Beaufort Sea Field Work for AHERC Director

AHERC Director Jeremy Kasper is heading to the Beaufort Sea this week to deploy an oceanographic mooring from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The mooring will monitor wave height and direction, water velocity, salinity, temperature, and sea level for the next year.

Funding for the instrumentation comes from two Alaska Ocean Observing System funded projects: one to measure waves in the Beaufort Sea and the other to measure sea level fluctuations associated with passing meteorological storms. The observations will be used to improve forecasts of coastal inundation and wave action along the North Slope of Alaska.

Photo of oceanographic mooring.  Credit J. Kasper, ACEP/UAF.