Daily Reports

Position: 89 09.9' N, 93 38.5' W, temperature - 22° C, air pressure 1007 hPa, wind 18 knots from N. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards northeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Deployed camera sled in 1700 meter water depth and obtained 80 minutes of video from the bottom.

Position: 89 06.2' N, 99 36.4' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1018 hPa, wind 14 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.3 knots towards northeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. We are passing the projected outcrop level of the major unconformity on the Amundsen Basin side of Lomonosov Ridge. Deployed the sediment corer in 1460 meter water depth. Returned empty with only stains of mud in the core cutter - must have hit something really hard at the sea bed. At midnight, we

Position: 89 03.1' N, 102 59' W, temperature - 32° C, air pressure 1012 hPa, wind 9 knots from WNW. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Our internett connection is restored.

Position: 89 00.8' N, 106 59.0' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1011 hPa, wind 22 knots from N. Ice drift 0.3 knots toward east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Audun started work to improve the outside work space. We removed snow from the store room in the remains of the ice hangar to use as temporary storage space. We lost the e-mail connection. Most likely a problem of time variable satellite constellations. Audun went on a moon lit ski trip to inspect the closest bathymetry buoy (#3). It had 10 cm snow on top of the box.

Position: 88 58.7' N, 111 31.1' W, temperature <- 40° C, air pressure 1017 hPa, wind 13 knots from NNW. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. The diesel generator had a cracked fuel line which needed repair at 0400 hours. The air compressor is struggling as the pre-heating is getting marginal at these low temperatures

Position: 88 57,9' N, 113 58.4' W, temperature - 37° C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 6 knots from N. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Deployed the rock dredge, water depth 1485 meter. Unfortunately, Kevlar had been paid out too fast as it hit bottom and the cable got caught by the teeth of the dredge and it was pulled with the front facing backwards. Fired up the second oven in the rear of the hovercraft cabin to increase the temperature in the floor heat radiators.

Position: 88 57.55' N, 115 06.1' W, temperature - 35° C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 2 knots from NNW. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards northeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Deployed the corer below the level of the unconformity. Found core catcher missing upon recovery. Serious winch problem as the Kevlar has worn a groove in the POM capstan from friction heat and the extra turns of cable on the capstan refuse to move sideways. Took four hours to get the corer up. Solved the problem by turning the winch 180 degrees and the groove moved out of the critical area.

Position: 88 57.0' N, 115 58' W, temperature - 27 C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 2 knots from NNW. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards east. Checked radiation flux instruments. Radiation sensors are fine, sun time and IR skin temperature detectors completely covered with frost. Took sun time detector inside to thaw out. The weather station sensors were also completely covered with frost.

Position: 88 56.2' N, 117 47.8' W, temperature - 27 C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 16 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards east. Shooting seismic all day. We are passing 1800 meter water depth on our way up the slope of Lomonosov Ridge. The ice drift is very slow as it takes 16 minutes to move the 25 meter between each seismic shot.

Position: 88 53.8' N, 120 18' W, temperature - 23 C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 10 knots from NW. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards northeast. Cleaned the deck area and put the cover over the insulation mats over the cabin part of the hovercraft superstructure.