Are you currently feeling powerless against climate change in general, and
the shrinking Arctic Ice in particular?
Probably! But now, there's no need to.
The Siku project is developing ice preservation machines which will be used on thinning ice, or permafrost, before it breaks up, to prevent it disappearing.
It’s a simple, human-scale solution which, with help from engineers at Bangor University (North Wales, UK), has already been shown to be feasible.
We’re busy working with local people of the Arctic region who would manage these machines and move them to wherever they are most needed: to protect their livelihood and the habitat of endangered wildlife, including polar bears. We need your support to enable the essential next step of research and development before making Arctic-ready machines to test on the ice fields and permafrost.
THE THEORY:
Loss of Sea Ice
As ice is lost, the sun can heat more of the sea.
This warmer sea then finds it easier to melt the remaining ice.
This positive feedback loop heats the earth’s atmosphere resulting in sea level rise, more extreme weather and a loss of habitat for Arctic animals.
Preserving Sea Ice
By adding a small layer, the ice can be preserved gaining time for new technologies and keeping the sea cooler.
The now cooler sea will, therefore, allow easier production of ice in the winter, lower heat absorption by the sea and help slow the current rise in earth surface temperatures.
Not only does the additional ice layer preserve area of ice, but by doing so, it retains the high albedo effect of the ice or permafrost. That is, being lighter in colour (than the sea or thawed ground) more heat is reflected back into space rather than heating up our planet.
ALREADY IN USE!
The idea of spraying water on top of ice to thicken it has already been used in a number of situations. On the Yukon River in Dawson City, for example, they spray water onto a frozen river to thicken the ice, so connecting the people who live on either sides. And the oil industry (C-CORE) create huge islands (on which they mount drilling ricks) by using diesel powered pumps to spray water: successful but far from eco-friendly! Our machine will be powered by wind turbines and designed to be used in a sustainable way.
For the last two years, Electronic Engineering students at Bangor University have been designing and testing suitable machines. This is the 2016-17 team with theirs. We don't have enough frosts in Wales to test it on ice, but the spraying certainly works and many other technical details have been modelled and validated.
OUR TEAM
Nick Penny is originator of the Siku Project. He is an Enterprise Architect with an Engineering background and has been consulting on technical product design and development for a wide range of companies and organisations for many years. These include business start-ups, blue-chip companies and the public sector.
He has been successful across a variety of sectors including banking and finance, on-line services, travel, retail, education and medical and industrial processing. He specialises in quickly identifying and understanding customer needs, assessing their technical requirements, and designing/delivering effective solutions. Liking to work across the whole lifecycle of a product, the Siku Project fully utilises his depth and breadth of experience.
For 17 years researcher Dr Keith Beasley worked as a Quality and Reliability expert in microelectronics research & development. Amongst the state-of-the-art technology he worked on were the silicon chips for the UK's first ever digital telephone exchange (System X) on which most, if not all of the IT we now depend upon, has been based. Seeking a career change he retrained as a holistic health practitioner eventually running retreats in the Algarve, Portugal. Back in the UK, in 2013 he gained a PhD (from Bangor University, Wales) on the practice of 'Transcending Thought' amongst those individuals who are able to attain a mode of consciousness beyond the norm. He is fascinated by this way of 'thinking', not dissimilar to the state of engaging with life practiced by indigenous peoples, from Australian Aboriginal people . . . to the Sami of the Arctic.
Dr Iestyn Pierce is head of the School of Electronic Engineering at Bangor University. Since 2016 Iestyn has been supervising the Masters students undertaking the design and build of the original Siku Project and Refrost Project prototypes.
Dr Shaun Russell is Director of Treborth Botanic Gardens at Bangor University and provides the project’s environmental science expertise having previously worked for the South African Antarctic Biological Programme and the British Antarctic Survey. He has particular knowledge of the mosses and lichens that are a major constituent of permafrost.
These team members are supported by a wide network of volunteers whose time and efforts we particularly appreciate.
REFERENCES
The following are the details of documents mentioned above or external links to our source information:
Cole, E., Cuthbertson, E., Daniels A. & Wright E. (2017) The Feasibility of an Arctic Based Wind-Powered Pump to Thicken the Ice Sheet in an Effort to Reduce the Impact of Global Warming, Bangor University M.Eng dissertation.
C-CORE, (2005) Ice Island Study - Final Report: MMS Project #468
Cook, D., Mountney, T., Owen, T. and Clave, V. (2018) Arctic ice thickening to preserve polar ice caps, Bangor University M.Eng dissertation.
It 'looks like a big lawn sprinkler': River spraying starts in Dawson City, CBC News, Jan 17, 2018
LATEST NEWS
On Sat 7th July members of the Siku Project team, volunteers and members of the public enjoyed a fascinating day at Anglesey Sea Zoo. The Fun Day, at this top rated local attraction, included drawing competition for children, a presentation of our project and demonstrations of some of our prototype machines on the beach, each showing the principle of the water-distribution at the heart of our Arctic Ice Preservation machines.
A video summary of the day is available here: https://vimeo.com/279610928
