The team had the view of a Halo most of the morning at the GRIP site.
May 06, 2024
The team had the view of a Halo most of the morning at the GRIP site.
After a whole day at Summit Station yesterday, we were happy to be back at the GRIP site. There was no contrast when we drove out to the site. White in white. It was good to see our pop-up tent where we left it. The same with the pit we started Saturday, as we had built a snow wall in front of the pit, and no drifted snow was found in the pit. After arrival on site a beautiful halo showed up around the sun and was visible all morning, while the weather cleared in the afternoon, making it pleasant to work outside.
Tamara and Iben continued digging in the pit which is above the drill dome according to our radar data and horizontal ice flow from a study in the ‘90. The pit is currently around 1.7m deep and 2x2 m wide. We used avalanche probes to check for the casing in 2.2-3.1m depth under the pit surface, however without success.
In the meantime, Daniel used the GPR to remeasure the distance between the location of the cat shovel today and its coordinates from 1992. We suspect that the position of the shovel marked in a 1992 camp map is not accurate, since its apparent movement of 25 m doesn’t correspond to observed GPS measurements by Hvidberg et al., 1997, and the movement of the drill dome during that period. To get more confident about our digging location, we additionally looked for reflections of the main dome and of a GPS reference pole from 1996, about 400m from GRIP. We found reflections of the main dome about 6-7 m from it’s 1992 coordinates, and a movement of the GPS pole of 5-6 m since 1996. This information confirms that the ice at GRIP has moved by 6-7 m towards NNW, and we are now convinced that we are digging in the right area and must be close to finding the casing.
What we did today:
Weather today: Windy and cloudy in the morning turning to a more calm and sunny day. Wind 4-16 kt turning from E to S. Temperatures between -31°C and -20°C.
The team in the pit the started to dug Saturday and extended in size today.