What's Up? Balloons & Unmanned Craft Seem To Be Big Part Of Arctic Research

Various Organizations Launch "Unmanned Aircraft" And "Tethered Balloons" For Research Purposes

 ... Including In The Arctic Of Alaska, Where The "UFO" Came Down Near Deadhorse 

ALASKAN  "UNMANNED RESEARCH OBJECTS" 

On Tuesday, February 14th, 2023, only a few days after a cluster of "unidentified objects" were shot down by the U.S. military – in Alaska, then Yukon, and finally over the Great Lakes – the government suggested that they were some sort of research craft.

They may have a point. Apparently, there's been a serious uptick in the use of unmanned aerial webcam surveillance for arctic environmental issues, such as melting sea ice, polar bear habitat and so on. Polar research is very popular, and there are many possible subjects that researchers are interested in. It's been going on for at least a decade:


COVER PAGE, 2013 REPORT



Using Google Search the Copper River Country Journal took a quick look at what was happening in the Arctic with research and unmanned aircraft. There was a lot of it:


GOOGLE SEARCH: "polar research with unmanned aircraft"



In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy held a conference in Washington DC. Its topic was "Polar Research with Unmanned Aircraft and Tethered Balloons." The conference issued a report, which is still on the web.

The ten-year old document on the web discusses the work of "ARM" -- which means "Atmospheric Radiation Measurement". It showed a map with two "facilities and deployments" sites at that time. One of them was in Barrow. The other was in Oliktok, Alaska 49 miles from Prudhoe Bay.

RESEARCH STATION 50 MILES FROM DEADHORSE 

(As If You Could Drive!)-- Distance from Oliktok Research Site to Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse. Google Maps

RESEARCH LOCATIONS, 2013

The report on the 2013 project facility showed several photos of their aerial surveillance equipment. One was of a standard-looking tethered balloon. The other was of an unmanned aircraft which looked like a large balsawood plane. (SEE below) 


POLAR RESEARCH UNMANNED PLANE


There were other pictures in the 10-year old report, too, of different types of unmanned craft used in the project that were more exotic-looking than the one above. (SEE top of page). 

CURRENT UPDATE ON OLIKTOK POINT: 

The object of this particular project was to monitor the biological and physical state of the Arctic marine environment, remotely observe sea ice, check clouds and atmosphere, and study permafrost and warming, among other things.