Out into the void

We managed to get out into the field yesterday to do some calibration work on the most recent station deployed (site 14).

The day started with thick fog and almost no wind. This put us into North Winds (the condition that protects the pure ice to the south of the station) and weather condition 2 (poor visibility) so we weren't allowed to leave the station for several hours. Eventually, we were able to get off station and head the ~5 km to site 14.

Once out on site, we put the shack over the hole and deployed some Vertical Polarization (Vpol) and Horizontal Polarization (Hpol) antennas into the 90 m hole the drill team were able to make. By pulsing these antennas close to the main station antennas, we will be able to see the sensitive region of the station antennas and get a feel for the refractive index of ice with depth.

Science team 1 are a well oiled machine at this point, but I picked up enough tricks to help the Science team 2 calibration studies.

Science team 1 ship out today on a cold deck flight (they don't heat the plane as there are some ice core samples flying with them. It will be -20 C on the plan) and the rest of Science team 2 are heading up. They will chill out for a couple of days to get used to the altitude and then the work can start.

A foggy morning at Summit Station

Me with our science equipment sleds before heading out to site 14

Our arctic oven (orange tent) and Balley building (white building) in the background. Felix (orange coat), Alan (orange pants), and Eric getting ready to go with our snowmobiles.

Felix with our deployment shack

Our deployment shack with the station 14 LTE antenna, solar panels and wind turbine in the background

Me with site 14

One of our holes in the ice

The view from site 14. If you look in the distance you can see Summit Station

Summit Station