Arctic Shield 2015 Field Campaign Report

• Main Authors: Stafford, Robert A, Ivey, Mark
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Arctic; Pacific; Kodiak; north slope; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1253786; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1253786; https://doi.org/10.2172/1253786

During the week of July 13, 2015, the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) Research and Development Center partnered with Conoco Phillips through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to conduct a Search and Rescue (SAR) exercise off of Oliktok Point, Alaska. The Coast Guard was interested in exploring how unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can be used to enhance capabilities for its SAR mission and gain a better understanding of how it could work jointly with private industry for response operations in remote regions. Participants in the exercise included Coast Guard Pacific Area Command, Coast Guard Cutter Healy, Coast Guard District Seventeen, Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, and Conoco Phillips. Joining Conoco Phillips were their partners Insitu (a Boeing company), Era Helicopter, and Era Helicopter’s partner Priority One. Other government agencies supporting the exercise were the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the North Slope Borough of the state of Alaska. The exercise scenario involved a simulated small aircraft crash offshore where the survivors took refuge in a 6-man life raft. The aircraft’s last known position and asset availability required the Coast Guard to coordinate the response with Conoco Phillips. This included the use of an Insitu-operated ScanEagle UAS, flown from DOE-ARM’s Sandia National Laboratory-operated facility at Oliktok Point, and manned aircraft provided by both the Coast Guard’s Forward Operating Location in Deadhorse and Era Helicopter. Lessons learned from this exercise will help the Coast Guard understand how to best collaborate with private industry on the North Slope during response operations and develop requirements for UAS performing Coast Guard missions in the Arctic environment. For the ARM facility, the exercise demonstrated some of the opportunities and constraints of using UAS in the Arctic for research ...