Ice Cap Daily Report Friday May 19th
Getting the Radar together
We used the cold but sunny day to get the radar together. Tamara and Daniel worked on connecting the 144 co-axial cables on the antenna while David and Niels worked on the RF systems in the PolyPod. Dorthe used the time starting a snowpit. At a depth of 65 cm the snow became firn with a high density (510 kg/m3) and small melt layers. It is thus only possible to sample with tubes pressed into the snow to the depth of 65 cm. 2.5 cm O18 and 10 cm Mercury samples were taken. We will drill a 10 m firn core later. At the end of the day a pull test was made trying to pull the PolyPod and Antenna with the Tundra 300 with no luck. We are hoping to get a longer Tundra 550 on the next mission – the same size as the Scandic 550 used last year in Greenland.
What we have done:
1. Connecting cables on the radar antenna
2. Testing RF systems in the PolyPod
3. Starting a snow pit
4. Flying the drone
5. Trying to pull the PolyPod and Antenna with the Tundra 300
6. Revising plans due to weather related delay in camp put-in
Weather: Blue sky with wind from NNE at 7-12 kn. Temperatures -23 deg C to -22 deg C.
Figure captions:
Tamara and Daniel connecting cables on the Radar Antenna
David and Niels testing the RF systems for the radar inside the PolyPod
The pit with the 65 cm wall sampled and some of the firn blocks below sawed free.