Ice rafts not sails: Floating the rocks at Racetrack Playa, Paper by Ralph Lorenz et. al. Options

[ngunn]

Thanks once again to Jason B for making this intriguing paper accessible to all: http://barnesos.net/publications/papers/20...track.Rafts.pdf

[ElkGroveDan]

I suppose others have already thought of solar powered web cams and things like that. Though it seems that we are looking at movement during periods of partial immersion where the rocks may be barely visible from above.

[rlorenz]

I suppose others have already thought of solar powered web cams and things like that.

yes.

Took a long time to get a permit but it can be done subject to certain Parks Service
limitations.

Since winter is the time of interest, and cameras cannot be left on the nice flat playa
itself, solar power is less effective than it might be, but digital timelapse cameras can
run on alkaline Ds for months.
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rlorenz/timelapse.pdf

One would have to be very lucky to see the rocks move, but timelapse has been proving
useful to understand the conditions on the playa (how often flooded, how often frozen etc.)
That work is being written up right now.

btw, I believe someone has been doing Gigapan surveys of the playa for a year or so. I
tried a Gigapan myself but it drained the batteries in minutes and was overall rather
frustrating.
Having been going to the playa a couple of times a year since 2006, I've found walking
around and doing manual pans from GPS-fixed locations to be a very time-efficient means of
survey. Just wish the bastard rocks would actually move.