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Cold Insulation

When sea ice forms, it releases salt into surface waters. These waters become denser and sink to form the Arctic halocline a layer of cold water that acts as barrier between sea ice and deeper warmer water that could melt the ice. WHOI researchers and their colleagues from around the world have been deploying ships and instruments to measure how the waters beneath the Arctic ice are changing. (Illustration by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)