ITP43 Deployment Operations

On October 6, 2010, the second and final Ice-Based Observatory was to be deployed during the JOIS 2010 expedition.  While the weather and visibility were good for surveying ice floes by helicopter reconnaissance, the ice conditions in the region were not so good.  During the first reconnaissance in the morning, one landing was made on a floe which was less than 1 m thick, and no other reasonable floes were spotted.  In the afternoon reconnaissance no reasonable floes were spotted, so the deployment was postponed.

The following day, a reasonable floe greater than 2 m thick was found on the second landing during the morning helicopter reconnaissance, and the deployments began in the afternoon.  In a little less than 6 hours, the four buoy systems were deployed while other researchers performed detailed ice measurements.  The air temperature dropped throughout the day, and by the end of operations was less than -16° C.

More information and photos on the deployment operations conducted during the IBO deployment are also available at: https://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=66858