Daily Reports

Position: 89 13.8' N, 149 23' W, temperature - 14 C, air pressure 1030 hPa, wind 5 knots from ESE. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards southeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Replenish high pressure air supply by running the main engine for fifteen minutes every two hours. Recovered dredge #3 at 0500 hours - came up empty. The water depth was 2325 meter. Lowered the rock dredge again. Checked the radiation flux instruments . Sun time detector covered with rime and IR detector with snow.

Position: 88 18.7' N, 157 08' W, temperature - 17 C, air pressure 1028 hPa, wind 12 knots from ESE. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards ESE (back across Lomonosov Ridge). Blowing snow all day. Acquiring seismic reflection data all day. The dredge is out with 3000 meter Kevlar in anticipation of shallower water early Monday morning.

Position: 89 20.4' N, 164 41' W, temperature - 13 C, air pressure 1034 hPa, wind 6 knots from the SE. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards east. Shooting seismic all day. Audun moving food box away from the large crack (7 m wide).

Position: 89 20.6' N, 168 43' W, temperature - 13 C, air pressure 1036 hPa, wind 3 knots from NE. Ice drift 0.15 knots towards east. Was finally able to recover the hydrophone. Redeployed the 300 meter long thermistor string in the vicinity of the radiation flux instrument. The radiation flux instruments have been without power for several days. Laid out a cable across the lead and started charging. Cleaned all detectors. Also the weather station was completely covered with frost, cleaned all detectors. A small crack is going in between the guide wires, but no significant movement seen.

Position: 89 19' N, 174 51' W, temperature - 8 C, air pressure 1036 hPa, wind 5 knots from E. Ice drift 0.1 knots toward east. Started recovery of the thermistor string as it is only 5 meter away from a crack that has widened 3 meters. The thin ice on refrozen leads are likely sites of future pressure ridge formation. Having recovered half (150 m), we discovered that the hydrophone was about to be consumed by the pressure ridge south of the hovercraft. Started to melt out the hydrophone, but was not successful.

Position: 8 17.6' N, 179 36' W, temperature - 9 C, air pressure 1031 hPa, wind 11 knots from ENE. Ice drift 0.3 knots towards east. We are drifting along the bathymetric contours of Lomonosov Ridge. Hovercraft maintenance all day; adjusting the lift fan belt. No ice activity observed.

Position: 89 08,9' N, 177 35' E, temperature - 14 C, air pressure 1031 hPa, wind 11 knots from ENE. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards northnortheast. Stopped the airgun at 0517 hours, we had a new crack through the ice on the port side about 20 meter away from the hovercraft widening several meters. Another crack 10 cm wide is parallel and passes 5 meter away from the craft. Hovercraft maintenance all day - replaced broken lift fan belt. Also removed the four jack-up legs and placed the hovercraft on four pallets. Felt a jerk of the ice floe.

Position: 89 04.5' N, 175 57' E, temperature - 17 C, air pressure 1021 hPa, wind 22 knots from NN E. Ice drift 0.4 knots towards North. Checked the radiation flux instruments after midnight. Sun time detector covered with rime and IR detector with snow. Shooting seismic reflection all day. At 1030 hours, Audun discovered a 10 cm wide crack in the ice right through the middle of the ice hangar. Two boxes of food needed to be moved away from the crack.

Position: 88 58.6' N, 175 47' E, temperature - 19 C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 10 knots from N. Ice drift 0.2 knot towards N. Shooting seismic reflection continuously. We pump
the 40 liter air reservoir up to 200 bar every two hours. A constant 130 bar pressure on the airgun is maintained via a pressure reduction valve. All instruments work well. As we are over a deep plain and the operation runs well, we declared Sunday as a day for rest - the first in six weeks. We passed 89 degrees north by mid-day and the drift direction is near due north.

Position: 88 54' N, 177 22' E, temperature - 23 C, air pressure 1017 hPa, wind 7 knots from N. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards N. Shooting seismic continuously. A horrible 50 Hz noise signal appeared, and the source was most likely the generator which we need on continuously. We grounded the lines at both ends and the problem disappeared. Audun restored continuous power for charging the battery of the radiation flux measurements. The power had been interrupted when we moved out of the ice hangar. Cleared rime and snow from the weather station.