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Daily reports from the NGRIP-camp - week 26, 2003
Monday, June 23rd |
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| Daily life |
| Weather has been rather warm today, only a few degrees
C below zero. |
| Science |
| The drilling continues, today with four run and a total
production of 1.03 meter of ice core. Suddenly new problems arose. In one run, the drill blocked, and the cutters came up damaged several times. Last week, a brass screw was missing on the drill, and the drillers suspect now that the screw is in the hole. In the last ice cores, the ice crystals are very large, larger than the diameter of the core of around 10 cm. |
| Logistics |
| The last days snowing has more or less closed all the
entrances. Today, the ramp to the cooks freezer was reopened. All frozen
food is stored in a large freezer, digged out beneath the surface. There,
the temperature is constant at around - 30 degrees C. On the skiwary, taxiway and apron, the snow has been compressed with large heavy fulltrack vehicles. It is urgent to groom it, because we expect planes to the camp during the week. If the snow is too soft, the plane will get stucked or have difficulties taking off. |
Tuesday, June 24th |
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| Daily life |
| The weather is still relatively warm. Unfortunately,
there is morning fog, so the planned plane to the camp is postponed. |
| Science |
| The drillers go "fishing" in the hole with various equipment.
It is necessary to catch the screw that is suspected to be in the hole and
caused problems yesterday. Unfortunately, the three attempts failed. The
drillers are calm, they have tried this before! |
| Logistics |
| Removing snow continues after the snowfall during the
weekend. During the day all entrances and ramps are finally reopened. The camp is preparing for the new crew expecting to arrive soon. |
Wednesday, June 25th |
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| Daily life |
| The weather is beautiful all day. Blue sky at last, weak
wind og temperatures between -5 and -15 degress C. A great weather
to receive a plane in the camp - then there is just waiting left - wonder
if they come ? |
| Science |
| The drillers continue fishing in the hole, and in the
first attempt a stainless screw is brought up. It is heavily damaged and
is polished by the cutters. The subsequent runs are unstable, and in the last run, the cutters are damaged again. The drillers believe now that there is another alien object in the hole, maybe another screw. A total of 0.7 meters of ice core has been retrieved today, so the total depth is now 3011.16 meters. |
| Logistics |
| Pallets are built for the planes that all the camp are
waiting to receive. |
Thursday, June 26st |
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| Daily life |
| Weather has been good all day. Blue sky, no wind, and
temperatures at -7.5 degree C. In the evening, new clouds came in over the
camp. Receiving the plane took most of the night, and nobody got more than a few hours sleep. Almost all the camp personnel has been exchanged, only three persons from the previous period stayed in cap. Most of the day was used to get used to the thin air, and to show the camp to the two TV crews who are visiting. |
| Science |
| New equipment are being prepared, in order to clean the
drill hole for alien objects. |
| Logistics |
| The first plane of the week arrived shortly after midnight,
and left the camp a few hours later. The mission had to be a night mission
because of the warm weather the last few days. Later, the pallets for the next plane was finished. |
Friday, June 27th |
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| Daily life |
| Skier 95 arrived at camp 0917 with the Kansas group and
departed at 1022 wih the TV crews. Landing was done on the new skiway 25 while take off was on the old Skiway 12 with ATO's in first attempt. |
| Science |
| Logging the bottom 100 m of the borehole shows that the
diameter changes rapidly over distances of 1 m. Below 3000 m max diameter
is 168 mm while minimum diameter is 135 mm. Maximum spikes relates to events
where EWS has been released in the hole. Temperature in the bottom of the
hole is -4.5 degrees. Mounting the vacuum cleaner on deep drill to recover a possible screw from the hole. NGRIP GPS reference station set up for use of AWI and KMS programs. AWI radar and navigation system set up. Kansas test area established at the Lucht Kastel. Removing shallow drill from the 2003 S1 site. |
| Logistics |
| Unpacking food and science equipment. Building a 20*12 weatherport. Oil and filter shift on main generator. Liquid status. |
Saturday, June 28th |
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| Daily life |
| A windy day with increasing overcast throuh the day,
-7.8 degrees. Saturday night dinner cooked by the danes with strawberries for dessert! |
| Science |
| Vacuum cleaning and filtering the bore hole. Slush and
a steelspring recovered with succes. The lacking ability of antitorque might be because of the large diameter of the hole. Tomorrow we will drill with the Hans Tausen drill with an extension rod on the antitorque section to see if that gives a better antitorque. Kansas equipment has been set up. AWI snow radar did a RES profile from NGRIP to NGT45. |
| Logistics |
| Working on Iridium hook up. Repairing snowmobiles. |
Sunday, June 29th |
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| Daily life |
| The weather has improved during the day with decreasing
windspeed and thinner overcast. Tonight blue sky, no wind and -12 degrees. |
| Science |
| Drilling two cores using EWS. Length 39 and 30/40 cm. AWI radar measurements. SAS radar and all radar acquisition systems tested successfully. |
| Logistics |
| Kansas iridium communication net operational. Snowblowing all inclined trenches. Repair of shower and warm water in shower. |
Continue to Week 27
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