Field Reports

Visit this page for the latest dispatches from scientists at work in the polar regions.

Reports

  • NPEO: 13 April 2015

    Artica (Barneo) — N 89 ° 30 ‘W and 020 ° 24’clear, no wind, -18 ° C 

    Monday, 13 April (Russian Orthodox Easter) Barneo – Iridium call from Dean Stewart
    Installation of Frederic Vivier’s Ice-T Buoy was completed at Barneo, and deployment of the Webcam Buoys begun.  Dean phoned to check on the images successfully transmitted by Webcam1.  The Twin Otter arrived from Sunday evening, and it was being configured for the CTD-Chemistry stations, and a practice station was taken.

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  • NPEO: 11 April 2015

    Artica (Barneo) —  April 11, 2015   N 89° 33′  W 018° 11′  — Clear, -29°C, north 2 m/s

    Iridium call from Jamie Morison: The major effort today was preparing for the installation of Frederic Vivier’s Ice-T Buoy, which requires a large and overlapping hole through the ice.  Ice-T deployment should be complete tomorrow.  The Twin Otter took off from Alert headed north, but deteriorating weather at Barneo resulted in an Iridium call to Borek, and the Twin returned to Alert to try again tomorrow.

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  • NPEO: 10 April 2015

    Artica (Barneo) —  April 10, 2015   N 89° 36′  W 018° 39′  — Cloudy, -26°C,  west 2 m/s

    Iridium call from Jamie Morison: Work planned for NPEO’s first full day at Barneo went well. The WHOI team succeeded in deploying both the the Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) and the Autonomous Ocean Flux Buoy about 300 meters from camp, and will leave on the flight to Longyearbyen this evening.  In addition, Dean Stewart put together a successful deployment of the Ice Mass Balance (IMB) Buoy.  Jamie Morison flew to the Pole in an MI-8 helicopter and downloaded another year of data from the Arctic Bottom Pressure Recorder (ABPR), which may be nearing the end of its expected battery life, but seems to be going strong. Revised plans call for the Twin Otter to arrive from Eureka in Barneo Saturday evening to begin the hydro survey.

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  • NPEO: 9 April 2015

    Artica (Barneo) —  April 9, 2015   N 89° 38′  W 025° 03′  — -18°C,  north 3-4 m/s

    Iridium call from Jamie Morison: The An-74  carrying the NPEO team landed at Barneo late this evening. After a short night, the Wood’s Hole team will try to deploy the entire buoy farm at Barneo and depart tomorrow evening. They will be assisted by Sergei Pisarev’s party who will add Alfred Wegner Institute buoys to the collection.  The UW team will try to reach the North Pole by Mi-8 helicopter and download the Arctic Bottom Pressure Recorder.  Associated with all the An-74 delays, the Twin Otter Schedule and the team’s departure from Barneo has been delayed two days.  It will be a busy day tomorrow.

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  • NPEO: 9 April 2015

    Texts and email from Jamie Morison:Photos show the NPEO team preparing to leave Longyearbyen for Barneo on the replacement An-74 at 7pm Norway time.  Aboard are Andy Heiberg, Jamie Morison, Matt Alkire, and Dean Stewart of the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center and Rick Krishfield and Jeff Pietro of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The delayed buoy deployment meant that WHOI’s Kris Newhall will miss the buoy deployment and heads home from Longyearbyen tonight.

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  • NPEO: 6 April 2015

    Email from Jamie Morison: We are still stuck here in Longyearbyen. I think the plan is to resume Antonov flights from here on Wednesday with our flight tentatively scheduled for Thursday afternoon Norwegian time. NSF has started the machinery to delay the Twin Otter operation two days.

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  • NPEO: 5 April 2015

    Email from Jamie Morison: We were originally scheduled to leave yesterday, April 4. But a storm at Borneo had delayed the first flight of camp gear and our departure one day. Last night we were informed the second flight had a bad landing at Borneo and ripped off the right main landing gear. Fortunately, no serious injuries. The Antonov is now stuck in the middle of the runway. They need to get a new Antonov up from Moscow and get the damaged one off the runway or make a new runway. So NPEO faces a significant delay.A British trekking party was on the second…

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  • NPEO: 4 April 2015

    Text from Jamie Morison: The first Anatov-74 flight landed at Barneo with camp gear, while the NPEO team is scheduled for flight 4.  Unfortunately, on the second landing, that Anatov suffered severe damage to the right rear landing gear.

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  • NPEO: 3 April 2015

    Email from Jamie Morison: A 40-knot windstorm is still blowing at Artica (Barneo), and the Anatov-74 loaded with camp gear is still sitting on the ramp in front of our hangar, waiting to make its first flight out.  We are scheduled for Flight 4, so our departure is put off until at least Sunday.   With the WHOI guys doing yesterday and Pisarev on Wednesday, we are now APL (4), Vivier (1 for Borneo plus Antonio), WHOI (3), Pisarev (1) and Tom Quinn CPS (1 for here) in Longyearbyen ready to go. The camera systems are pretty slick, and we have successfully…

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  • NPEO: 2 April 2015

    Phone call from Jamie Morison: We all arrived in Longyearbyen as scheduled, including Matt on Wednesday.  Dean has located nearly all our equipment and sorted it into appropriate piles.  The Antonov 74 has been loaded on the ramp for much of today ready to make its first flight, scheduled for today. It looks like that may wait until tomorrow, which would push our flight back at least half a day, to late-Saturday or Sunday.We set up Webcam#1 looking out the window of our living quarters, and sent three images over Iridium.

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  • NPEO: 1 April 2015

    Phone call from Andy Heiberg this morning. He reported that they all arrived safe in Longyearbyen. The weather on Monday and Tuesday was blizzard like conditions with extremely strong winds but today the weather has calmed and it is a balmy 32°F. Things are on schedule and they should head to the ice camp on 4 April as planned.

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  • Arctic Domain Awareness

    Ignatius Rigor and Roger Anderson deployed meteorological buoys and AXCTD probes for the International Arctic Buoy Program, August 2011.

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