USCGC Healy: scientific missions to the Arctic

[Tor Bejnar]

kynde,
Visit the Mission schedule at http://icefloe.net/healy-current-mission (link is also at the top of this thread) for an idea of where the Healy is headed.  Clicking on the different segments and highlighted areas on that map seem to give extra specifics.

As this is the top of page 2, some repeated info:
ship position:  http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam:  http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2013
ship information:  http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgchealy/

[danp]

There's a big arm of the ice pack sticking out to the south around longitude 162-165 west, so if the Healy continues wandering NW it should intercept that.  Perhaps the Healy's heading that way ... there's been some discussion about whether that ice will manage to detach from the main pack, so it would be interesting to see what it looks like.

Healy's position currently marked with arrow:

[ghoti]

I think I saw their summer route plans somewhere on their website. Looked like the plan was a series of short transects perpendicular to the northern Alaska coast. Didn't look like they were going to go north of 74N this year.

[danp]

And Healy turned south again, back nearly to the shore.

I think I saw their summer route plans somewhere on their website. Looked like the plan was a series of short transects perpendicular to the northern Alaska coast. Didn't look like they were going to go north of 74N this year.

You're right - although it's a little ambiguous I believe the map here:
http://icefloe.net/healy-current-mission

refers only to this mission, Healy 1302, running through Sept. 2.  Googling the PI's name gave this form:
http://icefloe.net/2013_hly1302

which decribes the purpose of the mission as "Survey seafloor locations between Barrow Canyon, Mackenzie Delta, Amundsen Gulf, shelf and slope of Banks Island, and M'Clure Strait using a towed, high-resolution CHIRP sonar.  ...   Major cruise objective is to find geological evidence of a massive flood that came north to the Arctic via the Mackenzie River about 13,000 years ago."  And the map matches that itinerary.

[Vergent]

Barrow Alaska

V

[danp]

Healy is heading east again near the coast (and encountering some unpleasant-looking rainy weather).  It looks as though they're about in position to do the 4th most easterly of their transects according to the map at http://icefloe.net/healy-current-mission

In the northernmost two of the remaining segments of the cruise they should encounter sea ice that's been pretty consistently under cloud, so it'll be nice to see it.  The opening of McClure strait in particular should still have plenty of ice whenever they get there.

[Tor Bejnar]

This Arctic sea ice doesn't look very thick.

Photo caption says "Lat: -135.053491 Long: 71.082539"
I though latitude couldn't be greater than 90 (but my old Geotechtonics professor once called me a member of the Flat Earth Society, so what would I know!)  The location map suggests the ship is at 71 N 135 W

[Vergent]

The Healy is off the west coast of Banks Island. HYCOM says this ice is 3-4m thick. TOPAZ4 says it is 1.4-1.6m. The railing at the bow is about 1.5m.

Vergent

[Laurent]

Hello Vergent,

You mean that Topaz could be very right about thickness !?
Is there an estimate of the volume using topaz4 ?

Laurent

[Vergent]

Laurent,





Unfortunately, not that I have found



Here is a time series for a point off the lincoln sea.



Here is one for the healy's approximate location

Vergent

[TerryM]

Vergent
Are we looking at melt ponds or open water? If it's open water i wouldn't skate on ice that thin.
Terry

[Anne]

Here is a blog kept by Danny Blas, a teacher who is on board Healy at the moment. On 24 August they were actually out on the ice with a school party. But not the ice in the last picture!

ETA:
In the video from 23 August you can see polar bears walking on the ice between ponds and falling through, and then diving into the water.

[jdallen]

The Healy is off the west coast of Banks Island. HYCOM says this ice is 3-4m thick. TOPAZ4 says it is 1.4-1.6m. The railing at the bow is about 1.5m.

Vergent

I have been Sooooo hoping we'd be able to see some of this.  So from what we see, what are people's visual estimate of thickness?

[Vergent]

Healy is heading north at up to 18 knots. Now we get to observe the ice.

Vergent

[anonymous]

> Now we get to observe the ice.

Umm, what's that? Night-vision, black/white, oil spill, algae or all at once?

[Vergent]

The Heaky is heading home.

Vergent

[Tor Bejnar]

Healy is back in the Arctic, just north of Alaska:
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP

Recently sailed down a lead, it looks like:


2014 images: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014

Last reported at 2014-Jun-02 15:00 UTC. Time now 2014-Jun-02 17:58 UTC.  Position N 71°54' W 166°12'.

