The Arctic Circle contains some of the harshest conditions on earth - snow, ice, bitter cold, and limited daylight. Understanding ice and wave behavior in the Arctic Ocean is critical for safety of navigation and predicting weather in downstream earth systems. The U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC) is responsible for providing global to tactical scale ice and snow products, ice forecasting, and other environmental intelligence services for the United States government. To achieve this, they venture into challenging conditions to deploy instrumentation, observe sea ice behavior, and conduct experiments.

In the summer of 2022, USNIC and Sofar Ocean signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to collaborate on data collection in the Chukchi Sea. USNIC Operations Officer CWO2 Mike Latin deployed five Sofar Ocean Spotter buoys to monitor wave and ice interactions.

CWO2 Latin joins Sofar Ocean’s Government Lead, Tosca Lichtenheld, for a conversation about:

• The mission of the USNIC and how they use wave data
• CWO2 Latin’s journey in the Arctic
• Data collected by Sofar Ocean Spotter buoys

A questions and answers session followed the presentation.

Speakers

CWO2 Mike Latin

Operations Officer

USNIC

Tosca Lichtenheld

Government Lead

Sofar Ocean