June 8, 2017

A LC-130 flight succeeded today, just ahead of bad weather moving in

From the flight today. The LC-130 is transferring fuel to tanks in camp.

It is very quiet in the dome tonight, and there was plenty of room in the kitchen at dinner time. 11 people left camp today, and we said good bye to: Jianzhong, Jens Christian, Hans Christian, Benjamin, Iben, Sune, Bo, Alexey, Rasmus, Dennis and Bruce. As the plane only brought cargo, camp staff is now reduced from 28 to 17. The next plane, which is scheduled for tomorrow, will carry a lot of new camp staff, and the population will go up from 17 to 36. A full house. Right now, camp is secured for bad weather: All tents are secured, cave entrances are closed and all materiel on the snow is compacted and tightly packed. According to the forecast, strong winds will hit us tonight, and it will last until tomorrow evening. We brace ourselves to sit out the blizzard. However, we maintain the plan of flight tomorrow, and watch the development of weather, until we are forced to cancel. Right now, the chances for a flight tomorrow look slim. 

What we did today:

1. Processing: No processing today, except for cutting a few samples for physical properties. The isotope CFA laboratory has been measuring all day.
2. Drilling: No drilling today; but the fluid column has been filtered, and new drilling fluid has been transferred to the tanks.
3. No ice cores to log. Logging depth: 319.43 m.
4. Receiving Skier 51 (02) in fine weather. We received 23,650 lbs of cargo and 1900 liter fuel.
5. Securing camp for forecasted blizzard.
6. German snow sampling.
7. Japanese aerosol sampling and snow experiments.
8. Water vapour sampling, methane sampling, boundary layer and meteorology station working.

Weather today: Sunshine until Noon. In the afternoon increasing cloudiness. By evening Overcast and snow. Temp. -10°C to -22°C. Wind: 3-5 kt from SW turning to ESE. Visibility: Down to 4 km during snowfall.

FL, J.P. Steffensen