ICESCAPE Mission Measures High Chlorophyll-a Under the Ice

ICESCAPE is a multi-year NASA mission to study biogeochemical and ecological impacts of climate change in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the Arctic. During 2011, the ICESCAPE mission acquired data while sailing on the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy. This visualization shows both the technique used by the ICESCAPE mission to take data measurements as well as some of the data that was taken.

The visualization shows the ICESCAPE ship's path through the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska from July 3, 2011 through July 8, 2011. The ship stops and takes measurements along the way. The measurements are taken by canisters lowered to various depths that sample the water. The measurement depths range from 1.8 meters to 149.3 meters below sea level. The sets of measurements are broken into two transects. The first transect is the trip out into the ice. The second transect is the trip back. Topography (above sea level) is exaggerated 10 times. Bathymetry (below sea level) is exaggerated 200 times in order differentiate the measurements.

The colors of the measurements (i.e,. stations) correspond to the color bar below which represent chlorophyll-a concentrations. Measurements that are depicted by spheres were acquired while the ship was in open water while measurements depicted by cubes were acquired when the ship was in ice. As data is collected, a wall of interpolated data is generated.

An important finding of this research was that high concentrations of chlorophyll-a were found under the ice.