USCGC Healy is nearing 80N

The USCGC Healy has been going to and fro through the Beaufort Sea to map out the seabed, but as it has sailed northward again and entered water with high sea ice concentration, I figured it was time for a follow-up to the last blog post concerning Healy.

Here's a picture from this morning from the ship's ALOFTCON webcam:

 

This is their position superimposed on the sea ice concentration map from the University of Bremen:

Comments

[Lord Soth]

That picture looks like 7/10 ice at the very most. This is rotten multiyear ice. What once was melt ponds and channels have melted thru and is now open water between the flows.

Cryosphere should be showing this area as green; not purple.

[Neven]

The name Barber does come to mind, doesn't it?

[Lord Soth]

Here is the picture of the Canadian Ship in front C.C.G.S Louis St. Laurant breaking the ice; so the Healy can do multibeam sounding of the ocean floor.

http://mgds.ldeo.columbia.edu/healy/reports/aloftcon/2010/20100822-0901.jpeg

Notice how the ice practically disintegrate with the passing of the lead ship.

Here is a good way to tell melt ponds from open water.

Open water will appear dark; while melt ponds will appear turquoise as in this photo:

http://mgds.ldeo.columbia.edu/healy/reports/aloftcon/2010/20100822-1101.jpeg

The melt ponds are on the slab right in front of the ship.

[Jon Torrance]

A question for anyone who thinks they're up to answering it: can we tell anything from looking at the Healy's webcam images about ice thickness. I look at many of these images where there's a boundary between ice floe and water fairly close ahead of the ship and get the impression that the ice floes are quite thin at the edges - I see relatively little evidence of a significant thickness of submerged ice, i.e. cases like the floe in the right hand side of the following image - http://mgds.ldeo.columbia.edu/healy/reports/aloftcon/2010/20100825-1901.jpeg - are pretty rare. But I don't have a precise sense of scale in the images and I'm not sure how well we can really see the edges of the larger floes under the surface (that floe I highlighted is certainly better lit under the water's surface than the edges of most of the ice floes). So, does anyone know whether these images tell us anything about thickness? Or whether the crew of the Healy is reporting anything on that through other channels? I found them blogging about sending styrofoam cups on a dive to shrink them but nothing about the thickness of the ice they're sailing through.

[Jon Torrance]

BTW, if you want to see turquoise melt ponds, boy have they got the image for you - http://mgds.ldeo.columbia.edu/healy/reports/aloftcon/2010/20100826-0601.jpeg

[Lord Soth]

The crew on the Healy's are mostly new to the high arctic, and the rumor is that they are a little nervous of the ice. The joke amonst the veteran crew aboard the joint project ship C.C.G.S Louis St. Laurant, is that the Healy is an ice avoider not a ice breaker. So I guess the ice can't be that thick.

[Lord Soth]

The plan for the Healy is to map the Alpha Ridge and if ice conditions permit, to get over into the Makarov Basin.

So we should get pictures on the ground from 85 North and maybe all the way to 87 North.

[Neven]

Great info, LS (especially the one about the rookies aboard the Healy). Keep us up-to-date!

[Neven]

BTW, I believe we can follow Healy's track via the International Arctic Buoy Programme. It's also possible that buoy 98990 has gone insane and destroying the ice. Or some big transformation in the Earth's magnetic field is pulling it towards the Pole. ;-)

[Neven]

Here's an image with an even clearer track, but without sea ice concentration drawn in.

[Lord Soth]

I found my first pressure ridge created by the ice breaking.

http://mgds.ldeo.columbia.edu/healy/reports/aloftcon/2010/20100827-1401.jpeg

Notice the ridge that has been created in front the ice breaker.

They finally found a piece of ice thick enough to create a pressure ridge. And this is the first photo I found like this. Everthing else is so thin that it breaks like a sheet of glass dropped on the floor.

[David Hassilev]

I find some of these comments very interesting, though often wrong. It's always fun to see how the flow of disinformation progresses.

I've sailed on Healy for seven seasons, including a trip over the Pole with the Oden. The current Captain was the executive officer during that voyage, the current executive officer was the Engineering Officer and the Current Engineering Officer was previously on Healy as the Assistant Engineering Officer. Hardly a rookie crew. True, for many of the junior Coast Guard men and women this may be their first arctic voyage, but most have been on board at least since early summer and thus, have been in the ice from the Bering to the Arctic since then.

It's often more prudent for fuel consumption and/or time to avoid ice rather than to break it just because you can. But then I'm sure you all knew that.

Enjoy the Healy pictures.

Regards,
-David

[Jon Torrance]

Nice to hear from someone in the field. About the ice avoiding comment, I interpreted that to mean that the crew (some of it at least) was allegedly nervous about leaving the ship to go out on the ice on foot, not that the ship was avoiding living up to the name icebreaker. Looking at much of the ice, I can't say I'd blame someone for being a bit reluctant to go walking on it.

In any case, David, please come back if you have the time - I'm sure we'd all love to hear more from you.

[David Hassilev]

To be honest, I was forwarded your blog by a colleague and unfortunately have very little time to visit sites like this, much less comment. However, I will address the question regarding ice images from the Aloftcon.

First though, let me say that I am not a scientist. But there are science team members that do make ice observations and enter these into the field catalog. They generally take their own pictures to accompany their entries. The aloftcon images are merely an automated way to capture the visual data, such as it is. It can help validate space based sensors if one were to correlate the data.

I will also add that the images that you see from this camera are often misleading in terms of true ice coverage or thickness. It's also quite common to have large floes of multi-year (thick) ice moving within floes of much younger or even first year ice. Also, even relatively thin ice of a meter can prove to be problematic for an icebreaker when it's under pressure and there's no room to displace it.

Cheers,
-David

[Kevin McKinney]

"I find some of these comments very interesting, though often wrong. It's always fun to see how the flow of disinformation progresses."

I hope the errors that may occur in my comments (and any others that appear here) aren't dis-information, but plain old mis-information! I don't think there's been any attempt to mislead--though clearly we can't all be right all of the time. . .

I'd second Jon's comment, though--it's great to hear from someone in the (ice-)field, and I hope you find time to revisit once in a while.

[Neven]

It's often more prudent for fuel consumption and/or time to avoid ice rather than to break it just because you can. But then I'm sure you all knew that.

Of course I know that, but where's the fun in that!
Just kidding, I'm a nut for fuel consumption efficiency (you should see me drive in my Opel Combo).

David, thanks a lot for the comments. Feel free to comment some more any time you like (especially on the state of the ice compared to previous years). It is greatly appreciated by me and many others who try to ascertain the state of the Arctic through all the bits and pieces we manage to gather. First-hand anecdotes are invaluable.

Lord Soth, stop spreading your seaman's gossip!
David commented just in time. I was about to write a lengthy piece about the Healy tenderfoot crew. You know, get that soap opera aspect of my blog going to attract more (female) visitors. ;-)

[David Hassilev]

"hope the errors that may occur in my comments (and any others that appear here) aren't dis-information, but plain old mis-information!"

Yes, of course. I was being snide, though what is written in a public forum as mis-information can often turn into someones dis-information. It's becoming harder and harder these days to find the truth in anything I feel.

You're posts are interesting. Of course I'm interested in the fate of the Arctic and the seasonal ice pack. I have a little ice breaking movie from the bow taken from earlier this summer. I still have to put it up on youtube, though I may have to shorten it. You might find it interesting, or at least entertaining.

Perhaps we need to put a decent camera on the aft of the ship? It might show the thickness of the ice as we pass through it a little better, though the best is a view along the side of the ship. Hmmmm...

Regards,
-David

[Neven]

If you put up that video, I'll gratefully turn it into a blog post, David. Please let us know if and when you do upload.

[Kevin McKinney]

". . .what is written in a public forum as mis-information can often turn into someones dis-information. It's becoming harder and harder these days to find the truth in anything I feel."

Roger that--unfortunately.

[Kevin McKinney]

Although, on second thought, there is so much more information conveniently available online to the average person, that in some respects doing your own fact-checking is much easier than it used to be.

[Lord Soth]

I didn't mean to dis-respect anybody on the Healy. I shouldn't have spread the mis-conceptions of some people. I thought it was a harmless anecdotes, but obviously was wrong.