A novel project using cameras mounted on unmanned aircraft
flying over the Arctic is serving double duty by assessing the
characteristics of declining sea ice and using the same aerial
photos to pinpoint seals that have hauled up on ice floes. The
project is the first to use aircraft to monitor ice and seals in
remote areas without putting pilots and observers at risk, said
Elizabeth Weatherhead of the University of Colorado at Boulder,
who is leading the study team. Weatherhead is a senior scientist
at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental
Sciences, a joint venture of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. Monitoring the seals is
important because the Arctic is rapidly warming as a result of
human-produced greenhouse gases building up in Earth's
atmosphere, according to climate scientists. Warming
temperatures and sea ice loss are of concern to biologists
because they are impacting at least some Arctic marine and
terrestrial mammals. "Because ice is diminishing