By my cursory analysis below, it appears I could FLOAT around Antarctica in less than a month or take up to 2 years-- without SAILS! [Indexed under "Southern Ocean - floating around Antarctica" in index below]. --Captain Rick Potvin, Virtual Circumnavigation of Antarctica to Determine 15,000 or 60,000 miles.
GREAT SOUTHERN OCEAN
Here we see an old map with GREAT SOUTHERN OCEAN labelled. I was under the impression that the Southern Ocean was only labelled in the year 2000 and that before 2000, it was merely thought of as the southern Indian, southern Atlantic and south Pacific. After reading this informatative Wikipedia piece under "Great Southern Ocean", it's apparent that there is still a mixed approach to the naming of the water surrounding Antarctica. Southern Ocean - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ocean
OCEAN CURRENT CIRCUMNAVIGATES ANTARCTICA
In my pursuit of a calculation of a true distance around Antarctica, I've overlooked the ocean current itself. According to the same Wikipedia article, The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the strongest current system in the world oceans, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific basins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ocean
Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Antarctic Convergence[edit]
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current moves perpetually eastward — chasing and joining itself, and at 21,000 km (13,000 mi) in length — it comprises the world's longest ocean current, transporting 130 million cubic metres per second (4.6×109 cu ft/s) of water – 100 times the flow of all the world's rivers.
TESTING the LENGTH OF ANTARCTICA CIRCUMPOLAR CURRENT
Given that the Wikipedia and official sources the claim is based on-- say that the current CHASES and JOINS itself (!?) for 13,000 miles... and is the "world's longest ocean current" and most VOLUMINOUS current-- what might we be able to do to test that? We'd have to become sailing experts, I suppose, and be able to determine our speed or velocity ON WATER in a CURRENT. We might be able to also determine the SPEED of the CIRCUMPOLAR CURRENT by itself, if it CHASES AND JOINS itself, somehow. We could theoretically set a boat on the water at one point-- say the Greenwich MERIDEAN... at ZERO degrees LONGTITUDE.... running through LONDON... and give it a little push east and see how long it takes for it to return to us from the west. Isn't this essentially what the Vendee Globe racers do-- with the added speed from wind sails? What IS the speed of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current?
SEARCHING...
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22antarctic+circumpolar+current%22+speed&btnG=Search&num=100&newwindow=1&safe=off&hl=en&gl=us&authuser=0
oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/ocng_textbook/.../chapter13_04.htm
Nov 2, 2007 ... The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is an important feature of the ... Typical current speeds are around 10 cm/s with speeds of up to 50 cm/s near ...
SPEED OF ANTARCTIC CIRCUMPOLAR CURRENT (ACC) is 10 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND?
The units of measurement of the speed of the Antarctic current is quoted in centimeters per second. I didn't expect that. I expected KNOTS. How would we convert cm/s to knots? I'm not sure yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Circumpolar_Current
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is an ocean current that flows clockwise from west to ... The ACC has been known to sailors for centuries; it greatly speeds up any travel from west to east, but makes sailing extremely difficult from east ...
oceanmotion.org/html/background/wind-driven-surface.htm
In that region, the current speed may be as great as 9 km per hr (5.5 mph). ... Atlantic Ocean gyres, prevailing winds generate the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
SPEED OF ANTARCTIC CURRENT ACC in MPH = 5.5 -- or is it 24 knots?
It seems that we could be considering an order of magnitude of about 5 mph as an ocean current speed in the Antarctic. With a 15,000 mile circuit, the water would chase itself around and around for 15,000 miles / 5 miles/hr for 3000 hours -- roughly 4 months. That's fairly quick. It becomes apparent that the Vendee Globe Race claim of circling the Antarctica at 60S in 3 months is realistic-- if it's actually occurring. However it also appears that the wind doesn't speed them up too much. If they sat on a raft and did not sail, they would still circle the globe in 4 months.
