Is there...?

Question

Wrong section, I know....

A device that shows where icebergs are located in the ocean so what happened to the Titanic doesn't happen again? If so, what is it called? Does it work?

I'm singing "My Heart Will Go On" for a performance, and I decided to learn more about the Titanic. As I was watching music videos, I freaked out about the whole sinking thing. So then I told my dad that I'm never ever ever ever going on a ship ever in my life ever. Then he said there's a device that tells where icebergs are, so ships don't crash into them and sink...

Is this true? Please answer, because I am seriously FREAKING OUT!!!

Answer 1

Okay look...Satellite imagery helps but a ship still risks collission if she gets too close.

They must know where it is...RADAR and ,to a lesser degree...satellite imagery.

They then rely on SONAR of varying scan arrays(beam angles and intensity) to determine the size and shape of the berg underwater and above.

Answer 2

icebergs are found using radar and sonar

Answer 3

As other posters have indicated, ice bergs are tracked quite closely today.  Ice bergs are most common from about April to July, but could be around later than July.  Occasionally in recent years ice bergs have actually been towed to remove them from shipping lanes and to make sure they do not pose a hazard to offshore oil rigs.  There is much more shipping activity in "ice berg alley" than there used to be at the time of the Titanic, and there is a great deal more information available today.  While ice bergs still pose a hazard, ships' captains now know where they are, how fast they are moving, etc., and so can easily avoid most of them.  There are low and small bergs that may be more difficult to detect, so crews know that they need to be particularly alert when passing through ice berg alley.  It is quite neat to live close enough to ice berg alley to watch the bergs passing by.  There is really no need for you to freak out about them.  Unless you are going to be in a ship in the North Atlantic at the right time of year, you will not encounter an ice berg, or have to worry about them at all.

Answer 4

The SAR systems that are used for iceberg detection here are located at an altitude of ~800 kilometers and orbit the earth 14 times each day.  In a single day, each satellite can look at one or two thick strips of Newfoundland and Labrador as seen in Figure 2.  Over the course of a few days it is possible to image the whole province.  The advantage with using satellite SAR is that we can get information on where icebergs are at a given instant in time.  Since icebergs move so slowly and satellite images are taken so often, we can usually find most of the icebergs that are around the coast.  The two satellites used are RADARSAT-1 and ENVISAT.

Answer 5

Ships today have radar which sends out a radio signal that bounces off an object and returns to the radar receiver this gives location, size and speed of a target like a iceberg. The other system in place is the US Coast Guard which tracks all icebergs in the north Atlantic and gives this information by radio to all ships at sea. So fear not the sea lanes are very safe from icebergs.

Answer 6

The coast guard actually goes out and looks for them. They also have radar but if most of the iceberg is under water it isn't reliable. I would venture to guess they have some sort of GPS mapping system they are using now.