Arctic Submarine Laboratory The Arctic Submarine Laboratory was a research facility of the U . S . Navy ' s Electronics Laboratory in San Diego , California . It began as a converted World War II mortar emplacement , " Battery Whistler " , and was focused on scientific exploration of the Arctic Basin , and particularly providing the capability to operate attack submarine s in the Arctic under the ice canopy . Founder . In 1941 , Dr . Waldo K . Lyon started work at the Navy Radio and Sound Lab , as their first Ph . D . physicist . He was charged with forming and directing initial efforts of the Sound Division . The lab was used during World War II for testing , repairing and modifying submarine equipment and harbor defense systems in the Pacific Ocean . Lyon recalls the creation of the Arctic Submarine Laboratory after the war : His recommendation initiated an effort that would last over four decades . Creation of the laboratory . In 1947 , with the merger of Navy Radio and Sound Laboratory and the University of California Division of War Research into the Navy Electronics Laboratory ( NEL ) , Dr . Lyon became head of the Submarine Studies Branch in the Research Division . A test pool was constructed at Battery Whistler ( a converted mortar battery at NEL ) to test equipment for deep submergence vehicles like Bathyscaphe " Trieste " . The pool was equipped to grow sea ice and study its physical properties . The new facility also included a field station at Cape Prince of Wales , Alaska , established in 1951 . The Arctic Submarine Lab also included a sea ice cryostat for testing scale - model submarine sails punching up through the ice ; and possessed the only betatron on the West Coast for examination into the structures of heavy objects and metals up to 18 inches in diameter . Mission and accomplishments . Equipment and techniques were designed and tested to enable submarine operation in the Arctic Ocean . Brine content and ice elasticity were measured to apply in the design of submarines that could surface through the ice cover . Cold rooms and calibration facilities at the Arctic Submarine Laboratory were used to solve the problem of icing on submarine snorkel head valves . Dr . Lyon and researcher Art Roshon developed an under - ice sonar that allowed completion of the first winter cruise by " Sturgeon " class submarines by inverting a fathometer and putting it on top of the submarine . The research culminated in the transpolar submerged voyage of USS " Nautilus " ( SSN - 571 ) in 1958 and included scores of under - ice cruises to gain scientific knowledge essential to Arctic submarine operations . Through the 1970s and 1980s the ongoing research at the Arctic Submarine Laboratory resulted in refurbishment and improvement of the Lab ' s cryogenic facilities . These facilities were used for evaluating icing issues on " Los Angeles " class submarines , sonar technology developments for remote acoustic measurement of ice thickness , and the ice breakthrough tests for " Seawolf " class submarines . The Lab continues today with its primary missions , developing new technology for the use of US submarines heading under the polar ice pack and providing operations staff to assist in taking submarines under the ice pack .