Ice Tracking drifters deployed on nearshore ice near Barrow, AK, Chukchi Sea, 2015-03-26 to 2017-09-27 (NCEI Accession 0173716)

Twenty-five (25) prototype satellite-tracked ice trackers manufactured by PacificGyre Inc. were deployed on the sea ice along the Alaskan Arctic coast. Twenty were deployed in the spring of 2015 in clusters of five on first year and multi-year ice north of Barrow, AK, on landfast ice near Barrow, and in Harrison Bay in the Beaufort Sea. Five more were deployed in March 2017 within Elson Lagoon NE of Barrow. Trackers were transported via helicopter or snow machine to the deployment locations; trackers #7, #8, and #9 were dropped from the helicopter while in flight to test their ruggedness, and fell 30, 25, and 40 ft respectively.

The IceTrackers were tracked from their release until they beached on-shore or died at sea because of battery failure or other causes. Tracker positions were determined via GPS, and positions were relayed via Iridium communications to PacificGyre's on-shore data center. Sampling rates in 2015 varied from 10 min to 2 hours. In 2017, drifters transmitted every 10 minutes from 3/1/2017 12:00 to 3/2/2017 5:00, and every 12 hours thereafter. The trackers were designed to float, and deployments continued after the ice melted. Many trackers remained active as sea ice re-formed in the region, and several trackers were frozen in the ice and released the following spring. Tracker #3 survived more than 2 years, transmitting positions from 4/16/2015 - 5/24/2017.

由PacificGyre公司制造的25台卫星追踪式海冰跟踪器原型机，被部署于阿拉斯加北极沿岸的海冰之上。2015年春季共部署20台，以每5台为一组，分别布放在阿拉斯加州巴罗（Barrow）以北的一年冰与多年冰区域、巴罗附近的固定冰区域，以及波弗特海内的哈里森湾（Harrison Bay）。另有5台于2017年3月布放在巴罗东北方向的埃尔松泻湖（Elson Lagoon）内。所有跟踪器均通过直升机或雪地摩托运送至部署点位；其中编号#7、#8、#9的跟踪器在直升机飞行过程中被投放，以测试其抗摔耐用性，三者分别坠落至30、25、40英尺高度处。

该批海冰跟踪器自部署起便处于追踪状态，直至其冲抵岸线或因电池故障、其他故障在海上失效。跟踪器的位置通过GPS（全球定位系统）确定，并经由铱星（Iridium）通信系统中继至PacificGyre公司的陆上数据中心。2015年的采样间隔为10分钟至2小时不等。2017年，这批跟踪器在2017年3月1日12:00至2017年3月2日5:00期间每10分钟传输一次位置数据，此后则每12小时传输一次。该款跟踪器设计为可漂浮结构，因此在海冰融化后，跟踪器仍可在海水中持续开展监测工作。随着该区域海冰重新冻结，多台跟踪器仍保持运行状态；另有数台被冻结在海冰中，并于次年春季随海冰解冻后重新恢复工作。编号#3的跟踪器持续运行超过2年，于2015年4月16日至2017年5月24日期间持续传输位置数据。