June 5, 2019

Drilling restarted and MAGPIE on a first 100 km mission

The MAGPIE measurement station 100 km to the SW of EGRIP in the middle of nowhere.

The deep drilling restarted after yesterday’s core barrel incident. Penetration is somewhat slow, so today’s production is 11 m including some short runs. We will see if the nightly filter runs will solve the issue, or if configuration changes to the drill are needed.
The MAGPIE team started out early and set up two measurement stations 50 km and 100 km to the SW of EGRIP respectively. No signs of unusual surface features on the way that followed the 2015 EGRIP-to-Summit traverse route. Away from camp, the snow surface is very smooth..
Last night it was attempted to fly the drone, but a technical issue occurred and the flight is postponed for tonight. The nice weather invited to a stroll along the skiway of which there were several during the day.

What we did today:

1. Drilling is back in production mode although with fairly slow penetration.
2. Ice core logging depth: 1848.4 m (length: 11.0 m).
3. Station for atmospheric moisture sampling and isotopic measurement is active.
4. The isotope CFA laboratory bag 2869 to bag 2896 (length 14.85 m).
5. MAGPIE set up two stations at 50 km and 100 km SW of EGRIP.
6. Attempted drone flight postponed for tonight.
7. Reorganizing and storing frozen food in cook’s freezer.

EGRIP population is 24.

Weather: Sunny all day with a few high clouds. Temp. -14°C to -24°C. Wind: 2 kt to 12 kt from W.

FL, Anders Svensson

The MAGPIE measurement station 100 km to the SW of EGRIP in the middle of nowhere.