVTEC, which include developing specifications for a “new” CTD cable, developing standards of services and equipment and increasing the involvement of RVTEC people in other UNOLS activities through formal liaisons. Next meeting will be November 18 – 20 and will be hosted by the Coast Guard in Seattle.
Agency Reports
NSF: Luis Tupas thanked the U.S. Coast Guard for their support of the science programs this past summer. He particularly thanked the HEALY for hosting the open house in Nome and the support for the media during these programs. NSF is looking forward to the 2003 field season, which includes SBI and a fresh water program starting up in the eastern arctic. The fresh water cruise will take place in Baffin Bay and Nares Strait. The SBI cruise will follow. For 2004 SBI is the only program funded so far.
Renee Crain will cover interactions with the native communities later.
Medical requirements for work in the Arctic are not as formal as the Antarctic
Planning for the 2005 field season is an important issue and may be an opportunity to explore how to apply expeditionary planning. There is the possibility to coordinate with the Swedish expedition, which will be covered later in the meeting.
NSF is very interested in the other topics of discussion for this meeting and the AICC recommendations.
NOAA: Kathy Crane reported that NOAA is very excited by the opportunity to work with the Coast Guard this summer with 10 days of work of multibeam mapping of the Chukchi Plateau and Northwind Ridge using funding from Ocean Exploration. There are opportunities to participate onboard for people that have work that can be accomplished during the mapping cruise without stopping the ship. In future years, NOAA also hopes to sponsor further mapping and exploration in the Canadian basin.
NOAA is also hoping to sponsor XCTD profiles during the northwest passage transect from Thule to Barrow following Kelly Falkner’s cruise.
NOAA will be sending 2-3 scientists to participate on the Chinese Icebreaker Xue Long expedition, which will take place in the Chukchi Sea. This is part of an effort to strengthen oceanographic ties between the U.S. and China. The Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Agency has also invited Canada, Finland, Japan and Korea to participate.
NOAA is taking an active role in resolving Russian cooperative issues. It is hoped that during the spring of 2003 the Department of State will put together an interim working group whose mission will be to revive the lapsed U.S. -Russian Federation World Ocean Agreement and to include a Polar Regions agenda in the new agreement. John Calder of the NOAA Arctic Research Office will be the point person in the United States. Alexander Novikov from the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology will act as the point person for the Russian Federation.
The next International Geophysical and Polar Year will be 2007. Efforts are getting started and present wonderful opportunities for international cooperation in the Arctic
ONR: Robin Muench, who just finished an IPO assignment at ONR, reported on behalf of Dennis Conlon. (Report – Large 3MB PDF)
The annual budget for Arctic research is approximately $3.1M and is expected to be fairly constant. At the same time, ONR funds about $10M a year in UNOLS vessel operations. A basic research issue of importance to ONR is the climatic role of the arctic regions as are the fresh water budget and deepwater production. Shelf basins and boundary issues are also important.
Overarching Objectives
Topical Areas
Ice Cover Issues
Polar Ice Prediction System (PIPS) – big Navy ice modeling system. There
is a lot of Navy emphasis on the ice cover.
Operational Issues: A basin-scale “bastion”, no clearly defined
enemy.
High Latitude Dynamics are carried out through collaborations with NSF
Summary
Phil McGillivary asked how ONR interacts with NRL. Robin said that most of the interaction is with modeling and equipment. Tom Curtin is the main point of contact for NRL Arctic operations.
ARVOC Report – Jim Swift
Jim is a newly elected member of ARVOC and gave a report about their activities,
although they did not hold their 2002 meeting due to the west coast dock strike
and he has not yet attended a meeting as a member. Last meeting was in September
2001, but business has continued. Jim covered issues such as the new multibeam
on PALMER, science use on the POLARS, replacement of PALMER and GOULD, and future
use of PALMER. Robin Ross of UCSB is the chair of ARVOC. The feeling is that
the PALMER will be replaced rather than modified so that a vessel more like
HEALY can be provided.
ARCTIC RESEARCH COMMISSION – Garry
Brass
Reported on the annual report of goals and priorities which includes:
SCICEX, Garry is the chair of the science committee, which will be giving the Navy Arctic Science Laboratory a list of priorities that the Navy will try to accommodate.
A study of the noise from the HEALY in the “hotel” mode will be proposed to determine the suitability of HEALY as an alternative to an Ice Camp.
