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July 25, 2012

In 2003, scientists traveled to the Beaufort Sea to collect instruments, called moored profilers, that had spent the previous year at least a mile under Arctic ice gathering data about ocean currents. As scientists waited nervously to see their data, boatswain’s mate Scott Lussier pushed the first of eight moorings recovered into a laboratory on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy to download the instrument’s stored information. Elation quickly replaced their anxiety; the instrument had worked perfectly, recalled scientist and photographer Chris Linder, who worked with chief scientist Bob Pickart on the cruise. More than 2,500 files were stored inside for their analyses. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)