$18K buoy dropped in the Arctic fails to transmit (click title to entry - thank you)
KODIAK, Alaska -- A weather buoy dropped into the Arctic Ocean is not communicating with satellites and is presumed lost.
The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports the buoy was dropped Tuesday by a Kodiak-based Coast Guard C-130.
The buoy was designed to transmit information about temperature, location and atmospheric pressure for its three-year battery life. The buoy cost about $18,000....
There is a fair amount of action in the Arctic Ocean these days. It isn't because of British submarines either. The Russians are using the current conditions for shipping traffic. Now, everyone knows the Navy and Coast Guard use weather buoys and otherwise for things other than weather and things.
Let's face it, the USA, Japan and South Korea aren't happy about a new shipping route.
Let's face it, the USA, Japan and South Korea aren't happy about a new shipping route.
...This year, a Russian ship carrying up to 90,000 metric tons of gas condensate (click here) sailed across the Arctic and through the Bering Strait to the Far East. Last year, a Russian ship went the other way, leaving from South Korea with industrial parts. Russia plans up to eight such trips next year, using oil-type tankers with reinforced hulls to break through the ice.
All of which calls for more U.S. Coast Guard facilities and equipment in the far north to secure U.S. claims and prepare for increased human activity, according to Rear Admiral Christopher C. Colvin, who is in charge of all Coast Guard operations in Alaska and surrounding waters....
continued...
