Operation Phoenix is off!

The stars are aligning!!!! With all of the delays we have had much time to prepare but now with Terry's finger on the road to healed and the weather looking flyable in the Southeast we were able to get Rick and Terry into the field once again to begin the drilling as part of Operation Phoenix. They landed several hours ago, unloaded a second snowmobile. The tent survived 50-60 kt winds over the past few days, all of the equipment is at the site and is well buried but recoverable. Now is the time to begin Phase II of our research, to traverse via snowmobile 300 mi towards the SE coast and back. The Hercs arrived yesterday and have had an aggressive day of flying today, dropping off four of the five needed flights before we can be brought in. Jason, Clement and I are now scheduled to leave tomorrow at noon! The traverse will go to the same places as previously planned only now, we must stop and drill each core along the way and haul the 1700lb drill along with us. We can operate in much worse conditions than the otters can fly but we will still need good weather to get this all done! As of 2 pm this afternoon one major problem remained. Volcanic ash was forecasted to cover Greenland tonight; many airports have already been closed. But a new forecast at 5pm predicts the ash moving back towards Iceland!


Below is our radar setup. The antenna is the red box in the back of the sled and will transmit at 400Mhz straight down into the snow, revealing internal layering to a depth of 50m. The controller in is the box and will be insulated, heated and powered with the solar panels.


We hope to install a met station at Saddle, the highest point along our traverse and an ideal location to study compaction. Since compaction is highly dependent on temperature, we are installing a met station that will measure a temperature profile in the snow at 16 levels to a depth of 15 m with an accuracy of <0.01 degrees C. Below is a photo of the housing that will hold the datalogger and multiplexer. The system is solar powered and will (hopefully) survive the winter to be collected next year.


Rick and Terry taking off this afternoon.

All of the snowmobiles are brand new, and maintained specifically for our traverse. We have all had lessons on Snowmobile maintenance and fit custom GPS navigation and GPS survey equipment. One snowmobile will regularly transmit its location via satellite back to Byrd Polar Research Center. We will try to get this information to you.

What we are doing is called "Herc camping." Its kind of like car camping. Except our car burns 50,000 lbs of fuel an hour and can fly. With all of the science equipment, survival gear, etc., we aren't exactly going light. Our total payload for the flight: 6550 lbs. Below, all of our stuff is on its way to the Herc this afternoon.