May 10, 2017

Setting up drill electronics

Jens Christian in the drillers cabin is working on the drill software inside the top of the drill in the foreground.

Setting up drill electronics. The drillers, working in the underground drill trench are almost ready to ream the borehole. They have installed a new electronic drill motor control, and they are adjusting the software to answer the commands given from the drilling console. It requires some programming skills; but Jens Christian is the man for it.
In the science trench, we have begun to mount the cooling unit. It may sound a bit ridiculous to mount a cooling unit in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet, especially after I have been complaining on how cold it continues to be. But Summer will come, and higher temperatures will follow. We are installing a cooling unit to protect the ice core from thermal shock when it comes from the deep. From experience we know that maintaining a temperature of -30°C in the trenches during summer is almost impossible, temperatures can go as high as -10°C in the trenches. Therefore, we have setup a cooling unit, kept at -30°C, which is the average temperature of the ice sheet and here, we will extract ice cores.
On the surface, the wind is still causing some sow drift and once in a while we have to use snow blowers to keep the entrance to the trenches free.

What we did today:

1. Repairing Pistenbully 1. Too high oil pressure in the planetary gear.
2. Work in the drilling trench.
3. Work on setting up tables at stations in the science trench.
4. Test of radar.
5. Opening doctors clinic in WP 4.
6. Removing snowdrifts from trench entrance.
7. Work on mounting freezer aggregate in extraction tunnel.
8. German snow sampling.
9. Japanese aerosol sampling and snow experiments in progress.
10. Water vapour sampling, methane sampling, boundary layer and meteorology station working.

Ad.2: Adjusting software of the new drill electronics so that the motor has the proper response to commands from the console.
Ad.4: The radar spotted a test person 3 km from camp.

Weather today: Thin high clouds. Strong wind and snow drift. Temp. -19°C to -34°C. Wind: 15 kt from W. Visibility: To horizon.

FL, J.P. Steffensen