A U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) station keeps alongside a multi-year ice floe while a team of crew and researchers install equipment in the Beaufort Sea, Aug. 6, 2023. The Healy is ideal for science and research projects like the Arctic Mobile Observing System; providing access to the most remote reaches of the Arctic Ocean; areas barricaded by pack ice and insurmountable by most research vessels. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Briana Carter)

Researchers monitor and set up science instruments to begin data collection on an ice floe next to U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) in the Beaufort Sea, Aug. 6, 2023. The objectives included the installation of two major instruments: the Waves, Weather, Ice Mass, Balance, and Ocean (WIMBO) device, a massive weather buoy destined to remain at sea; and a Dynamic Ocean Topography device, collecting sea surface data. Science instruments like the WIMBO are individual components of a greater project, the Arctic Mobile Observing System (AMOS), a network of robotic oceanographic instruments making years-long autonomous observations of ocean and sea ice physics. (Coast Guard photo by Ensign Zane Miagany)

A curious polar bear is drawn to the Waves, Weather, Ice Mass, Balance and Ocean device that was installed by U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crew and scientists on a multi-year ice floe in the Beaufort Sea, Aug. 13, 2023. Healy is the Coast Guard’s only icebreaker specifically designed for Arctic research, as well as the nation’s sole surface presence routinely operating in the Arctic Ocean. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Bice)

Petty Officer 3rd Class Blake Wilson, a Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crew member, leads deck force in deployment of an Arctic Mobile Observing System glider in the Beaufort Sea, July 29, 2023. The crew conducts science stations in the Beaufort Sea as a part of Healy’s primary mission, and the Healy is designed to conduct a wide range of research activities, providing more than 4,200 square feet of scientific laboratory space, numerous electronic sensor systems, oceanographic winches, and accommodations for up to 50 scientists. (Coast Guard photo by Ensign Zane Miagany)