A new University of Alaska Fairbanks research ship will arrive at it’s home port in Seward, Alaska this week.
The 261 foot sikuliaq is scheduled to make one stop at Ketchikan on Tuesday, February 10, after which stopping at Juneau next week befor making it up to Seward.
The ship’s journey north began after it was built in Wisconsin and set sail last summer via the panama canal.
The goal of the vessel is to collect data from NASA’s newest “Soil Moisture – Active/Passive” satellite which is set to monitor soil moisture all over the earth and was launched on January 29th.
UAF researchers will access data which will be updated every three days for three years, using that information to better understand droughts, floods, and the changing climate.
The ship is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by UAF’s School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. It is the first in the U.S. Academic Fleet able to break ice up to two and a half feet thick.