Capt. (Dr.) Lawson Brigham is the deputy director of ARC and is tracking the IMO regulations for the Arctic region.
International Polar Year idea is that there be a grand procession of all capable Arctic vessels in FY 2007 in the Arctic.
There may be a coalition forming to look at making serious improvements to high latitude communications. There is widespread interest, including aircraft operators, Alaskan Arctic villages, and the Coast Guard.
USCG - Headquarters – CDR Joe
Bodenstedt
POLAR SEA arrived just after Christmas to begin the break in. Because of the
two large icebergs it became apparent that the ice conditions warranted a second
icebreaker. HEALY deployed on the 9th of January and arrived yesterday (Feb
5). The channel is not yet open and the re-supply ships are not yet able to
get in. There was 52 miles of fast ice and more heavy pack. B-19 has re-oriented
in the N-S direction, which has helped some, but B-15 is still an issue. The
Coast Guard will recommend that two icebreakers be sent next year as well. HEALY
will not be one of them due to the shipyard period. They will try to get both
POLAR Class vessels to deep-freeze every year until B-19 is out of the way.
A contractor was hired to look at extending the life of the POLAR icebreakers. For somewhere between 350 – 500 million dollars these vessels could be operated for another 30 years, which is about half the price of two new icebreakers. This cost does not include any significant improvements to the science capabilities. Recommendations for requirements to support science operations that are beyond the current capabilities would need to be well documented and supported and could drive the decision towards replacement. This would be a tough sell in the current budget climate. The refurbishment plan would be to re-power and change out all the machinery infrastructure. First ship would start in 2008 and be finished in 2010, the second ship would be in overhaul from 2010 to 2012.
There was a discussion about the need for changes to the science infrastructure. The community needs to identify the requirements that are not currently being met and would be required for future operations. This should be a joint effort between AICC and ARVOC and interested members of the community. Need to find out what changes to the science infrastructure the Coast Guard has included in their plans, if any. Although late in the study, it might not be too late to interact with the Coast Guard and the contractor about the need for improvements to the POLAR class or to justify new ships or perhaps improvements to one and replacement of the other.
Action Item: formulate a working group, advertise to the science community, hold a discussion or workshop, include ARVOC and make recommendations to the Coast Guard and science funding agencies regarding science requirements for POLAR Class refit or replacement.
USCG PACIFIC AREA – Dave Forcucci
Deployed January 9th, fuel stop in Sydney for 24 hours, will be in the area for about 2 weeks, return to Hobart and back in Seattle in early April. Total deployment will be around 80 days. NSF requested collection of multibeam data. There is a “small” problem with the vertical reference sensor but they will collect the multibeam data.
Phil McGillivary reported on a study of long term ice conditions and temperature changes. It is colder now than in the past. Channel is re-freezing at night.
Garry reported that the free RADAR SAT data will be going away and the next RADAR SAT provider will charge for the data. This could limit the amount of data in the future.
Phil McGillivary reported on the launch of ICE SAT, which will start producing data in about six months. They are continuing to try and obtain available ice coverage data. He also reported that they will need to replace a CTD that was lost and that they have installed a Knudsen depth sounder on POLAR SEA that will allow them to contribute to the international bathymetric effort.
POLAR STAR – XO reported that they just finished 4 months dock-side availability in the shipyard. They will be at the dock for about 3 days and then will return for a dry-docking of 4 months. Next deployment will be Deep Freeze.
JAMSTEC – www.jamstec.go.jp for information on these activities. Kyohiko Mitsuzawa reported.
Joint Western Arctic Climate Study (JWACS) is a program that JAMSTEC has joined with and have deployed monitoring stations on the ice in the Canadian Basin and Eastern Arctic. They also deployed three research vessels in the western arctic in summer of 2002. R/V MIRAI will conduct a cruise in 2003 and 2004 of the entire southern hemisphere. There may be an Arctic cruise for MIRAI in 2004 – 2005.
Post Cruise Debriefs – Introduced by Lisa Clough
Questions were taken from the ARVOC de-brief process.
Lisa distributed summaries of the debriefs and showed action items.
POLAR STAR Debriefs
1. Native Community concerns – Renee Crain
Renee Crain introduced the issues that are important to the arctic communities,
such as the whale-hunting season, safety of their people on the ice, etc. Based
on discussions and their experience with setting up the agreements for the 2002
field season, NSF has been working on a set of guidelines for interaction with
native communities. There are 13 principals for being a good neighbor and citizen.
