ITP58 Deployment Operations
ITP 58 was the first of 3 ITPs that were successfully deployed from the R/V Polarstern during the 2012 TransArc cruise. The day was foggy and the floe was generally thin, but the ice thickness in the corner where the ITP was deployed exceeded 3 m. In general, the icefloe was characterized by many melt ponds, and with several wide and narrow cracks. Ridges were located on one side of the floe near the ITP.
The ITP deployment apparatus was lowered onto the ice using the ship’s crane and hauled to deployment site using sleds. (Raquel Somavilla)