Hunters use coastal radars to evaluate ice conditions. Soon they might be able to use them to predict ice breaking off.

Spring whaling season in Utqiaġvik depends on the quickly changing conditions of the sea ice: Is it safe for the whalers to snowmachine, set up camp and pull up a whale weighing over 50 tons? Do they have leads in the ice to put in their boats?

One tool whalers in Utqiaġvik use to help them answer these questions is sea ice radar: a system installed in the town over a decade ago that shows how the ice has been changing. The University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have been working to put radars in more communities and create a way to alert residents about the ice that is about to become unstable, said UAF Research professor Andy Mahoney who presented the ice radar tool at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting.

“If we can predict when ice is going to start moving, if we could predict that ahead of time, it’s gonna be a game-changer,” a long-time whaling captain from Utqiaġvik Michael “Quuniq” Donovan said.

Donovan said Utqiaġvik hunters have been already benefiting from having the radar system installed.

“It’s pretty useful to be able to go on there and see when and where the ice is breaking off,” Donovan said. “Obviously, with traditional knowledge, the hunters already know, but having that scientific backup and know exactly where it’s breaking, where it’s moving — stuff like that, it’s just a huge help."

Several times, that knowledge helped residents rescue Utqiaġvik hunters, Donovan said.

“When the whaling crews had broken off from the shorefast ice, we were able to pinpoint exactly which way they were heading.”

Coastal radars monitor the sea ice up to 6 miles from shore and despite the dark or cloud cover can capture short-lived changes such as ice breaking off or water leads closing in, Mahoney said. While satellites also take mages of the ice, that data is not collected often enough and sometimes misses quick changes, Mahoney said.

In addition to the sea ice radar in Utqiaġvik, the UAF scientists installed one in Nome several years ago and in Gambell in May 2024.

After successful implementation and use of radars in three villages, researchers are also looking for requests for a couple of radar systems in other locations in Alaska, Mahoney said.

For residents, the use of radars varies from village to village, Mahoney said.

In Utqiaġvik, the radar was installed mainly to monitor the shorefast ice, Mahoney said. In Gambell, residents asked for a radar after hearing about one in Nome, and their main goal was to track open leads, Mahoney said.

“They’re more interested in the movement and the drifting of the ice near the coast. They’re worried about their hunters and their boats going out hunting and then maybe not being able to come back, because the ice closed up while they were gone,” Mahoney said. “They’re interested in this as a safety tool, or one way that they can improve their knowledge of the ice to make their judgments about being safe when they’re out boating.”

During his presentation at the AGU meeting, Mahoney spoke about the scientific applications of sea ice observations as well as their value to coastal communities. He said the researchers have been looking for more effective ways to communicate that data to residents.

“We’re trying to develop ways to make it more useful to those coastal communities,” he said.

Mahoney said that the ice seems to “almost vibrate” before it detaches from the coast and drifts off into the ocean. That vibration is visible through the radars.

Scientists are considering developing an early warning system for when the ice is detaching. One idea they have is to adjust the maps on their website and color-code ice that looks like it might be about to start moving. Another way would be to develop a phone app that will show users the current data and then notify them if the ice is about to become unstable.

Scientists are in the process of releasing the test version of their early warning system to a select group of residents who have been using the sea ice radar data. They want to collect feedback before releasing a public version, which they hope to do in 2026, Mahoney said.

“We need to work with people to find out how they’re using the data to sort of make that information available in the most useful way,” he said. “If it’s not accurate or if it’s not useful, people will not use it or lose interest in it.”

Donovan said that he would prefer to have the forecast for ice conditions on an app.

“Everybody’s got a smartphone — you know, a computer in their hands," he said. “If we could have that in our pocket, ready to go, that’d be awesome.”

Correction: The story was updated to reflect a more accurate estimate of the size of a bowhead whale.