Ice-Tethered Profiler Deployment

WHOI researchers deploy a new instrument, an Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP). The ITP has a small yellow surface capsule that dangles an anchored 800-meter (2,265-foot) line through a hole in an ice floe. An instrument travels up and down the line daily, measuring water pressure, temperature, and salinity. Data are transmitted via satellite to WHOI, along with a GPS location of the instrument on the drifting floe. The ITP has enough battery power to last for three years, barring a breakup of the ice floe or polar bear vandalism.

Originally published online August 1, 2004