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Rubber Duckies For Global Warming Research

Posted by kdawson on from the next-time-try-penguins dept.

The Wall Street Journal has a look at global warming research using rubber duckies. The toys have been employed in tracking ocean currents since 1992; but recently NASA robotics expert Alberto Behar released 90 yellow rubber ducks into the melt water flowing down a chasm in a Greenland glacier. "Each duck was imprinted with an email address and, in three languages, the offer of a reward. If all goes well, Dr. Behar hopes that one day they will emerge 30 miles or so away at the glacier's edge in the open water of Disko Bay near Ilulissat, bobbing brightly amid the icebergs north of the Arctic Circle, each one a significant clue to just how warming temperatures may speed the glacier's slide to the sea."

7 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Pollution Anyone? by tempestdata · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What are the chances that these rubber duckies end up inside the tummy of some sea creature? In which case, that is just more pollution floating around in our oceans.

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  2. Great idea, it's happened before by accident by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sure this is where he got the idea.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-464768/Thousands-rubber-ducks-land-British-shores-15-year-journey.html

  3. What do they expect to prove with this? by techno-vampire · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From what I could tell when I RTFA, they already suspect that the melt water from the glacier reaches the ocean and I doubt that anybody would have any reason to dispute this. If and when somebody reports finding one, they'll have proved this. TFA talks about learning about conditions under the glacier, but makes no mention of how. There are no instruments inside the duckies or any way to record what they go through, so how can the scientists learn anything from them, other than the (as I pointed out above) obvious fact that the melt water reaches the sea?

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    1. Re:What do they expect to prove with this? by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How long it takes is rather important.

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    2. Re:What do they expect to prove with this? by ductonius · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They're not only wondering where the water goes, but how long it takes to get there and where it goes after that.

      If they all come out at once then we know the routes they all took about the same route, or the routes they took were all more or less direct. If they emerge over years or even decades then we know some are becoming trapped, only to be released later. What if a duck washes up in India, twelve years after it was released in Greenland?

      They're interested in knowing *everything* that could happen to these ducks after they're released. Furthermore, data from this experiment could confirm or falsify other oceanographic theories, all for $200 worth of rubber ducks.

  4. This is showmanship, not science by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The melt waters flowing under the glacier and through small streams will flow through gravels and other obstructions that the rubber duckies can't flow through. Thus, any data coming back will have a huge caveat hanging over it and will be rather useless from a scientific point of view. Radioactive tracers etc can give far better information.

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  5. Science Project or Phishing? by doublecuffs · · Score: 1, Interesting

    So do you need to send any personal information to report a rubber duckie finding? If not, how can they verify the finding? If so, and had you not read this posting, would you believe that this was a genuine scientific experiment and not a phishing attempt?