100th Ice Profiler
ASL Environmental Sciences has shipped two Ice Profilers to ConocoPhillips in early August 2008, bringing the total number of Ice Profilers sold to 100. Since the late 1990's when ASL, in collaboration with the Institute of Ocean Sciences, first introduced this advanced upward looking sonar (ULS), the demand for high resolution measurements of sea ice thickness and the detailed under-ice topography of sea ice has increased enormously.
Ice research programs have expanded considerably, driven by the major changes in the ice regime of the Arctic Ocean and other areas. Offshore oil and gas companies are increasingly embarking on exploration and production activities in ice-prone areas like the Arctic Ocean, around Sakhalin Island, the Caspian Sea and the east coast of Canada. The Ice Profiler provides ice thickness and drafts that are required to understand the ice pack changes in the Arctic Ocean and elsewhere - changes which are not well understood through existing predictions and models.