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Resolute Bay Sleigh Ride

February 8, 2019

WHOI engineers Rick Krishfield (right) and Kris Newhall take part of an ice-tethered profiler (ITP) for a sled ride in Resolute Bay, Canada, before deploying it on an Arctic Ocean ice floe. This yellow surface buoy sits atop the ice, with a mooring line descending into the ocean. An instrument moves up and down the line, measuring water temperature, salinity, and sometimes oxygen content at various depths, as the floe drifts across the ocean (see video). Developed by Krishfield and WHOI oceanographer John Toole, ITPs have been key instruments for a multi-institutional Arctic observing network that has detected impacts from climate change in the region. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)