Boulder News

Arctic sea ice likely reached its minimum extent for the year at 4.23 million square kilometers (1.63 million square miles) on September 19, 2023, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.The 2023 minimum is ranked sixth lowest in the nearly 45-year satellite record. The last 17 annual minimum extents are the lowest 17 in the satellite record.NSIDC scientists stress that the Arctic sea ice extent number is preliminary…

Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc., announced its robotics division has entered into a three-year charter agreement with two years of options for the DP2 offshore support vessel Glomar Wave for work on a range of opportunities in both the offshore renewables and oil and gas sectors.Helix Robotics Solutions' Glomar Wave, a DP2 66.4-meter multi-role vessel, is expected to operate across energy sectors supporting Helix clients in a variety of roles.The purpose-built vessel, equipped with a 25Te crane…

N-Sea Group has chartered Braveheart Marine's DP2 vessel Braveheart Spirit multi-purpose offshore vessel.The vessel formerly known as the DPSV Bourbon Gulf Star vessel, built in 2010, was acquired late last year by Braveheart Marine converted, and upgraded to meet the most up-to-date industry standards. N-Sea said it has taken the vessel on a long-term charter.The DP2 vessel has a carrying capacity of around 3,000t DWT, an overall length (LOA) of 73.2 meters, 16.5 meters in width…

Antarctica, the world’s last true wilderness, has been protected by an international treaty for the last 60 years. But the same isn’t true for most of the ocean surrounding it.Just 5% of the Southern Ocean is protected, leaving biodiversity hotspots exposed to threats from human activity.The Western Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of the continent and one of its most biodiverse regions, is particularly vulnerable. It faces the cumulative threats of commercial krill fishing…

At the edge of the ice blanketing part of the Arctic Ocean, the ice looked sickly. Where thick sheets of ice once sat atop the water, now a layer of soft, spongey slush slid and bobbed atop the waves.From the deck of a research ship under a bright, clear sky, “ice pilot” Paul Ruzycki mused over how quickly the region was changing since he began helping ships spot and navigate between icebergs in 1996.“Not so long ago, I heard that we had 100 years before the Arctic would be ice free in the summer,” he said. “Then I heard 75 years, 25 years, and just recently I heard 15 years.

The Bering Sea ice cover during the winters of 2018 and 2019 hit new lows not seen in thousands of years, scientists reported on Wednesday, adding to concerns about the accelerating impact of climate change in the Arctic.Satellite data provides a clear picture of how sea ice has changed over the last four decades in the region between the Arctic and northern Pacific oceans. Beyond that, the only ice records available were those recorded in ship logs and other observations.So scientists turned to peat land, which holds organic compounds from plants dating back millennia, on the remote St.

Houston-headquartered Oceaneering International has, through one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, acquired the Aberdeen-based Ecosse Subsea Limited for approximately GBP 50 million (US$69 Million). Headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, Ecosse builds and operates seabed preparation, route clearance and trenching tools for submarine cables and pipelines on an integrated basis that includes vessels, ROVs and survey services. Enabling technologies acquired in the transaction include Ecosse's modular SCAR Seabed System, capable of completing the entire trenching work scope (route preparation, boulder clearance, trenching and backfill), and its newly developed SCARJet trenching system.

At the current rate of carbon emissions of about 35 to 40 gigatons a year, scientists are estimating that the Arctic could become ice-free within the next 20 years, Suptnik reported quoting National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder. Julienne Stroeve, a climate scientist at NSIDC  in Boulder, Colorado,  warned of rising oceans, and foul weather from Polar melt, the report said. The changes are the largest in the summertime, but they are actually happening during all months of the year. "I think the key things we really need to understand is, first, the natural climate variability and, second, changes caused by increased human activity," she quoted as saying. She warned if the Arctic ice melts away this would result in a seven-meter increase in the sea levels worldwide.

Sea ice extent in both the northern and southern hemisphere was at record low levels for the month of January 2017. Last month set a record for the lowest sea-ice extent for the month, falling below the record set last year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), a Colorado-based research outfit. Arctic sea ice this January averaged 5.17 million square miles, the lowest for the month in the 38-year sea ice record. "Greenhouse gases emitted through human activities and the resulting increase in global mean temperatures are the most likely underlying cause of the sea ice decline," the snow and ice data center said. Sea ice extent was also tracking at record low levels for the month of January in the Antarctic, which is currently still in summer.

Larson Electronics, a manufacturer and supplier of industrial grade lighting solutions, said it has released a new series of portable battery packs powered with lithium-ion batteries that offer multiple charging capabilities. These battery packs are powered by lithium ion batteries with a Samsung ICR18650-3.7V-2600mAh cell. These units are designed for off-grid use in remote locations with solar panel compatibility (Escape 30, Boulder 15, Nomad 27, and Nomad 13). These solar units are available in a 300 watt rated output, a 2,000 watt rated output, and a 500 watt rated output.

Sea ice off Antarctica and in the Arctic is at record lows for this time of year after declining by twice the size of Alaska in a sign of rising global temperatures, climate scientists say. Against a trend of global warming and a steady retreat of ice at earth's northern tip, ice floating on the Southern Ocean off Antarctica has tended to expand in recent years. But now it is shrinking at both ends of the planet, a development alarming scientists and to which a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases…

The BoomVane is one of the most useful and interesting tools available to oil spill responders for shoreline and single vessel boom deployment. Maintaining an effective oil containment boom configuration with two vessels is difficult to coordinate. The Elastec BoomVane solves that problem. BoomVane can also tow heavier booms greater distances than an outrigger arm resulting in wider sweep swaths. Illinois-based Elastec is the manufacturer and owner of the proprietary BoomVane technology. Elastec offers four BoomVane sizes to accommodate various water depths.

