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Tag: Arctic
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  • Standard Operating Procedures for the Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Summer Roads and Trails, Drop Zones, and Firebreaks in Cold Regions

    Abstact: As DoD investments across Alaska increase in response to DoD Arctic strategies, expanded training opportunities are necessary to enable the military to enhance their Arctic capabilities. In addition, wildfire management is increasingly important in the area as the summer season has expanded and warmed in recent decades. This report addresses the siting, design, construction, and maintenance of summer roads and trails, drop zones, and firebreaks on DoD lands in Alaska and other cold regions. It considers the harsh weather conditions, extreme seasonality, and remoteness of these environments, in addition to the general requirements of understanding the local environment, relevant risks, permitting, and regulations. The three types of linear infrastructure are assessed together as each involves the clearing of land and maintaining it as cleared, and therefore share common risks. This report summarizes best practices throughout the project lifecycle and synthesizes risk mitigation strategies informed by a comprehensive literature review and conversations with local training land managers. Using Fort Wainwright in Interior Alaska as an example, it provides Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to aid land managers and military unit leadership as they navigate challenges and opportunities in their increased use of these critical linear infrastructure types in high latitude environments.
  • Standard Operating Procedures for the Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Linear Infrastructure in Fens in Cold Regions

    Abstract: In Alaska and across the Arctic and Subarctic, winter conditions can enable the expansion of linear infrastructure across the frozen landscape of fen wetlands. This expands military training opportunities into lowland wet, boggy, mostly impassable terrain. However, there are personnel, civilian, and environmental risks from using fens as travel corridors and drop zones. The effective design, construction, operation, and maintenance of such infrastructure on fens supports the dual mandate of troop training to fulfill the mission and protect the environment. This Technical Report (TR) addresses the risks of the establishment and use of linear infrastructure on the DoD lands in Alaska and in other austere cold environments where the DoD operates. This TR is founded on a review of methods used by US Army Installations, focusing primarily on Fort Wainwright in Interior Alaska. It establishes basic standard operating procedures (SOPs) by drawing on federal agency and international best practices and emerging research in circumpolar regions and beyond. This TR serves as a reference document for military land and infrastructure planners and unit leadership to create and maintain linear infrastructure on fens as environmental challenges evolve and opportunities develop to further the Army mission in high latitude environments.
  • Standard Operating Procedures for the Design, Maintenance, and Operation of Freshwater Ice Bridges

    Abstract: Operations in cold regions inevitably require maneuvering across, through, or atop frozen surfaces. Ice bridges are special components of winter linear infrastructure that can have significant impacts on mission targets. Proper siting, design, monitoring, and operation of ice bridges reduces potential environmental impacts and decreases risks to personnel and equipment. The US Army operates multiple ice bridge crossings on training lands in Alaska and collaborates with other countries in training events that use them. They are a likely means of travel for potential operations in cold regions. However, the US Army lacks up to date guidance on the design, maintenance, and operation of ice bridges. This report addresses this need by providing a set of standard operating procedures that have been developed from a broad synthesis of ice bridge usage in northern regions. In addition, it reviews all relevant historic and current literature regarding ice bridges, describes risk assessment and mitigation techniques for ice bridge operations, discusses specific considerations for US Army training areas in Alaska, and briefly describes important ramifications of changing weather conditions and increasing uncertainty as they relate to ice bridge life span.
  • Airborne Bacteria over Thawing Permafrost Landscapes in the Arctic

    Abstract: Rapid warming in the Arctic, outpacing global rates, is driving significant changes in cryospheric landscapes, including the release of long-preserved microorganisms. This study focuses on thawing permafrost in Northern Alaska, where microbes previously preserved in frozen soils are introduced into thermokarst lakes, rivers, and coastal waters and may also become airborne as bioaerosols. We present the first microbial composition measurements of bioaerosols in Alaska, identifying their local sources, such as soils, water bodies, and vegetation. Although sea/brackish water is the dominant bioaerosol contributor, we provide the first evidence of permafrost microbial signatures in bioaerosols from permafrost-laden regions. Permafrost is highly enriched with ice nucleating particles (INPs), which play a crucial role in cloud formation, precipitation processes, and radiation budget despite their relatively low atmospheric concentrations. With rising Arctic temperatures, increased permafrost thaw could result in higher levels of airborne permafrost-derived microbes and biological INPs active at warmer subzero temperatures. This, in turn, could enhance precipitation, further accelerating the permafrost thaw. Our findings emphasize the complex interactions between terrestrial changes and atmospheric processes, revealing a potential feedback loop that could intensify permafrost thaw and its broader environmental impacts.
  • ERDC-CRREL scientists install sensor-laden buoys in one of the planet’s “hardest places” to reach

    As part of NASA's ARCSIX research program, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory scientists Dr. Chris Polashenski, Tricia Nelsen and Roy Hessner engineered and deployed specially modified, sensor-laden buoys into the Arctic Ocean north of Canada and Greenland near the North Pole in an effort to help NASA better understand Arctic sea ice melting.
  • ERDC breaks ground on new Permafrost Tunnel Operations Facility

    The U.S. Army Engineer and Research Development Center (ERDC) broke ground June 25 on its new Permafrost Tunnel Operations Facility, a 4,300 square-foot building that will contribute to significant advances in permafrost engineering, geotechnical research, and Earth and Mars polar science, as well as a greater understanding of life in extreme environments.
  • ERDC hosts first-of-its-kind cold weather manufacturing challenge

    The Office of the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program’s hosted the first-of-its-kind Point of Need Manufacturing Challenge, December 4-8, at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire.
  • Detecting sound in the Arctic

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory’s (CRREL) signature physics branch is obsessed with sound -- or more specifically, the way it travels through the atmosphere and interacts with terrain – and methods for extracting information from sound signals.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: SnowMicroPenetrometer Applications for Winter Vehicle Mobility

    The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center has published the report/note described and
  • Corps expert explains why Arctic matters

    VICKSBURG, Miss. (Feb. 11, 2018) --When the “polar vortex” dipped down into the United States more