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Icy Office Cubicle

At Camp Barneo, an ice camp near the North Pole, WHOI senior research specialist Rick Krishfield “talks” to an Ice-Tethered Profiler, to ensure that it’s functioning properly before leaving it in an ice floe. ITPs, designed by WHOI physical oceanographer John Toole and WHOI engineers, go where scientists cannot, measuring the ocean’s temperature, salinity, pressure, and other properties below the ice every day, 365 days a year. Data are transmitted via satellite to WHOI and available on the ITP website. Krishfield and colleagues have installed ITPs every year since 2004. Their goal is to maintain a fleet of ITPs across the Arctic to monitor how the Arctic Ocean is changing with the region’s warming conditions.(Photo by Kris Newhall, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)