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The Expedition - Science Crew
Overview | Objectives | Science Crew | The Ship

Principal Investigators
Rebecca Woodgate
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Woodgate and her colleagues Knut Aagaard from the University of Washington and Tom Weingartner from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks are studying both the modification of water masses in the Chukchi Sea and the outflows from the Chukchi Sea into the Arctic Ocean as part of the Shelf-Basin Interactions Program. This will be done using a network of three moorings in the Bering Strait (measuring the Pacific input to the Chukchi Sea) and four moorings at critical locations on the Chukchi shelf (measuring the modified waters exiting to the Arctic Oceans). These year-round measurements will be combined with CTD stations taken during the SBI cruises. (The Bering Strait work is part of a long term project, part of which will be conducted aboard the R/V Alpha Helix in June/July.) Rebecca is Chief Scientist on the Arctic West Summer 2003 Healy cruise.
Bob Pickart
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Pickart is studying the processes by which water is transferred from the Beaufort shelf to the deep Arctic basin, using a densely-spaced mooring array situated across the shelfbreak and upper slope. His experiment is also part of the Shelf-Basin Interactions Program, and is closely tied to the Weingartner/Aagaard/Woodgate study, since much of the water exiting the Chukchi shelf enters the Beaufort shelf. In addition to the moorings, Pickart will do a high-resolution survey of the Beaufort boundary current system, using CTDs and XCTDs.
Carin Ashjian
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Ashjian is a biological oceanographer studying plankton food webs and plankton and particle exchange between the Arctic shelf and basin. She will use both the acoustic backscatter data on Pickart’s moorings (with colleague Mark Benfield, Louisiana State University) and a sophisticated underwater microscope called a Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) (with colleague Scott Gallager, WHOI) to determine plankton concentrations remotely. On this cruise, she will be collecting plankton next to the moorings with a net to ground-truth the acoustic data. She will also work with Pickart and Woodgate to conduct a high-resolution VPR and CTD cross-shelf survey.
Dean Stockwell
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Stockwell will be analyzing chlorophyll during the cruise. He will measure the chlorophyll concentrations in the Nikin bottle samples in near-real time. Stockwell will also be analyzing the fluorometer data (which provides a measurement of chlorophyll) from the CTD.
Andreas Münchow
University of Delaware, Newark, Delware
Münchow's role on the Healy will be to facilitate near real-time processing and interpretation of the vessel-mounted ADCP data aboard the Healy (in conjunction with CTD work).
WHOI Team Members
John Kemp
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Kemp is the mooring technician responsible for redeploying the high-resolution Beaufort slope array. He designed the different moorings, and will oversee deck operations during their recovery and redeployment. John has participated in over 150 oceanographic cruises totaling nearly 2000 days at sea.
Dan Torres
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Torres will be collecting lowered ADCP data at each CTD station, which will provide a synoptic view of the velocity field during the cruise. Additionally, he is responsible for the programming and operation of the moored ADCPs being used in the high-resolution Beaufort slope array.
Ryan Schrawder
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Schrawder is a mooring technician. He will be refurbishing and calibrating the moored profilers and assisting John Kemp in redeploying the high-resolution Beaufort slope array.
Marshall Swartz
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Swartz is an expert on CTD instruments and hydrographic data. He will ensure that the moored profiler CTDs are properly calibrated before they are redeployed. Hydrographic data are one of the fundamental tools used by physical oceanographers to help us learn about the properties of the water masses and the circulation.
Sarah Zimmermann
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Zimmermann will be in charge of processing the CTD data collected on the cruise. This includes de-spiking and averaging the data, and then calibrating them using water sample measurements.
Christina Courcier
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Courcier will be running the salinometer to deteremine water sample salinity. She will also be responsible for deploying and recovering the CTD and taking water samples from the Niskin bottles.
Martha Delaney
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Delaney is a CTD watchstander. She will be responsible for deploying and recovering the CTD and taking water samples from the Niskin bottles.
Chris Linder
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Linder will document the daily discoveries and shipboard lives of the scientists and crew via text dispatches and photographs. In the dispatches this year he will also answer questions from Pepperell and Falmouth, Massachusetts junior high school students.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography Team Members
Lisa Munger
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
Munger is a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. She uses passive acoustics to study baleen whales, especially North Pacific right whales, in the Bering Sea and other Alaskan waters. At sea, her job includes throwing sonobuoys (temporary hydrophones that transmit sound to the ship via radio) in the water and monitoring the output for whale calls, as well as deploying and recovering long-term, moored acoustic recording packages (ARPs).
Rob Palomares
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
Palomares is a CTD watchstander and technician. He will be responsible for deploying and recovering the CTD and taking water samples from the Niskin bottles. In addition, he will be analyzing the oxygen and salinity samples and helping to troubleshoot the CTD if problems arise.
Dan Schuller
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
Schuller will be analyzing nutrients during the cruise. The CTD package contains two-dozen Niskin Bottles which will collect water at different depth levels in the water column; Schuller will measure the nutrient concentrations in these samples in near-real time.
University of Alaska, Fairbanks Team Members
David Leech
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Leech will be recovering and redeploying some of the moorings for the Chukchi array. First he will perform pre-deployment checks on the instruments, and then will oversee deck operations during their deployment.
Jeremy Kasper
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Kasper is a CTD watchstander. He will be responsible for deploying and recovering the CTD and taking water samples from the Niskin bottles.
University of Washington Team Member
James Johnson
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Johnson is responsible for overseeing the recovery and redeployment of part of the Chukchi moored array. This includes retrieving the data from the instruments and coordinating deck operations.
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University Team Member
Val Schmidt
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York
Schmidt, a former Naval submarine officer, will be responsible for making sure the ship's multi-beam sonar is operating smoothly and recording great data.