Preparing for Tuesday flight mission
Astrid (left), GPS (center), and Lars (absent) drove 25 km out of camp to measure the NEEM strain net that provide us with information on the ice surface movement around NEEM. It’s fairly white out there.
The weather is still collaborative and we’ve spend the day preparing for the flight scheduled for next Tuesday: Lou has been zig-zag grooming the skiway all day, the first pallets are starting to build up, the science trench elevator was opened, the science trench is continuously being emptied, and packing has begun in the drill trench work shop.
Lars, Nanna and Astrid also took advantage of the reasonable weather and drove more than 150 km on Skidoo to measure the most distant GPS positions of the NEEM strain net.
What we have done today:
1. NEGIS: wind around 5 kts and sunny, everything is well and the science program is
on schedule
2. Beam grooming entire skiway
3. Measuring three GPS stations at 25 km. NEEM strain net now completed.
4. Opened ramps to carpenters garage and balloon trench
5. Pisten Bully maintenance
6. Made science trench elevator operational
7. Started building pallets for next week’s flight
Ad. 2: After the heavy snowfall and important snow drift of the last week the skiway needs a full treatment. The skiway quality next week will strongly depend on weather, in particular temperatures.
Weather: Mostly overcast with a few snow showers. Fairly good visibility but rather poor contrast most of the day. Wind 5-10 knots from SW. Temp. -8°C to -12°C.
FL, Anders Svensson