Wind from 110 at 21 knots
Barometer 1017.4 mb
Air temperature 0.6 ° C   (See how warm it is!)
Visibility: greater than 5.4 NM
Dewpoint -0.3 ° C

Blog from Dallas Murphy on board the Healy:  http://arcticspring.org/dispatches/four-bigs-against-the-ice  ("Dallas is an author with nine published books, a mix of fiction and nonfiction, most recently "To the Denmark Strait", an account of a 2011 oceanographic expedition with Bob Pickart. The Healy cruise will be his sixth Arctic expedition serving as outreach writer.")

[Tor Bejnar]

More interesting ice and sea mix

moving southward: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP

[Andreas T]

Noticeable in those pictures is snowcover on the ice which suggests there has not been much top melting yet. In the post http://arcticspring.org/dispatches/four-bigs-against-the-icemultiyear ice of 2m thickness is reported to be present, which fits with the picture one gets from the HYCOM thickness animation over the last year. That shows drift out of Beaufort of older ice. The question of course is how much is there, HYCOM thickness is very different from CRYOSAT and PIOMAS thickness.

[Tor Bejnar]

2014 images: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014

Healy location: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP

At 2014-Jun-15 02:27 UTC.
Position N 71°48' W 164°42'.

Wind from 300 at 10 knots
Barometer 1015.9 mb
Air temperature -0.6 ° C
Visibility: greater than 5.4 NM
Dewpoint -2.0 ° C
Water temperature -1.7 ° C

[Tor Bejnar]

If the water temperature really is "-0.0" (from here:  http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP), then boy must the ice be melting.  There is plenty of melange around: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/cache/2014/20140616-1201_595.jpg

Time now 2014-Jun-16 12:17 UTC.
Position N 71°12' W 166°30'.
Wind from 240 at 12 knots
 Barometer 1001.0 mb
 Air temperature -0.0 ° C
Visibility: greater than 0.3 NM
Dewpoint -0.0 ° C
Water temperature -0.0 ° C

Scrolling down that page shows several readings per day.  Water temp has been as high as zero a few times (and several times there is no data).  Air temp ranges from -3.0 to +3.3° C since June 6.  I find it curious that the max air temp (3.3°) occurs 4 times in 44 readings.

[Tor Bejnar]

The Healy is heading south, now near Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea (approaching the Aleutian Island chain).  No more ice!
(and now sailing through fog)

[Tor Bejnar]

Lessons from the recent voyage in the Arctic:  Dallas Murphy’s blog post on July 1, 2014:  http://arcticspring.org/dispatches/closing-circle
A few quotes:

... why didn’t we witness blooms as a result of all that light shining on open water?  Because the air was so cold new, “grease ice” was constantly forming.  When new ice forms, the process of brine extraction begins, whereby the salt leeches of out the bottom of the ice, making the surface water denser...

Then it snowed, barely an inch. Hitherto, no one expected that a slight late-season snowfall could raise the albedo high enough to forestall the formation of melt ponds. So we learned considerable new lessons about the penetration of light through the pack ice before the onset of melt ponds.

So why doesn’t the fresh water that pools on the surface of the ice, above sea level, simply drain through the pores into the saltwater below? The answer turns out to be elegantly simple, as Ken and Chris concluded through repeated experimentation on the ice using fresh- and saltwater, and food dye to gauge the extent of ice permeability. Their conclusion: Because freshwater has a higher freezing point than saltwater, the freshwater (from snowmelt) quickly freezes at the bottom and sides of the pond where it contacts the ice and thereby forms a seal that prevents the freshwater from flowing out through the otherwise permeable sea ice below.

[TerryM]

Tor
Wonderful find!
That the convection currents from newly formed grease ice were returning with bottom sediment from 50 meters down indicates to me that the bottom is not frozen even in early spring. This does little to alleviate my worries of a methane blowout in the shallow ESAS where the undersea permafrost cap is sealing vast quantities of free gas.
I had assumed that the very dirty ice found in Fox Basin was due to methane seeps and eruptions, but this indicates another process that could be contributing.
The self sealing process used by fresh water melt ponds was also news to me. It seems as though FYI would be most susceptible to this because of the higher salt content and therefore lower melt point.
Terry

[Tor Bejnar]

The Healy has just (re)entered the Chukchi Sea.  With a mission called "Moorings" for the rest of July, I have no idea where the icebreaker is going.
ship position:  http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam:  http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014

[Tor Bejnar]

Among the ice cubes again:


Last reported at 2014-Jul-09 09:00 UTC. Time now 2014-Jul-09 16:16 UTC.
Position N 71°30' W 165°00'.