These are on the NSF website. There will be maps of critical areas and times.
Native communities need to be informed about activities being planned and many
times they can be valuable sources of information regarding conditions and locations
of fauna. NSF is working through BASC to incorporate native community concerns
in the research guidelines.
Science information meetings are being held with the native communities. They are for the most part very interested in the scientific activities for a variety of reasons.
AICC should remind the community that every researcher that works in the Arctic has a long term impact on the relationship between the native communities and those that will work their in the future. We are working now to overcome negative impacts from many years ago and it is taking a lot of effort and will continue to take effort to maintain good relations.
Canada has an excellent set of guidelines for working in the arctic.
The NSF guidelines will be implemented through interactions between the program manager and the PI. The scientist is still responsible for obtaining the permits and clearances for their work, but should coordinate right from the beginning with the funding agency, the Coast Guard and the permitting entities and native communities.
The situation is much improved based on the efforts last year. It still remains very important to have representatives of the science program visit the native communities and meet the leaders face to face. NSF will support the funding for this travel as part of the science program.
Contacting the BASC facility is the best way to establish times and places for setting up meetings.
The post mortem on the SBI program is that the fieldwork did not have any negative impacts for the native community. Kathy mentioned that members of the native community were invited on the Canadian Icebreaker expedition. This proved to be valuable. Invitations were made for SBI but it was during the Bowhead whale season and they did want to go for more than a day or two.
This issue is not just an issue for Barrow, but extends from Gambell on up and includes areas in the Northern Bering Sea.
Phil McGillivary has a concern about the Chinese vessel that will be working in the vicinity of Barrow doing seismic work. Their needs to be a real effort to make sure this type of communication and coordination take place with foreign vessels. Kathy Crane and Renee Crain will be at the meetings where this operation will be discussed and the issue will be addressed. The State Department should probably do a better job of informing foreign vessels of the Native Community requirements.
Peter Minnett mentioned that a similar problem existed with an expedition in Canadian coastal regions.
Action item:
Terry Whitledge, Renee Crain, Dave Forcucci and Phil McGilviarry will work on
an article for EOS and/or ARCUS about planning for native community concerns.
2. High latitude communications will be addressed later as a separate agenda item.
3. Science Drivers for computer control winches.
Dale introduced the topic by reviewing the system that was delivered with the HEALY, which was very complicated and sophisticated and did not work correctly. Also there was not a simple over-ride and manual backup. The manual control alternative was implemented on both the POLAR’s and on HEALY.
Are there any science drivers for computer controlled or programmable parameter driven winch controls?
Peter Wiebe mentioned that tow-yo operations such as with the Bio-Mapper 2 require programmable control.
Dale does not see the need for this level of system for most or all of the operations on the Icebreakers.
Recommendation:
Recommend that the winch control systems be simplified and eliminate any unnecessary
complicated equipment from the equipment that needs to be maintained by the
Coast Guard.
4. Medical Requirements Policy
What forms should be used? Coast Guard uses a form that has the same content
as NOAA forms (SF 93) and has been using the same form for thirty years. Robin
recommends that we do not use the same protocol as the Antarctic.
Discussion centered on whether or not to change the process the Coast Guard
now uses for Arctic cruises. The sense was that their current process was reasonable.
A suggestion was made that the contact information for a person’s doctor
be included. The chief scientists are responsible for getting the forms filled
out. The Coast Guard reviews and decides whether or not someone can sail.
Recommendation:
The recommendation is that the Coast Guard standardize Medical Requirements
Policy between ships and publish procedures, such as for returning forms, etc.
Additional suggestions from debriefs for POLARS:
HEALY Debriefs
Keigwin (debrief and HEALY input)
Recommendations:
SBI (debrief, PCA and HEALY input)
Action Items
Recommendations:
2003 Schedule – Dave Forcucci
HEALY
POLAR STAR
Out of service until August, ready for sea by 1 November.
Sea trials in November
POLAR SEA
Ready for sea by 1 December after emergency and normal drydocking work
Swedish Polar Research Organization – Beringia 2005 – Magnus Augner
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat is a government agency that promotes and coordinates both Arctic and Antarctic research. The Polar Research Committee, which is part of the Swedish Science Research Council coordinates research activities based on applications for government funding.
