ITP20 Deployment Operations

On this day, decent ice conditions were needed to install a mega-buoy cluster of ITP (with prototype bio-sensor package), AOFB, IMB, and the first SAMS ice mass balance buoy. Typical for the weather this cruise, the conditions were overcast with low ceiling limiting helicopter distances. However, after only 20 minutes in the air, a multiyear icefloe is landed on, dilled, and selected for the deployment site. Back on board the Louis St. Laurent just after 9 AM, the actual flight operations began at 10:30 AM with the first transfer of passengers and cargo to the ice. In addition to the installation of the autonomous buoys, other scientists measure ice properties and sample cores along transects across the 3.4-3.8 m thick floe. By noon, the AOFB flux package was in the water, and then the thermistor string and wind generator were installed. Meanwhile the IMB and SIMBA buoys assembled and deployed at separate locations on the icefloe. The ITP was installed in the afternoon, work on the ice was completed by 5 PM, and the last participants were returned from the ice an hour later just as the evening fog really began to settle in.

More information and photos on the deployment operation are also available at: https://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=67321

While equipment is still being transferred by helicopter 50 paces away, Will Ostrom and Jim Dunn begin auguring into the ice floe for inserting the IMB housing tube. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

The AOFB is the first instrument installed, and the deployment apparatus is immediately moved to the ITP deployment site. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

Meanwhile, Dave Griffith and Mike Dempsey install the CRREL IMB near the ITP site. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

With the other buoys mostly in place, Gary Morgan and Dunn auger another 10" diameter hole through the ice for the ITP. (Photo by Gerty Ward)

With the profiler mounted on the wire before lowering into the seawater, Rick Krishfield verifies the integrity of the inductive modem circuit using a laptop terminal. (Photo by Will Ostrom)

After feeding the tether through the supplemental floatation collar, and attaching it to the surface package, the handling bale is mounted by Morgan, Bombardier Ostrom, and Dunn. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

Final connections are applied to the SAMS ice mass balance buoy by David Meldrum and Griffith with the ITP surface package in position in the background. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)

The ice based observatory consisting of SIMBA (left), AOFB (far), ITP 20 (near), and IMB (right) was deployed on a seemingly robust >3m thick ice floe. (Photo by Rick Krishfield)