Second leg of Arctic ocean research voyage

Hydro International -

Scientists embark this week from Alaska on the second and final campaign of a NASA field campaign to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems.

The field campaign takes 47 scientists for five weeks to the Arctic Ocean, where a variety of instruments will be used onboard the Healy and deployed into the ocean and on the sea ice. Following the mission's first campaign in summer 2010, the second year of sampling seeks to find year-to-year differences and provide data for new lines of investigation.

On 25th June, the ICESCAPE mission, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," resumes its shipborne investigation of the impacts of climate change in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along Alaska's western and northern coasts. Research teams depart from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy.

New to ICESCAPE in 2011, the ship will forge north through the Beaufort Sea to explore the relationship between shallow water on the continental shelf and deep water in the Canada Basin. Phytoplankton on the shallow shelves tend to flourish when the ice retreats and scientists want to find out what feeds the bloom.

Combined observations from the field and from NASA satellites are critical to understanding the Arctic, where the signals of climate change are amplified. The accelerated decline of Arctic sea ice extent and thickness exemplifies this trend, and scientists want to know how this change affects other ocean processes and marine life.

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