www.shorstmeyer.com/msj/geo130/antarctica/polarinfo.pdf
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the most important current in the Southern ... The average wind speed between 40°S and 60°S is 15 to 24 knots wit
INDICATIONS SO FAR VARY FROM 5 mph to 24 KNOTS
So far, I'm coming up with 5 mph to 5X as fast as that-- in the order of magnitude of 24 knots which is close enough to 24 mph to be useful for my consideration. Note that the variance is about 5X, which is consistent with the variance between a spherical earth and flat earth estimate of the distance around Antarctica-- the distance being 15,000 vs. 60,000 miles. If the ocean current is 5X as fast by certain estimates, then the trip around Antarctica should take less than a month, by simply sitting on a raft. On the other hand, if the time to circumnavigate the world is indeed 4 months by ocean current alone, we might be looking at 5X that time or 20 months, close to 2 years-- which is Captain Cook's time, they say, to circuit Antarctica. It's pretty confusing at this point but these numbers are at least a starting point. I need to do better work and be more accurate as to what I'm talking about. Where is the "father" in this picture by the way? He could be the one taking the picture I guess. This is not Antarctica, that's for sure.
ICE FLOES ARE NOT SUBSTANTIALLY HINDERING ANTARCTIC OCEAN CURRENT
If we did float on a raft around Antarctica at 5 to 25 knots, it's quite possible that we could avoid ice altogether at 60S. The Latitude lines below are in 5 deg increments and fake satellite (acutally GPS etc) pictures show that we have clear sailing at 60S. At 65S we encounter significant ice and land.
http://www.shorstmeyer.com/msj/geo130/antarctica/polarinfo.pdf
PRETTY 3D PICTURE OF ANTARCTIC OCEAN CURRENTS
It's interesting to consider the following pretty 3D picture. Note the surface "ACC" which is what we're interested in if we FLOAT around Antarctica on a RAFT.
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Mi-Oc/Ocean-Currents.html
CONCLUSION
It appears that we can DRIFT around Antarctica without sails and simply ride the current on a raft. I would choose a houseboat over a raft however since I could include all the comforts of home. An old unpowered yacht or cruise ship might be better. No power and no sails would be required. I might start looking for a good deal on an old seaworthy riverboat with a non-working engine.
Upto 2 knots seems the general consensus, average about 1 knot.
ReplyDeletehttp://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/antarctica/circulation.html
I would have expected a lot of data from drifting buoys. [These measurements are transmitted to land stations via satellite apparently...]
There's some data here
http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/applications/ocean/mesoscale-circulation/multisensors/altimetry-and-buoys/?type=123
and an interesting diagram showing a five year track of a buoy which does actually seem to circumnavigate antarctica. The article is behind a wall.
search Argo Drifter 24442 image.
Despite nearly 4000 Argo drifters in the oceans,
Deletehttp://www.argo.ucsd.edu/
http://www.argos-system.org/web/en/377-oceanography-and-climatology-programs.php
there seems no other track showing a circumnavigation.
Here's one-- 1900978
Deletehttp://www.argodatamgt.org/Access-to-data/Description-of-all-floats2
It was released south of South Africa in 2009 and is now south of New Zealand. Thus it has taken 7 years to float 3/4 of the way around the world-- 7 years! It's right in the area where they say the Antarctica Circumpolar Current ACC is strongest. If you say 1-2 knots (I found 5 knots)... then we'll take your number-- say 1 knot.
A 15,000 mile radius at 1 knot (close enough to 1 mph for our purpose here), that's 15,000 hours. It should take 15000 mi / 1 mph = 15,000 hours / 24 hr/day = 625 days or 1.7 years to circumnavigate at that latitude-- give or take.
But so far it has taken 7 years or 4X as long to go just 3/4 of the way around. If it takes another 3 years to finish, it will have been 10 years vs. the 1.7-- or close to 2 years it should have taken. That's an order of magnitude of 5X-- which is close to the order of magnitude difference between a circumnavigation of 15,000 vs. 60,000 miles for spherical or flat earth at that latitude-- which is 4X.
In effect, Argo Platform 1900978 proves earth is flat. Thanks, Felix!
why are you debating on the mission because you wont use GPS? just use GPS, satellite or not its very accurate at giving speed.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe satellites exist. I believe GPS is actually based on ground based radar. GPS will be programmed to make me think I'm on a globe. My method will use more ancient ways of "knowing". Not the high tech ways that I don't trust. My car's idiot lights couldn't even tell me that my transmission fluid was low so now I'm dealing with that-- and that was in a "computer chip" car. Thanks for your contribution here, however. I appreciate your visit.
ReplyDelete