USA will use nuclear submarines to study Arctic ice
The U.S. Navy and civilian scientists have established a program that enables scientists to use Navy submarines to collect data from Arctic regions that are normally beyond scientists’ reach.
American scientists who study the Arctic’s icy cap now have a new weapon at their disposal – nuclear-powered Navy submarines, The New York Times reports. Civilian researchers have signed an agreement with the Navy to revive a dormant program that uses submarines to collect information on parts of the Arctic’s ice and ocean that normally lie beyond scientists’ reach.
The program called SCICEX – short for Science Ice Exercise, began in 1993 when the USS Pargo carried five civilian scientists to the Arctic on a test cruise. But after six years and five additional dedicated science cruises to the far north, project SCICEX was halted.
Instead of providing submarines for planned science missions to the Arctic, the Navy conducted four “scientific accommodation missions” between 2000 and 2005 where they collected information during brief pauses in classified submarine exercises.
For the last five years, the submarines have not gathered any data. At the same time, the Arctic has seen dramatic warming that led to a historic low in summer sea ice in 2007, when its areal cover dropped roughly 40 percent below the 30-year average. Scientists have also documented shortening of the region’s snow season, rising land surface temperatures and warmer permafrost, and changes in the population and habitat of polar bears, walruses, seabirds and other Arctic wildlife.
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Now, with the Arctic’s transformation in mind, scientists and the Navy are collaborating to restart the SCICEX program, with some restrictions. The scientists have given a detailed wish list for Arctic data to the navy, which will collect data as time allows on otherwise classified submarine missions.
Navy technicians will gather the data using instruments already installed on the submarines during direct transits across the Arctic Basin, from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa.
Reviving the SCICEX effort fits in the with Navy’s renewed interest in the Arctic. The region’s continuing thaw has positioned the region as a potential future hotbed of shipping, energy and mineral exploration and an emerging military frontier, New York Times writes.
