ITP 5 Deployment Operations

An attempt to deploy ITP 5 on August 31, 2006 had to be aborted after the anchor was lowered through a 10 inch diameter hole in a 3.4 m thick ice floe. The anchor wedged under a floe rafted beneath the first, and eventually the end of the tether wire had to be cut to recover the rest of the mooring hardware. A replacement anchor was modified from 250 lb of used mooring chain so that a week later the system could be deployed on a small 3.1 m thick ice floe in loose ice conditions. In an afternoon operation just over 3 hours, an ice floe was surveyed and selected, the gear transported, ITP 5 installed and inductive modem communications with the profiler verified while still on the ice.

More information and photos on the deployment operation are also available here and at: https://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=68056.

Will Ostrom and Kris Newhall drill the 10-inch diameter hole through the 3.1 m thick ice floe for ITP 5, while Gary Morgan tends the chainfall. Photo by Rick Krishfield.

The replacement anchor for ITP 5 was recycled from old mooring chain to replace the original which had been lost during a previous deployment attempt. Photo by Rick Krishfield.

ITP 5 profiler is lowered into the ocean through the 10 inch diameter hole in the ice by Rick Krishfield. Photo by Gary Morgan.

The inductive modem grounding circuit plate is installed on the tether along with the slip bale just before the surface buoy is deployed.

ITP 5 profiler is lowered into the ocean through the 10 inch diameter hole in the ice by Rick Krishfield.

Kris Newhall guides the grounding plate and mooring tether into proper alignment. Photo by Gary Morgan.

Rick Krishfield tests the inductive modem circuit between the surface buoy and underwater profile while Will Ostrom provides limited cover from the snow flurries. Photo by Gary Morgan.