Wind from 050 at 17 knots
 Barometer 1014.9 mb
 Air temperature -1.1 ° C
Visibility: greater than 2.2 NM
Dewpoint -2.9 ° C
Water temperature -1.7 ° C

[Tor Bejnar]

From Chris Horvat's blog (aboard the Healy) http://www.chrv.at/blog/category/all:

The title of this cruise is "Mooring Deployment", which means that the broad goal of the mission is, well, to deploy moorings, long buoyed cables fixed to the seafloor. These contain arrays of measurement devices which measure water properties like temperature, salinity, velocity, and sometimes chemical properties.

His blog entry suggests the moorings will identify ice thickness, among other things.

Today's web cam images: from large floes with melt ponds

to ice cubes

ship position & weather:  http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam:  http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014

Last reported at 2014-Jul-11 00:00 UTC. Time now 2014-Jul-11 13:57 UTC.
Position N 72°54' W 167°00'.
Wind from 150 at 3 knots
Barometer 1010.3 mb
 Air temperature -0.0 ° C
Visibility: greater than 0.3 NM
Dewpoint -2.8 ° C
Water temperature -1.0 ° C

Somebody with graphics skills could put the location on an extent or concentration map to put things into perspective.

[Tor Bejnar]

More on the mission (I'm pretty sure) at http://www.onr.navy.mil/reports/FY13/agthoms1.pdf

LONG-TERM GOALS
The long-term goal is to improve prediction of the arctic Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) by improving basic understanding of the interaction between waves, sea ice, and open water (i.e., fetch).

and at http://www.polar.ch2m.com/arlss_reports/ARLSS_ProjectsDetail.aspx?cbPropNum=0856244

In 2014 researchers will service and deploy moorings in the vicinity of Barrow Canyon and the Beaufort Shelf while aboard the USCGC Healy in July. The cruise will again embark and disembark at Dutch Harbor.

There are actual people on board the Healy!  (I don't suspect Photoshop; I guess I'm just a trusting soul.)

Last reported at 2014-Jul-12 18:00 UTC. Time now 2014-Jul-13 00:35 UTC.
Position N 72°00' W 156°30'.
Wind from 230 at 9 knots
Barometer 999.5 mb
 Air temperature -1.1 ° C  (Air temp was as high as 3.3° today.)
Visibility: greater than 5.4 NM
Dewpoint -2.9 ° C
Water temperature -1.7 ° C

[ghoti]

That ice looks so brown!

[Andreas T]

This is an article about brown algae in sea ice http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/05/20/collecting-core-data-about-arctic-ecosystems/
from an earlier Healy expedition: http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=116836&tid=5763&cid=27772
my guess is that ice gets crushed and turned over in places bringing the algae to the surface. That would explain why some floes are free of the brown colouration.

[Andreas T]

The latest aloft cam image from Healy shows some of the "dirtiest" ice I've seen (in photos). Looks more like some muddy water sloshed over it than my previous attempts at explanation. The water does look opaque. Pity there isn't any commentary from people on board. Does anyone know of an onboard blog like the ones from the previous trip?

http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014&image=20140720-2001.jpeg

[Polynya88]

Very dirty ice is quite common along the Alaskan coast. The waters are very shallow (with a mud bottom), and during on-shore ice drift events in the winter ridges build with keels reaching the sea floor. These keels then scoop up as well as encase significant amounts of bottom mud. These areas of ridging/rubble often re-float, only to be grounded again and dig up more mud. As you see in the picture, as melt ensues these ex-grounded rubble fields become mostly mud colored once re-floated.

[Tor Bejnar]

From http://www.chrv.at/blog/category/all

running through 5-6 feet of pack ice

Not 'much' science was being conducted during the rescue.
But on 7/12/14, Christopher Horvat reported

     While the mission title of HLY1402 is technically “Mooring Recovery”, most of what we will actually be doing is mapping out the temperature, salinity, and phytoplanktonic  features of the summertime Chukchi Slope, about 100 miles north of Alaska. For the most part, this means using what are known as “CTD casts”. 
     CTD is an acronym, standing for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth.

Do read more at his blog.

[Jim Hunt]

I'm not sure how long it's been up there, but I've just discovered there's several hundred pages of reports and data from the HLY1401 mission available via:

"Study of Under-ice Blooms in the Chukchi Ecosystem"

[Tor Bejnar]

a Healy resource:  http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgchealy/aws14/

from http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgchealy/aws14/140721.asp

July 21, 2014
Ahoy all ye blog readers!
Polar Bear! 1 mile ahead. Port Bow...

… the science work has continued in full force this past week. A mooring recovery and deployment were conducted in order to obtain data on the North Slope boundary current, shelf break, and the Pacific water’s path into the Arctic Ocean. The moorings are reused, with this most recent mooring reaching its 10th deployment since 2002. The depth of this particular mooring reached 147 meters.

