May 12+13, 2018

A good weekend at EGRIP

Daniela and John are discussing the recent radar data from the Basler campaign.


Saturday was rather windy; but with higher temperature than the previous days. Some work could be done outside. Saturday, the Basler flew two missions and then the crew took a break on Sunday. Saturday afternoon and evening were pleasant. Sune, John and J.P. shared the task of making dinner, and the evening continued with chatting, some music and card games. Sunday morning, camp woke up to nice and mild weather – hardly any wind and temperatures above -20°C. It was a pleasure to work out side. In the drill trench, drillers had finished most modifications to the drill site, so they mounted the borehole logger device and recorded temperature, diameter, inclination and azimuth in the 900 m deep borehole. The documentation (logging) of the brittle ice cores from last year is going forward and logging will be completed before new ice cores are drilled.

What we did Saturday and Sunday:

  1. Mounted slush pan and lid on borehole and made new railing on the extended inclined trench.
  2. Logging of the EGRIP borehole completed.
  3. German Basler flew two 3 hour missions Saturday.
  4. Logging ice cores to 823.13 m.
  5. Setting up freezer system in tent on surface. Needs to be connected.
  6. Making hotlines for snowmobiles in front of main dome.
  7. Water vapour sampling site on line.
  8. Grooming Skiway, taxiway and apron.
  9. Moving snow around mechanic’s garage.
  10. Removing snow drifts from entrances to drill trench and cook’s freezer.
  11. Mounted Doppler radar on Main dome, as weather permitted work on top of the dome.
  12. Working on Nansen sled repair in carpenter’s garage.

Weather Saturday: Fine day with drifting snow. Temp. -18°C to -30°C. Wind: 12 kt to 20 kt from SSE. Visibility: 3-5 km.
Weather Sunday: Cloudy and semi cloudy day with intermittent snow showers. Temp. -10°C to -22°C. Wind: 4 kt from SW to calm. Visibility: 5 km to 500 m during snow showers.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

A view of the modified drill trench.

Trevor and Karl Emil at the logger console during down borehole logging.