ITP 76 Deployment operations

The deployment operations for ITP 76 were conducted out of the Russian Barneo ice camp (located at 89° 9’N, 11° 53’E on the morning of April 11) and completed rather quickly. The Russian MI-8 helicopter was brought to the Barneo runway after breakfast loaded with all of the buoys and deployment apparatus and departed with 8 deployment personnel at 9:50 UTC. One and a half hours and 273 km further upstream from Barneo a large ice floe greater than 250 m in diameter and surrounded by 1-2 m ridges was selected for the deployment site. No rafting was detected during test drilling which indicated ice thicknesses between 1.6 m and 2.0 m with 0.1 m freeboard and 0.2 m of snow on the surface.

Unloading of the helicopter, deployment of all 4 buoys (in air temperatures hovering around 30°C), and reloading of the deployment apparatus was completed in 6 hours while the helicopter remained on site. By 19:50 UTC all personnel and apparatus had returned safely at the Barneo ice camp.

Assembling the Tripod for AOFB deployment with MI-8 in the background. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

After AOFB was deployed, confirmation of proper operation was conducted from within the helicopter using a long communications cable. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

The ITP profiler is prepared to be deployed through the ice hole by Jeff Pietro, Kris Newhall, and Rick Krishfield. (Photo by Sergey Pisarev)

Krishfield verifies inductive modem communications with the profiler through the surface package before lowering the profiler completely below the floe. (Photo by Jeff Pietro)

Dean Stewart and Jamie Morison install the IMB. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

Ice-Based Observatory as deployed just prior to leaving the site. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)