Arctic Expedition Launches from Dutch Harbor, Alaska

The small, remote town of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, is the last stop in civilization for a team of NASA-funded scientists, who will be leaving June 15, 2010, from the harbor on Unalaska Island for a five-week research cruise into the Arctic.

Arctic Expedition Launches from Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory

Along with 85 Coast Guard crew members, a team of 43 scientists will head north aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the United States’ newest icebreaker, to study how climate change is affecting the ecology of the Arctic.

This natural-color image from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite shows the island, which is part of the Aleutian Island chain that separates the North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea, on July 29, 2006. The town of Dutch Harbor is split between two peninsulas; a northern part that is south of the airport, and a southern part, which is connected to its neighbor by a bridge. The wakes of several ships are visible in the surrounding waters.

To follow the expedition in coming weeks, please visit NASA’s ICESCAPE blog.