Anne-Katrine and Sonja in the underground cave for storage of surface samples. As it is melting on the surface, it is important to have a ‘freezer’ to work in.
June 12, 2019
Anne-Katrine and Sonja in the underground cave for storage of surface samples. As it is melting on the surface, it is important to have a ‘freezer’ to work in.
This morning, we had clear blue sky and around 12 kt westerly winds. During the afternoon, the temperature climbed up to the melting point that was reached at 4 pm. At 5 pm a thin layer of low clouds came in and raised the temperature further to +0.4°C. At 6.30 pm the temperature had dropped to below melting point again. Such a short warming event does not cause melting of the white, cold snow surface, but on any darker surface, such as a tent or a boot, there are small droplets of water forming from melting. This is definitely a very early time of the year to have such warm temperatures at EGRIP.
Today was the first day when the water vapour sampling drone had clearance to go above 100 m height at EGRIP. The drone had a very successful sampling at different heights up to 1.5 km above camp. Unfortunately, the high winds up there drained the battery faster than expected and right after the last sample was taken, the drone terminated the flight by an autonomous landing. The landing itself went well, but before coming to a halt the drone's wing hit a metal pole and got damaged. It is now being investigated if it is possible to make a repair, order spare parts for a coming Skier mission, or how best to proceed.
What we did today:
EGRIP population is 24. EGRIP average age is 37 years.
Weather: Mostly clear blue sky and incredibly high temperatures. Temp. -14°C to +0.4°C. Wind: 2 kt to 14 kt from WSW.
FL, Anders Svensson
This surface core needs to be sliced up in 1 cm samples. Suddenly, 1 m is very long.