Team members Mike and Sasha spent all day yesterday traversing a total of 330km round trip via snowmobile from DYE2 to NASA SE and back to do a repair on a station. They returned around 2300 local time last night, ate a quick dinner and turned in. Today they are taking it easy and enjoying some… Read More
Our FirnCover team has completed all the work on their traverses and are back at DYE 2 station. However, yesterday, two members of the team were scheduled to do a very long traverse to repair an instrument at NASA SE that they couldn’t do when they were previously there due to a missing part. I… Read More
Our science team successfully completed work at the KAN-U site over the past three days. Even though today had some moderate winds, they were able to traverse to the EKT site. So far everything has been going pretty smoothly and they’re on schedule – although weather tomorrow is questionable. … Read More
The science team arrived at KAN-U yesterday afternoon after weather conditions had improved enough for a safe snowmobile traverse. The traverse took about 4-5 hours and is located NW of DYE-2. They have a lot of work scheduled at this location including ice core drilling, installation of weather stations and GPS units which will take at least… Read More
After a day of flight delays to the Ice Sheet, I was notified by team lead Mike MacFerrin via satellite communication, that the crew landed safely earlier today at Camp Raven, also known as Dye-2, albeit with a minor occurrence. At one point, the flight crew noticed a gasoline smell inside the aircraft, so as a safety procedure,… Read More
The FirnCover team traversed from Saddle back to DYE-2 yesterday in lower visibility during a snowfall – but not in very dangerous conditions. With GPS guiding the way, and the ability to see the rest of the team around them, they did arrive safely approximately four hours later. The ride was very smooth with fresh powder… Read More
The FirnCover science team arrived at the EKT site approximately 100 km (~62 mi) NE of DYE 2 Sunday afternoon. The snowmobile traverse was fairly uneventful with the exception of a few “bumps on the road”. Due to the very rough ride, two of the Zarges aluminum cases flew off one of the sleds after a strap snapped… Read More
As predicted, the early melting in Greenland is causing problems for the scientists on the ground. Three years of snow accumulation since the big 2012 melt season, have not added significant buffering capacity to the firn – basically there is one thin layer of snow to buffer the meltwater. Once that layer is gone, it’s… Read More
The FirnCover research team arrived safely via snowmobile at KAN-U, their first work site this campaign season. The 67 km (41.6 mi) journey from “home base” camp, Dye-2, took about 4 hours without any major difficulties. Upon arrival, it was discovered that Mike’s firm compaction tower was still standing with no apparent physical damage despite… Read More
Our Arctic Circle Traverse 2016 (“ACT16”) campaign is getting underway next month, and one look at the expedition map and it seems like we’ve outgrown our name! The ACT expedition series began in 2004, as snowmobile traverses roughly aligned with the Arctic Circle (66 °N) in support of the NASA Program for Arctic Regional Climate… Read More
