catlin ice base, and the conditions are pretty clear, but we re surrounded by an arctic desert. and actually standing on an ocean essentially with about five feet of ice beneath us. philippe, what are you doing there? what are you looking for? and what are you going to do to find out what you re out there to find? reporter: well, we re here for a week, ali, with the catlin arctic survey, a group of scientists looking at various different issues to understand how the arctic system works, how the ecosystem and environment works here, what s happening with the ice caps, with the uptake of carbon in the environment, with salinity changes in the ocean. really trying to get a bigger picture and more complete picture of what s happening with respect to the health of this environment that is so important to everybody on the entire planet.