Daily Reports

Position: 86° 06.9' N, 45° 08' W, temperature - 29° C, air pressure 994 hPa, wind 2 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the W. Shooting seismic reflection all day, but almost no ice drift. Checked radiation flux instruments and weather station and removed frost. Audun went for a 2.5 hour ski trip and located bathymetry buoy # 2 at 1.7 km away in the direction of 044 degrees. Reported to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Position: 86° 07.6' N, 45° 16' W, temperature - 40° C, air pressure 1000 hPa, wind 1 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the W. Shooting seismic reflection, but little or no ice drift. Went to the old camp and broke loose the last 5 drums of Jet-A1 fuel from the ice. Took a 1.5 hour search for the bathymetry buoy nearest camp (500 m) , but did not find anything.

Position: 86° 07.6' N, 45° 20' W, temperature -30° C, air pressure 1018 hPa, wind 3 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards W. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Checked the radiation flux instruments and cleaned sensors. Have included the battery for the fan into the battery bank for the main engine to secure charging.

Position: 86° 08.1' N, 45° 03' W, temperature below -40° C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 8 knots from S. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards E. Worked on the air gun until 1000 hours and went to bed. Audun went for a two our ski trip to search for the two nearest bathymetry buoys, but did not locate any. Our internal Wi-Fi network for data distribution went down in the late evening and had to be rebooted.

Position: 86° 08.8' N, 45° 38' W, temperature - 38° C, air pressure 1014 hPa, wind 6 knots from the SE. Ice drift 0.1 towards E. No ice drift and the seismic gear on standby. Removed the snow and freed the skirt on the starboard side and jacked up 12 centimeter. Put a tarp under the hovercraft below the front 1/3 of the length of the craft. Checked the radiation flux instruments. The fan is not running at the moment because of insufficient battery capacity.

Position: 86° 08.7' N, 45° 48' W, temperature - 38° C, air pressure 1022 hPa, wind 6 knot from the NE. Ice drift 0.0 knots. Operating the seismic reflection gear, but no ice drift. Removed the snow and freed the skirt on the port side of the hovercraft. Audun dismounted the wind mill support.

Position: 86° 13.7' N, 46° 03' W, temperature - 31° C, air pressure 1002 hPa, wind 13 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.3 knot to the SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Blowing snow. The snow drift is level with the top of our work space and we have problems getting in.

Position: 86° 23.5' N, 47° 54' W, temperature - 27° C, air pressure 1009 hPa, wind 16 knots from the W. Ice drift 0.4 knot to the SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Continued testing the small 800 W generator. Started preparations for jacking up the hovercraft to get out of the snow drift. The hovercraft has been sitting on two 2" x 2" planks since beginning of December and held up very well. This is in strong contrast to what we experienced in September and October where the keel was constantly sinking in the relatively warm ice.

Position: 86° 32.2' N, 50° 11' W, temperature - 33° C, air pressure 1013 hPa, wind 10 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.2 knot to the SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Our internal WiFi-network which distributes the GPS-signal to the different logging systems was down for about one hour. Audun continued exploring our small 800 W generator which will take a heavy load such as the grinder (600 W) , but not a small load such as battery chargers. The key is adjustment of the revolutions pr. minute. Also the wind mill stopped, the problem being the shaft ball bearing gets locked.

Position: 86° 40.7' N, 51° 20' W, temperature - 33° C, air pressure 1012 hPa, wind 8 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.2 knot towards SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Deployed the camera sled in 2.280 meter water depth. Unfortunately, the Kevlar laid out on the bottom had hooked on to the sled and pulled it sideways. Made a CTD cast down to 2.100 meter water depth. Also deployed the short sediment corer - had 0.6 meter penetration, but the core barrel came up empty.

Position: 86° 43.2' N, 52° 00' W, temperature -36° C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 6 knots from the E. Ice drift 0.0 knot. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Checked out the radiation flux instrument and cleared the IR sensors for snow. Deployed the sediment corer in the early hours and obtained a 38 cm core for the Ice2Ice project. Audun went for a ski trip in the neighborhood. If the drift speed holds up, we are about to enter the 200 nautical mile zone north of Greenland in a day or so.

Position: 86° 46.7' N, 54° 51' W, temperature -32° C, air pressure 1001 hPa, wind 23 knots from the W. Ice drift 0.4 towards SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. A snow storm outside makes problems to get inside the outer work space. Made one CTD cast in the early hours to 750 meter depth and another cast late at night to 850 meter depth. We also made two attempts to obtain a short sediment core, but the corer had no penetration and came up empty

Position: 86° 57.2' N, 58° 57' W, temperature - 29° C, air pressure 990 hPa, wind 14 knot from WSW. Ice drift 0.4 knots towards SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Raised one current meter from 1.050 meter depth to 660 meter by drilling a hole and snagging the Kevlar line with a hook. Pulled the Kevlar through a pipe filled with ethanol to facilitate an easy new adjustment of the depth once we are off the ridge.

Position: 87° 04.0' N, 61° 33' W, temperature - 32° C, air pressure 994 hPa, wind 8 knots Ice drift 0.2 knot towards SE. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Checked the radiation flux sensors, the fan works fine. Recovered one sediment core (60 cm) in 1.260 meter water depth and made one CTD cast down to 1.100 meter depth.