Collaboration boosts vessel safety in Gulf of Alaska
The Gulf of Alaska is home to a new state-of-the-art weather monitoring station that transmits information about current conditions in near real time to the internet. Information from the station will help mariners and commercial fishermen make better navigational decisions.
The council recently partnered with the Prince William Sound Science Center, Cape Saint Elias Lightkeepers Association, and the Coast Guard to install the station on Kayak Island, in the gulf of Alaska southeast of Prince William Sound.
The council purchased the station to help monitor conditions that could produce a weather phenomenon called “barrier jets.”
Barrier jets are very high winds formed when a low pressure storm system approaches a mountain range like the ones along the Gulf of Alaska coast. The mountains concentrate the air flow into jets of wind paralleling the coast. Wind speeds under these conditions can be dramatically higher than the locally forecasted winds.
The result can be ocean waves large enough to endanger passing tankers.
In 2007, the tanker Seabulk Pride left Prince William Sound laden with oil. As usual, conditions in the area were being monitored by the Coast Guard to ensure safe passage.
The Coast Guard does not allow tankers to sail if the winds are blowing at 45 knots (51 mph) or waves reach 15 feet. However, the weather at the time allowed traffic to continue.
Several miles out of the Sound, the tanker ran into winds of 63 mph with gusts up to 132 mph and 35-foot waves. The tanker was damaged when a huge wave broke over the bow.
After a review of the satellite weather information, the strong winds were later to have been caused by a fast-moving barrier jet.
The new station will monitor wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and solar radiation, all conditions which can set the stage for barrier jets.
The station was installed in July through a joint effort of the council’s Joe Banta and the Prince William Sound Science Center’s Rob Campbell.
“It is our hope that this information will be useful to the National Weather Service to help predict barrier jets,” Banta said. “They need measurements from the area where the jets start to form, which this station should provide.”
Looking for a place to locate the station, Banta contacted Toni Bocci, keeper for the Cape St Elias lighthouse. Bocci introduced the idea of locating the station on lighthouse property to the Lighthouse Keeper’s Association.
“When I talked to the board, I got all positive input,” Bocci said.
The association agreed to lease land for the station to the council for a nominal yearly fee.
Banta and Campbell were able to hitch a ride on a regularly scheduled Coast Guard helicopter flight to the installation site.
“The average person has to take a fixed wing plane, land on a beach, and hike a couple of miles in to the lighthouse,” Bocci said.
Banta is excited about the possibilities that this example holds for the future.
“I think this demonstrates how several groups can collaborate to make a difficult project work out.”