May 27, 2019

In a few days the U.S. Air Force LC-130 will arrive – and weather takes a turn for the worse

After Polar 5 arrived, the weather “closed in”. Thick overcast and snow diffuses the light, the surface loses contrast and sky and surface cannot be separated. This is “no fly” weather.

The second scheduled flight from Kangerlussuaq to EGRIP by LC-130(Hercules) is on Thursday. Now, after three weeks of good flying weather we have a change. It is overcast and all contrast disappears. At the same time, it snows so visibility goes down. Nevertheless, the AWI Polar 5 team were still able to make another successful mission to the very North of the Greenland ice sheet. They returned just before the weather closed completely. In camp, we are beginning preparations to receive two Hercules flights. We are making the skiway ready and building a cargo staging area.

What we did today:

1. Polar 5 flew the AWI team to Veits site (79 13’ 30.8’’N; 34 57’ 35.8’’W) and (78 49’58.3’’N; 36 29’53.6’’W). Surface snow was sampled and analyzed and P-RES survey conducted.
2. Drilled 2 runs producing 7 m core.
3. Logging ice cores. Logging depth: 1790.6 m.
4. Station for atmospheric moisture sampling and isotopic measurement is active.
5. The isotope CFA laboratory measured from bag 2617 to bag 2647 (1439.30m to 1455.85m).
6. Groomed skiway and apron.
7. Setting up staging area for LC-130 flights.
8. Working on drone and drone launching system.
9. Removed snow blocks from caves.

EGRIP population is 26.

Weather this today: Overcast with light snow. Temp. – 8 °C to -18 °C. Wind: 6 kt to 12 kt from WNW to NNW. Visibility: down to 1 km during snowfall.

FL, J.P. Steffensen