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Ice Capade

December 29, 2016

WHOI researchers Kris Newhall (left) and Rick Krishfield (right), and Brian Mackenzie, crew member of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent, set up an ice-tethered profiler to collect data on the Arctic Ocean beneath the sea ice. Since 2003, WHOI oceanographer Andrey Proshutinsky has led a study of the Beaufort Gyre—a swirling, wind-driven ocean circulation cell larger than the Gulf of Mexico that is a major driver of the Arctic region’s climate. The long-term monitoring has shown how a delicately balanced but predictable Arctic climate pattern has become disrupted, probably because of increased melting from the Greenland Ice Sheet. (Photo by Gary Morgan, Canadian Coast Guard)