^{Note:  this is not the polar bear as seen on July 21.  I just wanted to show a polar bear!
Image is from forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?action=post;topic=436.50;last_msg=32438}

from http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgchealy/aws14/140728.asp

July 28, 2014 …
We have officially completed science mission 1402 and the last few days have consisted of the final Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) casts and moorings. The mission was a success and the crew will soon be prepping for the next mission which will kick-off in a couple weeks.

Next mission's research topic: Oil Spill Technologies August 8-30, 2014

[Tor Bejnar]

http://usresponserestoration.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/noaa-again-joins-coast-guard-for-oil-spill-exercise-in-the-arctic/

Ready, Set, (Pretend to) Spill

An audio podcast from the ship is planned for August 14 (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast/).

[Tor Bejnar]

NOAA Again Joins Coast Guard for Oil Spill Exercise in the Arctic
http://beforeitsnews.com/science-and-technology/2014/09/noaa-again-joins-coast-guard-for-oil-spill-exercise-in-the-arctic-3-2717870.html
This is a post by NOAA Environmental Scientist Dr. Amy Merten.
(summary information mostly (entirely?) written before the mission started, but dated Sept. 1, 2014)
Other articles in this “Before It’s News” publication make it a highly suspect source of information!


The Healy has left the Arctic and is now on the east side of Prince of Wales Island (southern Alaskan panhandle, near Ketchikan). Sightseeing in the Tongass National Forest?

ship position & weather: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014

[Tor Bejnar]

From http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/tweetchat-preparing-arctic-oil-spills.html the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration offers the following :

Tweetchat: Preparing for Arctic Oil Spills

What: Use Twitter to chat directly with NOAA GIS specialists Jill Bodnar and Zachary Winters-Staszak.
When: Thursday, September 18, 2014 from 11:00 a.m. Pacific to 12:00 p.m. Pacific (2:00 p.m. Eastern to 3:00 p.m. Eastern).
How: Tweet questions to @NOAAcleancoasts using hashtag #ArcticShield14. You can also submit questions in advance via orr.rsvp.requests@noaa.gov or at facebook.com/noaaresponserestoration.
Why: As Arctic waters continue to lose sea ice each summer, oil-powered activity in the region will be on the rise—along with an increased risk of oil spills.

This scientific expedition provided multiple agencies and institutions with the invaluable opportunity to untangle some of the region's knotty logistical challenges on a state-of-the-art Coast Guard icebreaker in the actual Arctic environment. It is one piece of the Coast Guard's broader effort known as Arctic Shield 2014.

[Tor Bejnar]

http://www.arc.fiu.edu/feature/fiu-researcher-leads-us-arctic-geotraces-2015-expedition/

... a team of researchers will travel to the Arctic Ocean in 2015 to conduct experiments that will contribute to better understanding the effects of global climate change in the region.
 
Established by the U.S. GEOTRACES Science Steering Committee, the U.S. Arctic GEOTRACES initiative will be part of an international, multiple icebreaker effort—provided initially by the United States, Canada and Germany—and will include scientists from several nations who will conduct sampling of the Arctic Ocean.

Dr. David Kadko, professor and associate director of FIU’s Applied Research Center, will be chief scientist aboard the icebreaker USCG HEALY. The project will study how the carbon budget, geochemical cycles, and ecosystems in the Arctic respond to rapidly changing climate conditions.

from http://icefloe.net/healy-current-mission
Cruise Line  Cruise Dates               Chief Scientist/CO   Research Topic

HLY1501     2015-07-03 to 07-26   Coast Guard RDC    Oil Spill Technologies
HLY1502     2015-08-07 to 10-12   Dr. Dave Kadko      GEOTRACES

[Tor Bejnar]

Further to the GEOTRACES expedition August-October 2015 (but loading supplies in June 2015!):
From http://icefloe.net/forms/submitted.php?recordID=1754

Healy - Cruise Planning Questionnaire
Chief Scientist Contact Information:  David Kadko, Florida International University …

Brief Description of Operations Plan: 
Approximately 150 deg W- 180 deg W, 63N to 90 deg N.

The US Arctic GEOTRACES Program will
1) Quantify the fluxes of TEIs into and out of the Arctic Ocean through choke points,
2) Identify the processes that regulate shelf-basin exchange of TEIs and quantify their rates,
3) Characterize the sources and transport of TEIs in the Arctic Ocean via: a) Aerosols, b) Sea ice, c) Rivers and d) Sediments.
4) Identify processes removing TEIs from the water column and quantify their rates,
5) Establish current levels of essential micronutrients and of potentially toxic TEIs as a reference for future change,
6) Describe and quantify the time-varying change in the TEI chemistry of deep water as it mixes westward from the Atlantic Ocean into the Canadian Basin.
7) Better define the relationship of TEIs to the hydrographic, carbon, and tracer distributions which form the core of our present knowledge of Arctic waters and circulation.

