Daily Reports

Position: 87° 03.8' N, 65° 28' W, temperature - 36° C, air pressure 990 hPa, wind 15 knots from the S. Ice drift 0.4 knot to the E. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Made a CTD cast. On the way up, the CTD remained at 600 meter depth for one hour because a hydraulic hose burst and had to be replaced. Reamed the hydro hole.

Position: 87° 05.9' N, 67° 47' W, temperature below - 40° C, air pressure 1017 hPa, wind 5 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.0 knot. PC completed 15 hour disk scan/repair cycle. Reboots in Windows as usual, but flips back to fault conditions. Checked the radiation flux instruments and cleaned sensors. Made the first CTD cast down to 2.450 meter in 2560 meter water depth

Position: 87° 06.8' N, 67° 40' W, temperature -37° C, air pressure 1029 hPa, wind 10 knots from the N. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards east. Audun connected up the wind mill, but outside switch box was corroded and had to be replaced. CTD was checked and batteries changed. Replaced start batteries (2 x 110 Ahr.) and service batteries (4x 110 Ahr.) in the hovercraft. The seismic data logging PC crashed again. We are not drifting anywhere for the moment so no opportunities are lost.

Position: 87° 07.5' N, 68° 12' W, temperature - 31° C, air pressure 1025 hPa, wind 7 knots from the NE. Ice drift 0.1 towards E. Checked radiation flux instruments; cleaned sensors, changed fan battery (80 Ahr., 13 Volt, changed memory card and battery on the data logger. Used battery measured 12.2 Volt. Checked the weather station. Worked on cleaning the hydro hole using the vertical ice saw. Discovered the air gun hanging from the air hose and the signal cable - the wire had broken. Recovered the air gun. Insufficient wind to test the wind mill.

Position: 87° 10.' N, 67° 28' W, temperature - 22° C, air pressure 1010 hPa, wind 33 knot from the NE. Ice drift 0.5 knots towards W. Blowing snow. Shooting seismic reflection all day. By 1400 hours, the drift slowed down and the direction turned back east towards Lomonosov Ridge. Audun worked on the wind mill taking it apart and checking for salt.

Position: 87° 07.7' N, 61° 16' W, temperature - 24° C, air pressure 1021 hPa, wind 23 knots from the NNE. Ice drift 0.3 knots towards W. Blowing snow. Shooting seismic reflection all day.

Position: 87° 08.6' N, 60° 17' W, temperature - 37° C, air pressure 1028 hPa, wind 6 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the southeast. The air gun went into the water after midnight and seismic shooting resumed at 0253 hours. However, the seismic data logger started intermittent self trigging during the day. The problem was cured with advice from Ole Meyer. Audun started the fuel cell. Error code 75 Call service, was the response. Submitted an inquiry to the factory by e-mail.

Position: 87° 20.5' N, 63° 04' W, temperature - 29° C, air pressure 1000 hPa, wind 11 knots. Ice drift 0.1 knot to the SSW. Finished the compressor heat box and started warming up. Audun worked on the small 800 W generator to see if we could get power from it - the engine runs, but power is sometimes there, but most often not.

Position: 87° 21.6' N, 63° 00' W, temperature - 37° C, air pressure 1020 hPa, wind 3 knots from the SW. Ice drift 0.0 knots. Continued work on the compressor box. Moved the hydraulic oil tank to be included in the compressor box. Re-routed some of the air hoses. Tested the stove, but it would not burn properly.

Position: 87° 22.0' N, 63° 23' W, temperature <- 40° C, air pressure 1012 hPa, wind 14 knots from WSW. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards the east. We put the air box in place and closed all openings between the work space and the hovercraft superstructure. Also connected the Zarges box with the stove. It is very cold today, so in between you often have to go inside and warm up.

Position: 87° 22.1' N, 63° 51' W, temperature - 33° C, air pressure 1022 hPa, wind 12 knots from the east. Ice drift 0.1 towards NNW. We started the small 800 W generator and run it for three hours. Went down to the old camp area, dug out one drum of gasoline and pulled it to the new camp. Checked the radiation flux instruments and cleaned all sensors. Run the small generator again, but it is unable to handle the load from charging the hovercraft batteries. The generator engine runs, but power is lost.

Position: 87° 22.5' N, 63° 47' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1019 hPa, wind 1 knot from the SSW. Ice drift 0.0 knots. Acquiring seismic reflection data until 0815 hours as we were out of air from loss of heat on the compressor. Started work on the generator to see if there was any hope of repair. The engine has to be opened from the generator side and the generator axle is pressed on to the engine drive shaft so special tools would be needed. Further pursuit of repair was considered futile. Audun made a hole for deployment of the thermistor string.

Position: 87° 22.8' N, 63° 52' W, temperature - 25° C, air pressure 999 hPa, wind 3 knots from the ESE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards W. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Audun was occupied with restarting the data loggers for the thermistor string. Checked the radiation flux instruments. Data logger battery is 12.9V, large battery for ventilator is 14.3 V. Cleaned all sensors and also the weather station sensors. A lead, about 200 meter to the north of the camp has been present since we came to this site 1.5 months ago. The lead is now closing

Position: 87° 22.7' N, 63° 58' W, temperature - 21° C, air pressure 1021 hPa, wind 14 knots from the E. Ice drift 0.1 knots due south. The ice drift stopped completely during the day. To move 25 meter took more than 5 hours. Acquiring seismic data all day. Had to end seismic line 2014-12 before midnight and reboot the computer.