July 6, 2017

Good work-weather

Ina and Jan all suited up and ready to drive 30 km upstreamof camp for a radar study.


We took advantage of today’s nice weather to carry out some more surface work. Before lunch Ina and Jan drove off with the AWI radar system, destination 30 km upstream from camp. The radar can measure the anisotropy of the ice. Later on Khanghyun and Søren made a pit study 500 m SSE of camp, sampling for trace metals in the upper snow layers down to a depth of 1.9 m. The usual surface program also progressed as planned. A small autonomous vehicle was also tested by Andrew, and drove for some 7 km, mainly on the skiway.
In the drill trench we moved from reaming to drilling with the spring still mounted near the drill-head. Cores drilled were rather short, some 70-80 cm each. Logging of the short cores proceeds without problems. Also the drillers improved on the drill trench ventilation system by adding a blower to enhance the air intake in the trench. In the science trench Physical property measurements and water isotope sampling continued.

What we did today:

  1. Servicing flexmobiles, tidying up surface.
  2. Deep drilling core length at 19.00: 2.97 m.
  3. Logging depth at 19.00: 587.43 m.
  4. Reaming of bore hole and drilling with new spring system near drill head.
  5. Water isotopes: Cutting 2.5 cm samples from bags 1 to 11 in Auger core A1-17.
  6. Water vapour, methane, aerosols, snow and boundary layer measurements
  7. Physical properties measurements.
  8. Radar measurements 30 km upstream from camp.
  9. Pit study 500 m SSE of camp.
  10. Installation of air intake in the drill trench, significantly improving ventilation.
  11. Test of autonomous vehicle, distance driven approx. 7 km.
  12. Cleaning of core troughs.

Weather: Sunny day. Wind turned from SW to W during the day, up to 4 m/s. Temperature between -21°C and -8°C.

FL, Bo Vinther

Pit study for trace metals: Left, Khanghyun suited up in white and doing the sampling. Right, the pit after sampling has been completed.