Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project | Cruise

Both icebreakers and air-supported ice camps were considered as platforms for performing the field deployment and recovery operations, and it was determined that icebreaker operations would be more practical, cost-effective, and safe. Therefore, arrangements were made to deploy these moorings in August 2003 from the Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent on a Joint Western Arctic Climate Study (JWACS) cruise, with Bon van Hardenburg (Institute of Ocean Sciences, IOS, Canada) as Chief Scientist.

JWACS is a scientific collaboration of researchers from Canada, the United States, Japan and China, spanning the Canadian Basin and the Mackenzie Shelf examining the impacts of climate variability on living and physical ocean processes. Research topics include atmospheric science, oceanography, climate change, potential effects of oil and gas exploitation and marine mammal observations. The field program began in 2002, and is expected to continue for six years.

Three WHOI scientists were responsible for deploying the mooring systems in 2003 with help from IOS technicians and Coast Guard personnel: Andrey Proshutinsky, principal investigator, coordinated the effort and conducted ancillary observations, Willie Ostrom led the deployment operation, and Rick Krishfield prepared the instrumentation and assisted the deployment. A full survey of the hydrography and chemistry was also conducted by scientists from IOS and the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC). More detailed information on the 2003 cruise is available under the 2003 Dispatches and 2003 Deployment Procedure headings.

In August 2004, all three moorings were successfully recovered during a JWACS cruise again on the Louis St. Laurent, and an enormous dataset retrieved from the instruments (soon to be available on the Data from Moorings page). After cleaning and re-powering, the systems were redeployed for another year, and a prototype Ice-Tethered Profiler was deployed in conjunction with an Ice-Mass Balance buoy. Richard Krishfield, John Kemp, and Kris Newhall from WHOI were responsible for the mooring and buoy operations, and provided updates and photos during the cruise on this website. Hydrography was again performed by IOS, headed by Sarah Zimmermann who was the Chief Scientist for the 2004 cruise. For more information about the mooring deployments, read the 2004 Deployment Procedure.

Despite an unexpected week-long critical ship repair, the summer 2005 cruise was a great success. Chief Scientist Sarah Zimmermann and lead IOS technician Doug Sieberg headed the hydrography effort. The WHOI mooring team redeployed three deep-water Beaufort Gyre Observing System (BGOS) moorings and added a fourth. The 4 mooring systems form the core of the Beaufort Gyre Observing System (BGOS), which will continue to be maintained on a yearly basis at least until 2008. Two new ice-tethered profilers were deployed on thick ice floes. In addition, a mooring was deployed on the Beaufort shelf edge as an extension of WHOI Investigator Bob Pickart's array of instruments from the Shelf-Basin Interactions (SBI) project. For more information on the SBI mooring field work (2002-2004), visit the Edge of the Arctic Shelf website. Photographer/writer Chris Linder posted the 2005 dispatches.

Chief Scientist Sarah Zimmermann led the 2006 expedition. Rick Krishfield, Will Ostrom, and Kris Newhall recovered and redeployed the four deep mooring systems that compose the Beaufort Gyre Observing System (BGOS). They will be redeployed again in 2007 and finally recovered in 2008. In addition, Bob Pickart's shelfbreak mooring was recovered and the CABOS mooring was be recovered and redeployed. Three ice-tethered profilers were deployed on the ice.

This year, Sarah Zimmerman is again leading the expedition on the icebreaker Louis-St-Laurent. We will be recovering and re-deploying the four moorings that compose the Beaufort Gyre Observing System. As part of projects associated with the International Polar Year, several instruments will be added to the moorings, including sensors to measure the variability in the deepest waters of the Canada Basin and a set of sediment traps. We will also deploy three ice-tethedered profilers and a bottom pressure recorder.