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Icy Outpost

December 2, 2012

Researchers from WHOI and crew from the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St. Laurent prepare to deploy an ice-tethered micro-mooring (ITM) on a large ice floe in the Canada Basin in August. The ITM consists of a yellow buoy embedded in a hole in the ice, with a line supporting instruments hanging 100 meters down into the ocean below. The instruments will measure water properties at 15-minute intervals for up to two years. This expedition marked the tenth year of the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project exploring the effects of climate change on the Arctic. Project co-leader Rick Krishfield reported that this year, the team had to cruise 200 miles north of their track the previous nine years to find enough ice to deploy their instruments.

(Photo by Rick Krishfield, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)