To accomplish these goals, water, ice, snow and air samples will be collected …

Also, a list of crew members: scientists, technicians, students (mostly women), and a teacher.
Also: “One person asked for Chinese food (no kidding)”.

Finally, I wonder what TEIs are.  (Internet search) reveals

Introduction to Arctic GEOTRACES
GEOTRACES is an international research program designed to characterize the
marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes (TEIs). The guiding
mission of GEOTRACES is:
"To identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of
key trace elements and isotopes in the ocean, and to establish the sensitivity
of these distributions to changing environmental conditions".

Lots more information on this page!

[Tor Bejnar]

I note from the Healy web cam and recent position that it is just finishing a little seaworthy test of some sort.

NOAA plans increased 2015 Arctic nautical charting operations. NOAA is working with the U.S. Coast Guard to map a safe shipping route from Unimak Pass (Aleutian Islands) through Bering Strait using data collected by several ships, including the Healy.

See previous post concerning its upcoming GEOTRACES mission.

[Tor Bejnar]

Colorado Bob posted a link to this article on the ASI Blog (link in header above).  The research is based on work done from the Healy.

Acidification takes toll on Beaufort Sea; threats loom in Chukchi and Bering

[Tor Bejnar]

The Healy is now in port at Kodiak Island (Alaska).

ship position & weather: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2015

Read up-thread back to January 2015 to read about the upcoming 2015 research season the Healy has in store (and links for more).

[Tor Bejnar]

Healy is steaming northwards in calm seas under a high overcast, now opposite Saint Lawrence Island (south of Bering Strait).
ship position & weather: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2015

Read up-thread back to January 2015 to read about the upcoming 2015 research season (and links for more info).

[Tor Bejnar]

Healy is in the Bering Strait:  Last reported at 2015-Jul-09 09:00 UTC. 
Position:  N 65°48' W 168°18'. 
Air temp: 11.1 
Water temp: 5.7 (coldest it's been on this trip)

[Tor Bejnar]

Last reported at 2015-Jul-10 12:00 UTC.
Position  N 70°48' W 164°42' - north of western Alaska in Chukchi Sea.
Air temp: 6.1 
Water temp: 5.9 - no wonder we don't see any ice!
Wind from 070 at 25 knots
Waves 3.0 meters (10 feet), 8 second period

Current mission, by the way: # HLY1501 - 2015-07-03 to 07-26 - Oil Spill Technologies
 
Mission # HLY1502 runs from 2015-08-07 to 10-12   Dr. Dave Kadko leading GEOTRACES
(see details below - March 30, 2015 post)

[Jim Hunt]

Last reported at 2015-Jul-10 12:00 UTC.
Position  N 70°48' W 164°42' - north of western Alaska in Chukchi Sea.
Air temp: 6.1 
Water temp: 5.9 - no wonder we don't see any ice!
Wind from 070 at 25 knots
Waves 3.0 meters (10 feet), 8 second period

There's a hint of that swell visible in the picture 

[Jim Hunt]

And the Healy has reached the ice edge.

[Andreas T]

....
ship position & weather: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=NEPP
ship webcam: http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2015
...

the timing on the aloftcon photos doesn't seem to match the sailwx  ship track timing (UTC)
does someone know what the ship's time zone is ?

[Tor Bejnar]

The date/time stamps on the photos claim to be UTC [Coordinated Universal Time] = GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) = zulu [American military usage]. 

The most recent photo has 2015-07-12 12:01:01 UTC Longitude -157.227558 and Latitude 71.655919.   

The ship position at 2015 Jul 11 18:00 (UTC?) Longitude -160.3 Latitude 71.4 (converted to decimal)
The ship position at 2015 Jul 12 09:00 (UTC!) Longitude -158.7 Latitude 71.5
(The time 'has' to be UTC as it isn't 9 am in Florida yet.  Alaska time is UTC-9 apparently)

Edit: But I see the ship location at 'midnight' is not between the two ship locations.   Hmmm.
The ship photo at 'noon' UTC is 3 hours after the last location per the 'ship position & weather' site.  Longitude is appropriately less negative and the latitude is appropriately higher.  I see no problem.  (In the past, I've noticed the camera wasn't recording for a while, so the most recent photo wasn't from the current day or two, but that was a different issue, I presume.)