North GReenland Icecore Project


2003

1996

2000

2001

2003

2004

The pictures can be used and distributed freely with citation of source : "Departement of Geophysics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen". Please also include the web address www.glaciology.gfy.ku.dk/ngrip/

Click on the pictures to see them in a bigger version	Caption
	Pictures from July 18th 2003
	The drill has just surfaced with the structure of refrozen subglacial water hanging underneath. The wonder is inspected by professor in glaciology Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Copenhagen, (middle), Henry Rufli, Bern, (right), and Sverrir Hilmarsson, Reykjavik (left). Click here for high-resolution version.
	The structure in a closer view. The colour prooves that it is indeed subglacial water. The ice core drilled just before hitting bedrock was ordinary clear ice. Click here for high-resolution version.
	The team assembeled in the trench for the celebration. Click here for high-resolution version.
	Movie clip of drill and structure.
	Added July 12th 2003
	Video clip from the ice : Drilling the last piece to make the NorthGRIP the longest ice core ever drilled in Greenland. DivX codex needed.
	Pictures from July 25th 2003
	It's a tough life up there in the bitterly cold wilderness.
	Finally in July, the drilling went into a good production mode. This is how we like it: A drill stuffed with freshly drilled beatiful ice core.
	Sometimes, however, the ice core is well stuck in the core barrel.
	... and it can even be necessary to heat up the core barrel very gently in order to free the ice core.
	Fortunately, it does not happen very often, but sometimes the ice core is in a very bad state, and it's a real puzzle requireing a lot of patience.
	The deepest ice core in Greenland. The length of the NorthGRIP ice core has now beaten both the GRIP and the GISP2 ice cores that were drilled last century in the Summit area. It is almost possible to see the individual ice crystals in the core. At this depth the crystals have sizes of up to 10 cm.
	Time for celebration! On a sunny summerday it's a pleasure to enjoy barbeque in the 'Bedrock Cafe'. Again, you get associations to the Schackleton expedition, when you see what those people have to go through.
	In July, two associated projects were testing new radar equipment on the ice. Kansas University brought 12 people on the ice, and Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, joined with a team of two persons. Various ice radar systems were tested. Here a Kässbohrer is transformed into a radar mobile.
	The Kansas group brought with them a rover 'Marvin' to pull the radar equipment around. Marvin is fully remote controlled, and is mainly visiting Greenland for testing purposes; preparing for its future work in Antarctica.
	One of the radar transmitters that were tested in the field. Both radar teams were quite successful in estimating the ice thickness at NorthGRIP before the drill hit bed mud.
	They are very rare, but sometimes you can be lucky to see an ice bear around camp.
	Pictures from July 8th 2003
	8/7-03. The new trail flags have just been delivered to the field office in Kangerlussuaq, where they have been thoroughly testet ...