In 1994 they cooperated with Russia and made an expedition along the northern
coast of Russia and Europe. In 1999 they cooperated with Canada for a similar
trip on the northern boundary of Canada. They used the Research vessel as a
moving “home base.” Helicopters were used for local transport to
field camps on the tundra. They made short stops at many sites extended over
a large geographical area.
The two previous expeditions left a gap along the Alaska coastline and in the
Beringia area. Also, if they are going to bring a ship all the way from Scandanavia,
it makes sense to do research on the trip over and on the way back. The plan
is to cover the Russian coast on the way over and over the pole on the way back.
An initial response from the Swedish scientific community in 2001 followed by
a workshop in November 2002 identified scientific priorities.
Overall objective: Beringian biocomplexity with marine and terrestrial programs.
Call for proposals is out now and by April they will have more detail on plans.
Marine Objective is the role of Arctic Ocean in the climate. In the Bering Sea
area, the objectives cover too large an area to complete with one ship.
The window of opportunity is from around June 10 through the end of September,
based on predicted ice conditions along the planned route.
Logisitical requirements: Icebreaker Oden for transects and in support of operations
on the northern slope of Beringia. A research vessel to operate in open water
in Bering Sea and Kamtchatka supporting land based research. (Alternate is to
use land and air transport).
They hope for international cooperation:
Two icebreakers are necessary for the transect across the North Pole.
Bernie Coakley – possible US involvement
First arctic drilling might take place, if the funding is found in 2004, on
the Lomonosov Ridge. The current theory about the track is that it would start
from Barrow ahead of the ODEN in early August. HEALY would do coring, multi-channel
and chirp data.
The problem comes in trying to “claim” HEALY for 2005. Bernie and
others are serving as de-facto “heroes” to generate proposal pressure
that might lead to scheduling HEALY for this expedition. They have commitments
from various PIs to submit proposals and others are interested in proposing
work for this transect. Funding from other sources is also being sought. There
is also an interest in using the HEALY while transiting North to Barrow.
NSF is considering the idea of allowing proposals to be submitted for the August 2003 deadline to be reviewed for the 2005 fieldwork. Luis asked AICC for input on this issue and how to make sure this is known. They would appreciate a specific recommendation that this is appropriate for expeditionary planning purposes to receive proposals at the August deadline. Also any recommendations about making this change public, such as the UNOLS newsletter, Arctic Info, NSF publications, EOS and etc.
ACTION ITEM:
Write a short blurb for Newsletter that says that an earlier proposal deadline
is being considered for 2005 field work due to the opportunity for cooperating
with a trans basic transect with the ODEN which is also still in planning stages.
Run this text by NSF (Pyle, Stephenson, Tupas)
Kathy Crane raised the issue again about making Barrow a point of entry for the US, which would facilitate the logistics and science cooperation with other vessels. Phil mentioned that he had previously submitted a request for action on this to State Department, but that seems to be lost.
ACTION ITEM: Phil will find the previous submission and forward that to Lisa. Lisa will raise this issue with Council.
Other 2005 requests:
Reviewed requests in the system for various areas of the Arctic. There was some
discussion about requests that are out of date and how to remove them. The answer
is to adapt changes to the system planned for the future.
CASES (Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study). Lisa reviewed presentation provided by Louis Fortier. Canadians will be freezing a ship in September 2003 for about a year.
Expeditionary Planning:
Use lessons learned from 2005 Expeditionary planning exercises.
Create web space on AICC where information about international icebreaker schedules,
long-term planning exercises and expeditionary efforts, etc. are displayed.
Jon Berkson has web sites for IGY.
Jim Swift discussed the idea of having an organized community forum or workshop that would allow a reviewable and approved call for proposals that would allow long term planning for expeditions in certain years (not necessarily every year). Jim thought that NSF should take the lead. ARCUS is already an organization that has taken this role for planning large efforts such as SHEBA and SEARCH.
Kathy Crane suggested that the idea of having geographical constraints for each year’s proposal would have some merit in allowing people to focus on opportunities in a year when the ship will go to a certain region.
Jackie discussed an open meeting this fall for SEARCH that will address long range opportunities.
Action items:
Set up web space: Create web space on AICC where information about international
icebreaker schedules, long term planning exercises and expeditionary efforts,
etc. are displayed. Jon Berkson has web sites for IGY.
Interact with ARCUS and invite them to AICC meetings in the future.
Impact Of Antarctic operations on Arctic Science.
