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Taking the Plunge

The science crew aboard US Coast Guard cutter Healy prepare a CTD sampler for deployment during the 2014 Arctic Spring expedition to the Chukchi Sea. In search of under-ice phytoplankton blooms, scientists used the CTD to sample the temperature and salinity at various depths. Co-principal investigator Bob Pickart, a WHOI physical oceanographer, used the CTD data, along with velocity measurements, to paint a picture of ocean currents in the Chukchi Sea so that he could understand the pathways of nutrients and their effects on plankton growth. (Photo by Amanda Kowalski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)