In 2025 I joined two field efforts with the International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP), coordinated by Ignatius Rigor at UW APL. In January, I flew with the Alaska Air National Guard on a C-17 out of Anchorage while buoys were air-dropped onto the sea ice across the Beaufort Sea, 24 flight hours in all, to report weather and ice drift. In April, during field work in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, I joined an IABP and UIC Science Support outreach visit to Hopson Middle School, where students worked through a sea ice lesson in the classroom and on the ice and set out wooden boats from IABP’s Float Your Boat program to drift with the ice. Both are IABP’s work; I was along to help and learn.

CryOS Air buoys in a transport case on the C-17 deck CryOS Air buoys ready for deployment, January 2025.

A parachute bundle rigged on the C-17 cargo deck A buoy bundle rigged for the drop.

Buoy drift track and its sea level pressure and surface temperature records One buoy from the flight, January 31 to September 15, 2025: drift track (left), sea level pressure (top right), and surface temperature (bottom right), colored by month. Data: IABP.