CDR Bodenstedt stated there will be no impact and HEALY will sail on the summer Arctic field program as planned. Dale mentioned that there will be some impact due to the lesser amount of time to test and ready equipment.
ODEN – Magnus Augner. Magnus gave a brief overview of the R/V ODEN. Built in 1989 and conceived as a capable icebreaking research vessel.
FRANKLIN – Lisa presented information from Louis Fortier about the Franklin.
Equipment request list from SBI – Jackie Grebmeirer
Recommendation: Use RVTEC and UNOLS to locate shared use equipment that might be needed and not available from Coast Guard.
ICEBREAKER Maintenance, repair and upgrade status – Neil Meister
HEALY
Drydock scheduled for 05 Nov 03 – 03 Feb 04
POLAR
Reliability Improvement Project (RIP)
Service Life Extension Project (SLEP) also SLE Board (SLEB)
Analysis of Alternatives
Sticker Shock
Mitigating Factors
PERFECT STORM CONDITIONS
Science community will need to identify and prioritize the requirements for Deep Freeze and Arctic science support and provide the motivation for funding the requirements. How many people understand that the entire Antarctic program relies on the icebreakers opening the channel?
Garry suggested the ARC prepare a report on the requirements for Icebreakers to the President.
One idea for acquiring a new vessel would be a fast track build of a HEALY
clone.
Action Item: Small meeting with ARC, NSF, Coast Guard, ARVOC and AICC chair
to determine requirements and options for POLAR SLEP or Replacement. UNOLS Office
to include funding request for a twenty-person workshop between May and mid
October. ARC will be asked to prepare a report to the President and Congress.
High Latitude communications:
Will use Iridium for ops above INMARSAT range.
Fred Carig at APL is using Iridium to Iridium, which is slow but cheap and works.
Garry recommends a committee of interested agency and community people to work
on requirements and potential joint solutions.
Action Item: Organize a working group to focus on improving high latitude communications options: Dave Forcucci, Garry Brass, Robin Muench, and AICC reps.
SeaBeam data update:
When HEALY went south, Larry Lawver tried to find out if data could be collected in the Ross Sea as a prelude to a funded project next year. It turned out that the system was not working right and despite efforts onboard to get it going it will not be possible to get someone there to salvage this trip. Larry Lawver pointed out that whenever the system is not working this should be reported and a solution sought right away to return it to service.
At the September meeting a group consisting of Larry Mayer, Margo Edwards, Dale Chayes and Dave Forcucci was tasked to develop the methods and a proposal to collect multibeam data on the continuous and permanent basis.
People are set up to work on this, but budgets are not all clearly in place. They hope to have everything in place by this summer. They would like to replace the damaged sound velocity unit prior to the Hobart to Seattle run to make sure it is working correctly. Then if funding and scheduling can be put in place for a remedial effort for the transit to St. Johns and then set it up for operations during this summer. Both Kelly Falkner’s cruise and NOAA’s mapping cruise will require a working high quality multibeam system.
Action Item: Kelly Falkner, NOAA, Rebecca Woodgate and Coast Guard need to work together and ensure that the proposal to collect quality multibeam data continuously gets funded. Need to find out who will fund this effort, when it can start and whether or not it will be possible for this effort to support this summer’s cruises.
Sea Keepers Society and Met Sensors – Rod Zika (See VIEW GRAPHS)
This program is a model for a global ocean observing system that is a true public-private partnership. The Sea Keepers coordinating office is located at RSMAS. The Sea Keepers Society provides funding with Government contacts through NOAA primarily.
Sea Keepers System: Completely self contained sampling and data collection system that can be installed on ships. Intake through hull with temperature sensor and automated detoxification. Water pumped through Teflon lined stainless steel hose. Unit consists of a lower box containing various sensors. Top box contains the data collection unit. Data is transmitted by INMARSAT, Iridium or cell. Units are identical and can be removed, sent back for calibration and replaced by another unit. Up to five submodules can be installed on the manifold in the sampling unit containing different types of sensors such as Thermosalinographs, trace metals, fluorescence, etc.
Sea Keepers Data modes
Real time display
Regularly transmitted
Transmitted intermittently on Request or programmed alert message
Long-term record, recorded continuously
Data goes through an automated QA/QC program and then released to public.
Sea Keepers module is on Walton Smith? What about other UNOLS vessels?
Terry asked whether or not any of these systems were deployed in the ice? There have been some reports from near the ice edge but not on a regular basis. Terry asked about the processes used to ensure that wind data is accurate and obtained from the best location.
