A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about our fieldwork disruptions during COVID. We were in the middle of sending equipment up to Utqiagvik, Alaska to begin our own controlled experiments in the Arctic, thanks to our community partners at Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC). I wanted to provide an update on what we’ve been doing since then.
UIC provides on-the-ground support to our researchers. Their staff is very knowledgeable about the local environmental, administrative, and cultural conditions on Alaska’s North Slope.
Our equipment has arrived safely and is in the process of being installed. We already have several experiments lined up to begin as soon as we are done with the initial set up and testing and calibration phase.
These controlled experiments will allow us to study the small-scale movement of our materials on the surface of ice and water enabling us to improve our models, and ultimately develop the most effective ice saving technique possible. We intend to study the persistence of our albedo modification technique and get further real-world data on how much material we need to achieve certain reflectivity changes, and ultimately ice savings.
Additionally, we’re hard at work on our laboratory testing. We’re continuing to work with our trusted contractors at Covalent Metrology to analyze the theoretical performance of numerous sample materials and help us hone in on the ideal formulation for saving the Arctic.
Covalent Metrology Lab Technician Kim Tran collecting and helping to analyze our data.
Covalent Metrology scientists use an UV-VIS-NIR Spectrophotometer to analyze our data.
We’re also beginning the first phase of analyzing the impact of bulk density and other material characteristics on benchtop performance. We’re excited to publish the results of these tests in a white paper on ideal albedo modifying material performance as soon as possible.
Our team is making great strides in our climate modeling work. With additional analysis from the Harvey Mudd College’s clinic students, we’ve built better tools for allowing ourselves and others to dig into the climate modeling data we generate and investigate the myriad of changes our proposed applications would make.
From left to right: Gabby, Cade, Matthew, Mike, and Parker from Harvey Mudd College.
Happy to report that our analysis of the Fram Strait intervention (the passage between Greenland and Svalbard) is moving quickly and we anticipate having a manuscript to submit to peer-reviewed journals late-summer and publish shortly thereafter.
Finally, our team intends to launch a public-facing web portal sometime this summer that will highlight our research data, so stay tuned!
The disruptions caused by the ongoing global pandemic haven’t been easy for us, or anyone, to predict or pivot to work around. This disease is tough and wily, but we are better. I’m so happy to be working with such an amazing group of people.
Thank you so much for your continued support of our work. Every one of us at Ice911 Research appreciates the opportunity to work for you, and the Arctic.
- Alexander Sholtz, Principal Engineer