NEW PHOTOS!! Ice, Ice Baby: CASIMBO team collects first measurements in Alert for 2011 campaign.

Hey All, not sure where blogger will put this.  I wrote and submitted this blog on May 3 but for some reason it did not post.


Well I know I’m cheating and posting two blog posts for two different days back to back but given that I just got internet access again today and that it is really slow you’ll have to forgive me. Remember dial-up internet (if not, google it and find out how excruciatingly slow it is (ie 3-20 kB/second). But some internet is better than none, and it lets me communicate with you all. In reality it is actually quite nice being in a place where you cannot be inconstant reach or need to check your phone or email, it seems more peaceful.
Well today we went out on the ice and collected our first measurements on the ice here in Alert. We had already taken a some cores in Resolute but this is different ice. Today we visited the fast ice that Christian and I visited with the #CRYOVEX / #CRYOSAT ground validation team (Seymour Laxon, Katherine Giles, Rosemary Willatt from University College London; and Malcolm Davidson from the European Space Agency) in April.

The ice looks completely different than it did just two weeks ago, and as a result it took some time to navigate to the site. Couple that with a broken Ice Corer motor (little four stroke engine to turn the ice corer that just won’t start for some reason), and some delays getting the EMP-400 ground electromagnetic (EM) induction device operating resulted in us only getting to the ice at 2:30 (with about 1 hr of finding a path to the site).
However at the site we were able to take 3 ice cores, 2 for Ido Hatam and Brian Lanoil and 1 for our own group (good work Ido, Ian and Christian!). Ian was pretty cold today as it was very windy at times, so I loaned him my Canada Goose jacket while I wore my Cloudveil jacket.



Our ice core barrel and a core floating in water.  You can also see a core hole that has already been completed. Photo Credit: Christian Haas




Ido and Ian bagging and tagging the cores.  Ian is sporting my fancy new jacket. Photo Credit: Christian Haas


Alec and I set out to do a ground EM comparison with drill thickness data along a transect over a well defined ridge feature. However, after 4 holes (including one on the ridge that was roughly 5.5m thick) our electric drill broke and we had to stop.



Alec drilling some ice, that's just an 18V cordless drill and some 2inch wide auger flights with a strong steel cutting tip at the bottom (in the ice). Alec is in the middle of cleaning out the hole by moving the drill in and out of the hole to bring all the ice shavings to the surface.




Looking down our thickest hole today  (roughly 5.5m thick ice)




Alec and I doing some ground EM measurements. Here we are using the EMP-400, new to our group. Photo Credit: Christian Haas. 



We had to finish our work today by 6pm so that we could make it back for a base briefing for Alec, Ian and Ido. We had some supper and then did some clean up work. The corer and drill auger flights and anything else that was in the salt water needs to be rinsed clean and dried each night to keep it in good condition.

After that was finished we entered in data. Our helicopter did not arrive today so we will do another skidoo based site tomorrow near where we were today.

Well that is all, I need some sleep.

Justin