BSEE Studies Arctic Response Challenges
The agency has tested a Geo-Referencing Identification Satellite tag project.
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement tested a Geo-Referencing Identification Satellite (GRIDSAT) tag project at the U.S. Navy's Ice Camp Sargo, a temporary station on top of a floating ice sheet in the Arctic, as part of Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2016, the agency reported.
The project tested the deployment and communication of the system and left several marking devices on the ice for long-term duration studies.
The extreme conditions in the Arctic create unique challenges to the identification, tracking, and response to an oil spill. The GRIDSAT radio/GPS marking device can be left on an ice floe to track the movement of the floe and entrapped oil for a period of up to nine months.