Daily Reports

Position: 84° 01.5' N, 16° 40' W, temperature - 8° C, 1014 hPa, wind 3 knots from the SW. Ice drift 0.2 towards SE. Put up a 12 hour time-lapse of the echo sounder screen. Checked the radiation flux instrument. Removed the cover and insulation mats from the hovercraft superstructure, and mobilized the craft for departure. Just after getting off the parking ramp a loud rattling noise was heard. The starboard brace which hold the propeller duct had come loose and the threads of the adjusting eye-bolt had been pulled out. Propeller blades were hitting the duct at the top inside.

Position: 84° 04.1' N, 17° 20' W, , temperature - 12° C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 16 knots from the WSW. Ice drift 0.3 knot to the SE. Poor visibility before lunch, improved later. Deployed the camera at 36 meter depth for 2.5 hours, but no good images obtained. Completed transfer of the seismic log to an Exel sheet.

Position: 84° 08.8' N, 18° 07' W, temperature - 14° C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 17 knots from the N. Poor visibility all day. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards SE. Mounted new lights on the camera rig. Made tests of time-lapse photography of the echo sounder screen. Continued transferred of the sesmic log to an Exel-sheet.

Position: 84° 11.3' N, 18° 15' W, temperature - 15° C, pressure 1014 hPa, wind 11 knots from the N. Poor visibility, but not quite white-out. Ice drift 0.0 knot. Camera down for 2.5 hours at 55 meter depth. A number of useful passages of copepods, polar cod and others. Audun attempted a ski trip to look for the missing bathymetry buoys, but aborted due to poor visibility. Continued transferred of the sesmic log to an Exel-sheet.

Position: 84° 11.2' N, 18° 13.5' W, temperature - 15° C, air pressure 1018 hPa, wind 7 knots from the NE. White-out. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards the NE. Checked the radiation flux instrument. Continued transferred of the sesmic log to an Exel-sheet.

Position: 84° 10.8' N, 18° 07.4' W, temperature - 16° C, 1017 hPa, wind 6 knots from the E. Ice drift 0.1 knots to the NE. Poor visibility all day, but not full white-out conditions. Prepared the hovercraft for a drive by i) clearing snow and ice accumulated between the inner and outer skirt, ii) clearing the decks and iii) remove the snow from behind to form a passage for re-entering our present parking position. Checked the radiation flux instruments and data logger. Received an e-mail from the Danish group operating the new Villum Research Station at St.

Position: 84° 10.5' N, 18° 02' W, temperature - 16° C, 1016 hPa, wind 4 knot knots from the SE. A clear day before lunch, white-out afterwards. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards NE. New attempt to figure out the problem with the sparker energy source, no success. Lowered the camera to 36 meter depth in the scattering layers. No good close-up images of zoo-plankon. Taking pictures of the echo sounder screen every 6 hours to capture the activity in the scattering layer.

Position: 84° 10.1' N, 18° 00' W, temperature - 12° C, 1024 hPa, wind 3 knots from the SE. Ice drift 0.0. Cleared a passage through a pressure ridge for driving to the old camp. Audun revisited the 2014 camp for photo documentation of changes.

Position: 84° 10.3' N, 18° 01' W, , temperature - 15° C, air pressure 1027 hPa, wind 8 knots from the NW. White-out all day. Ice drift 0.0 knot. Audun moved a Jet A-1 drum to camp to be used for heating. An ice house for storage of food was expanded. A snow bunting suddenly touched down on the roof of the hovercraft at 1532 hours. Rather than restitute and stock up on food in our camp, the bird left after just a few minutes.

Position: 84° 10.9' N, 18° 00' W, temperature - 14° C, air pressure 1030 hPa, wind 5 knots from the S. Sunshine from a clear sky all day. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards ESE. Audun went on skies to search for bathymetry buoy # 4 and # 5, but did not find any. Worked on the sparker buoy to look for shorted connections. Made a frame for mounting the camera and underwater light source in an effort to see of we may be able to get video of the life forms that make up the scattering layer in the upper 150 meter below the ice.