	Pictures from July 7th 2003
	18/6-03. One of the meltheads risking its life at NorthGRIP this year.
	21/6-03. 'Cognac bomb' on Hans Tausen drill.
	10/6-03. Some pieces of the core are small and strongly damaged by ethanol and heating....
	13/6-03. Others are in a much better shape.
	19/6-03. When a cable looks like this, don't drill!
	20/6-03. The whole camp is on the mission to change the cable.
	15/6-03. There is enough core to start processing.
	18/6-03. A double pit with sunlight through the wall is a beautyful sight.
	7/6-03. Drilling a shallowcore is perfect when the weather is nice.
	7/6-03. One piece of the shallowcore comes out of the drill.
	21/6-03. How to build an igloo.
	7/6-03. It is possible to have a BBQ even though the temperatures are -10 degrees.
	Pictures from June 12th 2003
	19/5-03. The engines of the two Kässbohrer track vehicles undergo a major service.
	20/5-03. The captain is watching out for big birds.
	20/5-03. Here one arrives.
	20/5.03. It kneels and lift up the front ski in order not to freeze to the surface.
	25/5-03. Poetic illumination of camp and sign post an early Sunday morning.
	26/5-03. The tracks of the track vehicles have an inspection.
	26/5-03. Then the vehicles are in good shape for some serious skiway grooming.
	26/5-03. Before the ice core drilling starts, a number of bore hole loggings are carried out in the undisturbed bore hole. One of those is the temperature logging, where the 3 km long temperature profile of the bore hole is obtained with a precision better than one milli degree. This kind of measurements make special demands on the equipment, and the loggers brought there own winch for the logging operations. The heavy winch was placed in a weatherport on the surface.
	26/5-03. Geodetic measurement are carried out in connection to the establishment of a new skiway, which has a more favorable orientation with respect to the prevailing wind direction.
	28/5-03. Are they from Mars? No, our French speaking colleagues are just wearing lint free suits in order to avoid contamination in the search for micro-meteorites on the Inland ice. At a distance from the 'polluting' camp, large snow samples are collected for melting and filtering.
	28/5-03. Back in camp the collected samples are inspected in microscope for possible findings of micro-meteorites.
	28/5. A beauty from the trenches.
	20/5-03. The garage as it appeared on arrival. The more than 4 m high tent is almost covered by snow to the roof top. Inside the tent we find the caterpillar and indispensable spare parts for the vehicles. What to do?
	28/5-03. First you shovel, ...
	30/5-03. ... then you chain saw, ...
	1/6-03. ... and finally you pull the garage up on a new snow hill. Next year access will be easier!
	30/5-03. Another option is moving of tents on sledges. Here the NorthGRIP mobile home service group in action.
	31/5-03. Two o'clock in the morning the night after Friday. What is happening?
	31/5-03. Solar eclipse in the middle of the night!
	31/5-03. A light cloud cover appeared and the sun could be observed with the naked eye.
	31/5-03. No, it is NOT the Moon. To speak the truth, this image has been slightly manipulated.
	31/5-03. Cultural exchange Saturday night.
	31/5-03. Saturday night shortly before midnight.
	1/6-03. Another beauty from down stairs.
	2/6-03. Activity in the drill trench. The drill is sent down the bore hole for the first time this season.
	2/6-03. The result of the first drilling attempt was a beautiful slush core. I.e. a core consisting of ice chips, grease from the cable, and glycol slush, that has collected at the bottom of the hole over the last two years.
	Pictures from May 21st 2003
	The put-in team walks towards the main dome just after landing. Picture taken 5/16 2003
	The main dome is partly covered by snow. The small window to the left is the window to the office on second floor. Picture taken 5/16 2003
	The door is dug free. Picture taken 5/16 2003
	16/5-03. The NorthGRIP pharmacy is open!
	16/5-03. Inside this tent we find the snow blower and the large track vehicles - the Kässbohrers. Unfortunately, a 4 m high pile of drift snow covers the entrance, so everybody gets a chance of warming up by practising some shovelling in the biding frost wind.
	!7/5-03. First Saturday night. Time for some serious cooking.
	18/5-03. The old drill trench from 1996. The snow has been compressed and the height thus decreased. The wooden beams that carry the ceiling broke due to the weight of the overlying snow.
	18/5-03. The science trench is still in quite good condition.
	19/5-03. A new access ramp to the drill trench is made using a snow blower. The entrance to the trench is approx. 5 meters below the surface.
	Pictures from May 17th 2003
	The put-in team on their way to NGRIP.
	Finally, the take-off towards NGRIP on May 16th.
	On first class in a C130!
	The put-in team is packing in Kangerlussuaq
	13/5-03. Only specially trained personel is allowed at the drilling station on the Inland ice. Here a scene from the training camp in Kangerlussuaq shortly before departure.
	The view over Kangerlussuaq from "Ravnefjeldet".
	13/5-03. The ice-margin at Kangerlussuaq with some snow in .mid-May.
	13/5-03. Same.
	13/5-03. Same.
	Musk-oxes close to Kangerlussuaq.
	Pictures from April 2003
	The "W"-signal as it looked in the spring sun in April 2003. During the past two years snow has accumulated around and on all structures, and the shadow effect makes them look like lights.
	This picture gives a better view on the single buildings. The red tent in front is a sleeping tent. The black dome is the main building with the generator, office, kitchen and dinning room, and the red tent behind is the workshop. Significant amounts of snow lies around these buildings, but fortunately not so much on top of them. It is worse for the white tent behind and the garage tent to the most right. This is were the vehicles used for moving snow are stored! An extra stock of shovels will be sent to the ice this year ...
	Sunset over the ice, when the mail plane was on its way home.