CutterHealy's photostream

The aurora borealis as seen off the coast of Barrow, Ak., Sept. 15, 2009.

This work is in the Public Domain.

The aurora borealis as seen off the coast of Barrow, Ak., Sept. 15, 2009.

This work is in the Public Domain.

The aurora borealis as seen off the coast of Barrow, Ak., Sept. 15, 2009.

This work is in the Public Domain.

This work is in the Public Domain.

ARCTIC OCEAN - A Coast Guard Cutter Healy boatcrew prepares to be deployed to recover a meteorological buoy in the Arctic Ocean Sept. 14, 2009.

The boatcrew towed the buoy to the stern of the Healy where it was hoisted on deck using a large crane.

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(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Patrick Kelley)

This work is in the Public Domain.

ARCTIC OCEAN - Ethan Roth, a research engineer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, prepares to deploy a bottom-moored autonomous acoustic recorder, known as a High-frequency Acoustic Recording Package (HARP), from the Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic Ocean Sept. 14, 2009.

The 1,100-pound HARP will spend nearly a year on the ocean floor at a depth of almost 1,000 feet measuring ambient noise at its location.

While deployed, a hydrophone will record sounds made by whales, seals and other marine mammals. It also monitors sounds created by movements of ice sheets above and the sea floor below.

This information will be used to help scientists understand the natural sound level in the ocean.

The Healy’s current mission is of part of the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Task Force’s efforts to determine the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf.

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(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Patrick Kelley)