"Julia Whitty is on a three-week-long journey aboard the the US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, following a team of scientists who are investigating how a changing climate might be affecting the chemistry of ocean and atmosphere in the Arctic."

So far Whitty has chronicled shipboard life, scientific instrumentation, a congregation of humpback whales, the use of drifting arrows to study currents, and the light-show of the aurora borealis.

As usual, Whitty accompanies her dispatches with lavish and illuminating graphics, complete with webcam from the Healy's bridge. Whitty is the environmental correspondent for Mother Jones. Her latest book is "Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean."

Dispatch No. 1: "And We're Off" [2]

Dispatch No. 2: "Thar She Blows" [3]

Dispatch No. 3: "Bows and Arrows" [4]

Dispatch No. 4 [5]

Webcam [6]