UNH Researchers Go Polar

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At the end of August, researchers from the University of New Hampshire were in the midst of a six week tour of the Arctic Ocean. One of them, Kevin Jerram, has been on several mapping expeditions before. His main research focus is the detection and characterization of marine gas seeps. The other researcher happened to be a 2015-2016 scholar at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center. Her name is Evgenia Bazhenova, and she studies marine sediment cores in the central part of the Arctic Ocean.


Myself, Jerram, Bazhenova, and nearly 70 other personnel took six weeks to travel through the Arctic Ocean on the Swedish icebreaker Oden, and they made a special stop in the North Pole.  Below are some of the beautiful pictures from this stop, taken by Jerram himself:

Robots Explore Oceans

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OceanOver the course of the past decade, technology has become a key tool to help with ocean exploration. We have gone from days of divers being the only resource made available to ocean scientists, to being able to send tools, such as observation sensors and communication methods, underwater. With them, accurate readings can be taken of phenomenon that exist deep below the ocean’s surface. This technology is only expanding. In the past month, robot ocean exploration has taken a new form for one exploration team – literally. In order to explore a shipwreck that has not been touched since 1664, experts sent a robot resembling a mermaid to the scene.

This unique ocean explorer is called ‘OceanOne.’ It has, in robot form, the torso and head of a human, complete with a robotic ‘face’ and arms. The bottom of this device holds the bulk of its power and intelligence, which rests inside its mermaid ‘tail.’ This robot can be guided from a boat above and can complete tasks in the water that before could only be fathomable by a human.

For example, from shipwrecks that are inaccessible to, or too dangerous for, divers, this robot is able to retrieve artifacts. It is the perfect combination of artificial intelligence, clever mechanics, and sensory feedback to make it gentle with delicate artifacts. It is able to move the artifacts into a box and subsequently carry said box to the surface of the ocean.

The ‘OceanOne’ is a truly revolutionary addition to ocean exploration technology. Humans have, for years, been using artificial intelligence technology to explore the unknown waters of the world. However, none have had all of the capabilities of this new, bright orange ‘mermaid.’ The ‘OceanOne’ is the first diving robot to have many of the capabilities of a human diver, complete with flexibility and dexterity formerly unknown to robots.

Additionally, the engineers who designed ‘OceanOne’ have made it so the person controlling the robot can also feel what it feels. They installed force sensors in the robot’s hand that makes up an interface with which a human can feel what the ‘OceanOne’ is feeling at any given time during its exploration.

The ‘OceanOne’ is truly the smart robot that ocean explorers need in order to be able to move forward with their work. It can adjust to its environment automatically, changing direction or adjusting the pressure of its grip with no prompting from its controller. Having more of these available in the ocean exploration field would give explorers the ability to discover formerly unknown marts of the ocean without putting themselves or any of their team in danger. I am truly excited to see how this diving robot affects the ocean exploration industry!

Shell To Begin Drilling In Arctic

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After getting approval from President Obama and the United States, Shell has begun drilling in the Arctic which could cause a catastrophic ecological disaster. Scientists and environmentalists are scared of what can potentially happen due to the drilling, they explained, “Shell’s plan is risky and ill-conceived exploration, that could lead to a disaster in the Arctic. Instead of holding Shell accountable and moving the country towards a sustainable future, our federal regulators are catering to an ill-prepared company in a region that doesn’t tolerate cutting corners.” This was said by Tim Donaghy, a specialist and senior researcher at Greenpeace. 

Greenpeace and other Arctic organizations are concerned and upset with President Obama for allowing Shell to drill in these locations. The ecological risk has always been high and the group says Obama is looking the other way while they are drilling rather then working with the Greenpeace to resolve the issue.

According to The Guardian, “The environmentalists warn that drilling in the icy Arctic waters is likely to be much more dangerous than other more temperate seas, and could lead to disasters on an even greater scale than the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill that killed 11 people and spilled nearly 5m barrels of crude oil into the ocean. The nearest coast guard station with equipment for responding to a spill is more than 1,000 miles away.”

For more information on the arctic and the current situation, please visit Larry Mayer‘s official website.

Arctic Sea Levels – Stable

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An Inconvenient Truth, the infamous Al Gore documentary where he spoke about Global Warming and the almost certain fate of the Earth. According to Gore, the polar ice caps would melt out by 2015 due to the rapid change in temperature causing harm and potentially killing various species and could harm the Earth as a whole. Although, Gore’s predictions of Earth’s fate was way off as we closed out 2014. In fact, the arctic sea and ice levels have remained stable for the past couple of years which is fantastic news.

According to the DailyCaller, “Arctic Sea ice levels are above where they were at the same time last winter and are well within the the standard deviation of the 1981 to 2010 variation, according to daily sea ice data. Europe’s CryoSat-2 satellite found that sea-ice volumes for the fall of 2014 were above the average extent for the last five years.” Also, researchers and experts of the Arctic such as Dr. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, claimed, “Global sea ice is at a record high, another key indicator that something is working in the opposite direction of what was predicted. Most people think the poles are melting… they’re not. This is a huge inconvenience that reality is now catching up with climate alarmists, who were predicting that the poles would be melting fairly soon.” Even though Gore’s predictions on the melting of the polar ice caps were off, many still believe we may see the ice begin to melt at a rapid pace.

While many scientists remain optimistic that that ice caps will continue to remain at this level, some believe we can see the arctic ice free by 2030 if the rate of Global Warming continues. Environmentalists at the Center for Biological Diversity stated, “The Arctic could be ice-freeas soon as 2012. It wasn’t. Now, the group climate scientists say the Arctic could be completely ice-free in the summer by the 2030s. Scientists also argue that future global temperature rises will continue to shrink the Arctic until it is ice-free, maybe even in our lifetimes.” These environmentalists have mis predicted in the past but seem very confident about this new guess that by summer of 2030 we will have no ice in the Arctic.

Hopes are we will out live this new prediction of 2030 and continue to keep our polar ice caps stable. For more information on the topic, please visit the DailyCaller‘s article. Also please visit http://larrymayerunh.com for more information about the Arctic and the Ocean.