ITP 117 Deployment
ITP 117 was the first ITP deployed during the 2018 JOIS cruise on the CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent and was paired with a S-IMB and prototype TOP to constitute an Ice-Based Observatory. Initially, the plan was to only put in ITP117 with SAMI, but the weather was perfect so it was decided to also deploy the TOP and S-IMB. Gear was very efficiently craned onto the ice with cargo net. Drilling the hole found an old refrozen melt pond at the site consisting of about 50 cm of ice followed by a layer of water followed by more ice totaling 1.35 meters of overall thickness. This water was not detected when drilling the spot with the 2” drill during the survey. The Jiffy auger motors do not really have enough power to easily clear the water from the hole which made this task more difficult than usual. The remainder of the ITP deployment proceeded very smoothly.
Subsequently, TOP 1 was deployed approximately 100 meters away from the ITP and the SIMB closer to ITP117. Ice analyses were also performed by others in the science party while the IBO deployment operations took place.
More information and photos on the deployment operations are also available at: https://archives.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/www.whoi.edu/page.do@pid=165356.html