Dale asked about how position data is obtained. For these systems the position fix is obtained through the INMARSAT C link or from the Iridium system.
Installing this system on icebreakers will provide the data to the Sea Keepers program, provide a completely autonomous redundant met and seawater data collection. The SCS system could also be configured to provide data to Sea Keepers.
SDN Contract – Richard Saunders/ESU
Contracting officer, J. Altice (206)- 217 – 6815, www.eps.gov, DTCG85-03-R-65S030 for the statement of work.
The hope is that the contract will be awarded in February and to have the contractor in place for this summers mission. They will work through Dave Forcucci to determine where support is needed. The contract is designed to be flexible.
Helo Support – Don Marinello POPDIV assistant division chief, division chief in summer.
Looking at ways to simplify methods to conduct helo ops while conducting science ops. CDR Marinello reviewed some changes and upgrades to aircraft that will be available in the near future that will result in better navigation and comms, higher payloads and greater speed.
Plea to the scientists that they make their science requirements for helicopters known as early as possible so they have the lead time to make any modifications or changes in procedures.
Terry mentioned that when there are any science briefings or meetings for native communities or pre-cruise planning meetings, aviation people should be there.
CAPSTONE automated air traffic control system being tested in Alaska by FAA was mentioned by Garry Brass and Dan Schwartz as a system that POPDIV should investigate.
Alaska Region Research Vessel:
Terry gave an update on the design process for the ARRV. The design meeting held earlier this week was a fish or cut bait moment. They had to make final decisions about propulsion and hull form. They made these decisions based on open water model tests and noise prediction models/tests. The hull form will be very good for sea keeping and station keeping in open water. The noise tests showed that the level of noise from the azipods was significantly greater than the noise curve for the REVELLE’s Z-Drive system. The Azipods were well above the ISES curve and the Z-Drives come very close. They decided to go with Z-drives for a variety of science and potential regulatory reasons. To do this they will have to add about 4 feet of length to fit the Z-drive units. This will have the added benefit of being able to meet the100 ton variable science load. They are looking at putting in a z-drive unit that will exceed the power requirements as an attempt to keep the operation of the units in the 75% level, which will minimize the possibility of drive failures that have impacted the AGOR’s.
Operator selection and homeport will be determined by a competitive process. University of Alaska is making plans to be ready to homeport the vessel in Seward.
The hope for funding is that this project will be selected and proposed to
the NSB as an MRE project this summer. Still hoping to have this in the 05 budget
and online by 07.
FIC will try to get noise curves from the GLIB which will have azipods and to
get noise curves on all new and existing vessels in order to make better decisions
about design.
Dan asked about whether or not the Helicopter issue could be revisited with the addition of 4 extra feet. Terry said that they could not find any small helicopters with the capability to operate where the ship operates that could be accommodated on this size ship. Medivacs and other operations are preferable in the hover mode.
GPS aided inertial navigation system. Need a written justification. ACTION ITEM for Dale.
Radiation use policy and rad vans. – Dave Forcucci
Policy remains that no radiation work will take place inside the ship with some exceptions such as core loggers with contained sealed sources.
Dave will get UNOLS radiation vans for future work and will retire the Coast Guard van as a rad van. May use it for other purposes after some cleanup and modification.
Cruise planning manual and web site.
Dave is working on a standardized web site and manual through a contractor. Dale made the suggestion that forms and content be available as pdf files.
Action Item: Consolidate and review list of cruise planning manual recommendations and provide a current and prioritized list to Dave.
Integration of continuous underway data collection. – Dale Chayes
The current approach is somewhat ad-hoc. Each data oriented group will have their own requirements and demands on MST time and this will probably not be supportable. The support of the interest groups is necessary, but to make it all work a stable group of competent people to integrate and operate all the systems is required.
Action Item: Get a copy of the MOU between NSF and Coast Guard and determine what is says about technical support. Make recommendations regarding changes needed to the MOU to provide for funding of technical services through a day rate of its own.
Next Meeting: Tentatively schedule next meeting in November in Seattle and winter meeting in DC.
Need to advertise for members and new chair.
Reviewed the lists.
Outreach – ASLO or Ocean Sciences
Terry suggested a poster session at these meetings. Also suggested was a booth
that was available throughout the meeting. Make an effort to integrate and become
involved with IGY and other AGU activities.