ITP48 Deployment Operations

The second ITP deployed on the ARK-XXVI/3 expedition was ITP 48, which was deployed as part of an Ice-based Observatory (IBO) consisting of an ITAC, ITBOB, and IMB on a 1.2 m thick, fairly level ice floe with some melt ponds. The profiler on this particular ITP was one of the first two systems outfit with prototype biosuite sensor packages, and the first deployed in the Makarov Basin (the other, on ITP 52, had been deployed in the Canada Basin a month earlier).

Poor visibility and high winds hampered the deployment operations, while the Polarstern struggled to stay on station against the floe. While one group deployed the ITP, another group deployed the ITAC and ITBOB a safe distance away, and other scientists conducted ice measurements. Immediately after deployment, the deployment team was rushed from the ice due to the worsening weather so were unable to conduct the final inductive modem circuit test, but communications between the underwater and surface units proved to be fine.

Photos on this page courtesy of: Sergey Pisarev, Ben Rabe, Hiroshi Sumata, Ian Waddington, and Oliver Zenk.

A view of the ITP deployment operations from the site of the ITAC & IBOB buoys after the hole drilled has been through the ice floe.

Ian Waddington steadies the profiler as Hiroshi Sumata positions the bottom of the profiler over the hole.

Sumata guides the profiler through the 10.5” diameter hole through the 1.2 m thick ice floe.

With nearly all of the wire out, a Yale grip secures the ITP tether just prior to attaching the surface package near the end of the deployment.

Meanwhile, the ITAC and IBOB deployments are conducted a distance away to ensure that the underwater instruments do not interfere with each other in any way.

The ITAC instrument is lowered though the ice floe by Sergey Pisarev, Ben Rabe, and Andreas Wisotski while Olive Zenk slips the tag line.