A busy, but effective day in the caves

Freshly drilled ice cores at the logging table.

People in the science trench processed almost 35 m core today. This is new NEEM record. No attempt was made to make records; but the ice core quality is excellent and processing work is well organized by Anders, Bo and Susanne. Weather has been splendid for a while now, and quite a few enjoy the evening outside the caves by walking and skiing on the skiway.

What we have done today:

1. Drilling with the NEEM long drill.
2. Logging. Last bag: 837. Depth: 460.35 m.
3. Processing 34.35 m. Processed depth: 245.30 m.
4. Work in CFA lab, first tests on artificial ice are made, and final adjustments are done.
5. Grooming skiway in zig-zag pattern.
6. Cooling tunnel is working.
7. Repairs on the crane on the Pistenbully.
8. Power was switched off at Noon for 15 min for routine maintenance of generator.

Ad.1: This is how the drillers report looks today:
“Stable drilling except when drillers forgot to reset current limit after power outage. First run lost in 8 days. Three drillers have been fully trained on console, Hans Christian (including tuning of drill), Alex and JiWoong. Sebastian is being trained at the moment. Core breaks range from 700 to 900 kg netto with little damage to core and mostly with bottom. We drilled 25.10 m in 8 runs; drillers depth 443.84 m. ”

Ad.6: Temperature loggers show that the cooling tunnel provides -20 C air. In the last 24 hours, the temperature in the drilling trench went down from -12 C to -18 C, a big improvement. No ice cores broke on the table today. We are now planning to make a similar cooling tunnel in the science trench.

Ad.7: The damaged electronic remote control for the crane has been replaced. However an electrical problem still remains.

Weather: Fine all day. -21 °C to -11 °C, 5-8 knots mainly from SSE.
Visibility: Unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen