From the USCGC HEALY this past week:
"CO COMMENTS: CROSSED 60N, ENTERED THE ICE,
AND STARTED SCIENCE--A PERFECT DAY FOR WAGB SAILORS!"
While I need not say more, I will, lest we take for granted the things the Healy crew -- Coast Guard and Scientists -- undertake on behalf of national, and international, interests. It's useful to recall conditions that mariners and scientists around the globe endure for the sake of learning more about the oceans.
The Healy will return to Seattle in May following this three month deployment. When it embarks again, the Healy will head for the Arctic Ocean for the rest of the arctic summer. As occurred in 2008, the Healy will spend part of its 2009 deployment in joint mapping of the Arctic Extended Continental Shelf with the Canadian Icebreaker, the Louis St Laurent.
While I need not say more, I will, lest we take for granted the things the Healy crew -- Coast Guard and Scientists -- undertake on behalf of national, and international, interests. It's useful to recall conditions that mariners and scientists around the globe endure for the sake of learning more about the oceans.
The Healy embarked Seattle on March 4, 2009 for its Arctic West Summer 2009 (AWS 09) deployment. Before reaching the "perfect day" recorded above, the Healy crew endured some pretty punishing gales and accompanying rolls (up to some 28 degrees) crossing from Dixon Entrance to Chatham Strait, en route to Kodiak a few days back.
The Healy is underway for AWS 09 in support of the Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST), "a multi-year project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that studies the ecological processes of sea ice as it retreats through the Bering Sea.” BEST program scientists at sea and at several locations around the US are studying connections between "external forcing mechanisms and hydrographic structure and physical processes", between "physical aspects of the marine environment and the response of the biota of the eastern Bering Sea" and developing tools with "the goal of forecasting how the ecosystem might be expected to behave under different climate scenarios." Data gathered for BEST includes Benthic, Biology, Hydrography, Ice, Local Traditional Knowledge, Meteorology, Microbiology, Optics, Plankton, Productivity and Water Chemistry.
Views from the Healy the Healy aloft con are updated hourly at the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. The Healy's trackline is available at Icefloe. Note that a new beta track using Google Map is available at Icefloe as well, and provides ship information at each marker plotted there.
The Healy is underway for AWS 09 in support of the Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST), "a multi-year project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that studies the ecological processes of sea ice as it retreats through the Bering Sea.” BEST program scientists at sea and at several locations around the US are studying connections between "external forcing mechanisms and hydrographic structure and physical processes", between "physical aspects of the marine environment and the response of the biota of the eastern Bering Sea" and developing tools with "the goal of forecasting how the ecosystem might be expected to behave under different climate scenarios." Data gathered for BEST includes Benthic, Biology, Hydrography, Ice, Local Traditional Knowledge, Meteorology, Microbiology, Optics, Plankton, Productivity and Water Chemistry.
Views from the Healy the Healy aloft con are updated hourly at the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. The Healy's trackline is available at Icefloe. Note that a new beta track using Google Map is available at Icefloe as well, and provides ship information at each marker plotted there.The Healy will return to Seattle in May following this three month deployment. When it embarks again, the Healy will head for the Arctic Ocean for the rest of the arctic summer. As occurred in 2008, the Healy will spend part of its 2009 deployment in joint mapping of the Arctic Extended Continental Shelf with the Canadian Icebreaker, the Louis St Laurent.
Thanks to LDEO for the photo (with Steve Roberts) and trackline (with Tom Cook).
