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Cast Adrift

WHOI engineers Jim Dunn (left in red jacket) and Kris Newhall (kneeling) prepare to deploy an ice-tethered profiler (ITP) during a cruise on the CCCG Louis S. St. Laurent in the Beaufort Sea in October, 2010. The ITP is a package of instruments attached to a weighted line that is anchored to the ice. It will drift with the ice, gathering information on water properties such as salinity and temperature, for up to three years. Scientists from WHOI, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the U.S. Army CRREL (Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory) are studying currents and water masses in the Arctic as part of the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project. (Photo by Rick Krishfield, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)