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An icebreaker pauses

WHOI senior engineer Jeff O’Brien offloads an ice-tethered profiler buoy and winch from the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, during the 2019 expedition (17th year) of WHOI’s Beaufort Gyre Expedition Exploration Project. This gyre–a primary circulation feature in the Arctic Ocean–stores and transports freshwater, sea ice, and heat across the Canadian Basin, and is a critical part of the global climate system. Since 2009, this project has provided continuous monitoring of conditions in the region and established a strong foundation for understanding the current state and future  trajectories of the Arctic environment. (Photo by Fredrick Marin, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)