TECH FILE: Acoustic Tech Used to Understand Climate Change in the Arctic
Major changes are occurring in the ocean. Climate change and subsequent melting sea ice are not necessarily good changes. Why are acoustic Doppler current profilers an invaluable tool to get a complete picture of the Arctic’s changing wave conditions in the context of climate change?In the Arctic, the end-of-summer sea ice extent in 2020 was the second-lowest in the last 42 years.“The ice used to melt out in June or July. Now it melts out in May. It used to come back in September or October.
Huge Waves Measured for First Time in Arctic Ocean
As the climate warms and sea ice retreats, the North is changing. An ice-covered expanse now has a season of increasingly open water which is predicted to extend across the whole Arctic Ocean before the middle of this century. Storms thus have the potential to create Arctic swell – huge waves that could add a new and unpredictable element to the region. A University of Washington researcher made the first study of waves in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, and detected house-sized waves during a September 2012 storm. The results were recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Reservoir Group Adds Companies and Services
Reservoir Group has strengthened its portfolio of completion and production services with the announcement that two well intervention specialists have joined the ‘club’. The Tool Company, located in Assen, The Netherlands and the Aberdeen-based firm, Wellbore Intervention bring their expertise in coiled tubing well intervention to the portfolio of activities currently on offer from Reservoir Group. Both companies provide a variety of well intervention services to the oil and gas industry across the UK and continental Europe.