Arctic sea ice hit a record low in May 2016 as scientists discovered the first-ever link between melting ice in Greenland and a phenomenon known to warm the area faster than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, sea ice extent across the Arctic was 4.63 million square miles, which was an astonishing 224,000 square miles below the previous record low for the month of May, set in 2004. Data published by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) this week showed average sea ice extent for last month was more than 500,000 sq km (193,000 sq miles) smaller than May 2012. "We just didn't break the old May record, we're way below the previous one," Mark Serreze, the center's director said.

The Captain of the Port for Oregon and southern Washington canceled the captain of the port order on the motor vessel Sparna allowing the vessel to leave its mooring at Kalama, Wash., Monday. The Sparna, a 623-foot bulk grain carrier, briefly ran aground near Cathlamet on the Columbia River, March 21, resulting in the ship needing to undergo temporary repairs. “We have inspected the Sparna and have approved the temporary repairs to make the vessel seaworthy,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ben Russell, chief inspections department, Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Portland.

Rising levels of CO2 are making it hard for fish to breathe in addition to exacerbating global warming and ocean acidification. Climate change has caused a drop in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans in some parts of the world, and those effects should become evident across large parts of the ocean between 2030 and 2040, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. The oceans receive their oxygen supply from the surface via the atmosphere or from phytoplankton, which release oxygen in the water by photosynthesis. When the oceans are warmed they absorb less oxygen and marine life tend to move more slowly.

A damage assessment revealed significant damage to the motor vessel Sparna, which ran aground Monday in the main shipping channel of the Columbia River near Cathlamet, Wash. The damage assessment showed multiple fractures were found, the largest being a 25-foot by 5-foot wide fracture with a visible boulder lodged inside. Damage to the Sparna was contained to two flooded compartments. The assessment was submitted to the U.S. Coast Guard by Ballard Marine Construction early Tuesday morning and was shared with both Washington and Oregon state responders.

The U.S. Office of Naval Research has awarded BAE Systems an $11 million contract to develop next-generation electronic warfare (EW) technology that will quickly detect, locate, and identify emitters of radio frequency signals. Known as the Full-Spectrum Staring Receiver (FSSR), this technology will enable near-instantaneous battlespace situational awareness, emitter identification and tracking, threat warning and countermeasure and weapon cueing. Conventional situational awareness systems are not able to deliver the high level of coverage and responsiveness that FSSR will provide.

Carbon-rich Arctic soils are thawing, and that has the potential to undermine global climate policies, The Washington Post reports. Permafrost is basically soil that stays frozen all year long. Because it never melts, it holds thousands of years’ worth of dead plants and their carbon. About 24 percent of land in the Northern Hemisphere is covered with the stuff. Northern permafrost—ground frozen year-round—may contain more than twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere. And at least some of it could already be escaping to the atmosphere—as carbon dioxide or methane—as the Arctic warms. According to the National Academy of Sciences…

NOAA officials announced today the World Magnetic Model (WMM), a representation of Earth’s large-scale magnetic field and an indispensable complement to GPS devices used by NATO, the United States and United Kingdom militaries, as well as civil applications ranging from mineral exploration to smartphone apps, has been updated. Changes in the Earth's outer core trigger unpredictable changes in its magnetic field, an invisible force that extends from Earth's interior to where it meets a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun.

A Pacific storm pounded Southern California with heavy rain and high winds on Friday, triggering a small tornado, flash floods and mudslides that prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes, damaged dozens of others and disrupted passenger rail services along the coast. One person was found dead on Friday in a rain-swollen flood-control channel in the Orange County town of Garden Grove, which could mark the third storm-related fatality on the West Coast since Thursday. Separately, rescue teams saved two people after they were swept away in the fast-moving Los Angeles River near a homeless encampment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in Twitter messages.

Olgoonik/Fairweather, LLC, in conjunction with a team of scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Texas at Austin, the Florida Institute of Technology, Battelle Memorial Institute and Kinnetic Laboratories, Inc., has been awarded the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) contract to continue environmental monitoring research in the Beaufort Sea. The project is titled Arctic Nearshore Impact Monitoring in the Development Area (ANIMIDA III). ANIMIDA…

The funeral of the United States' fourth astronaut to fly in space, and the second to orbit the Earth, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Malcolm Scott Carpenter (retired), was held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colo., with full military honors. Carpenter, 88, died Oct. 10 at the Denver Hospice following complications from a stroke. He was, a dynamic pioneer of modern exploration, and earned the unique distinction of being the first human to penetrate both inner and outer space, thereby acquiring the dual titles of astronaut and aquanaut from NASA. He was commissioned in the U.S.

The Navy League of the United States mourns the death of its past national president, Capt. Daniel B. Branch Jr., USN retired. He died on Oct. 21, 2013, of complications from mesothelioma cancer at the age of 75. Memorial services will be held Thursday Oct. 24, at 2 p.m. at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, 7520 South Boulder Road, Boulder, Colo. Burial services will be held at a future date at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. Dan was born in Greenbelt, Md., in 1937, and graduated in 1959 from the U.S. Naval Academy.