North with the Spring

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy is the nation’s newest and most advanced polar icebreaker. It is also designed to conduct a variety of scientific activities in difficult conditions. It is shown here at sunset during the 2014 Arctic Spring cruise led by WHOI oceanographer Bob Pickart. The ship can push steadily through 4.5 feet of ice or back-and-ram through up to 8 feet and can operate at temperatures as low as -50°F (45°C). Its capabilities are crucial to conducting expditions like Pickart’s, which traveled north into the Chukchi Sea to observe the springtime bloom of phytoplankton beneath the Arctic sea ice. (Photo by Amanda Kowalski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)