ITP61 Deployment Operations
Due to the ice conditions, the annual Russian ice camp Barneo was situated near the 180th meridian approximately 55 km from the North Pole in April 2013. The weather was dominated by high pressure which meant clear skies, cold air temperatures (-28 °C) and light winds which were good for flight operations. In collaboration with the NPEO an Ice Based Observatory (IBO) consisting of ITP 61, an AOFB, a seasonal IMB, and PAWS were to be deployed further upstream of the ice camp using the MI-8 helicopter as in some previous years.
After breakfast on the morning of April 10, all of the buoys and deployment apparatus were loaded on to the MI-8 helicopter along with the 6 member deployment team. After flying south generally along 180° for 1.5 hours, the helicopter selected a deployment site on a 2 m thick ice floe approximately 125 km from Barneo. Due to the extreme cold temperatures, a portable tent was quickly set up on the ice to provide a warm shelter for electronics and essential deployment gear.
The deployment team split into 2 groups so that the AOFB and IMB could be deployed simultaneously, and the ITP and PAWS also deployed simultaneously afterwards. Despite the cold, the deployments proceeded as expected, and the AOFB and IMB were deployed within 2 hours after arrival, followed by a short personnel warming break. Then the ITP and PAWS were deployed over the next several hours, and the deployment apparatus reloaded onto the MI-8. The entire operation took only 5 hours from the time the helicopter landed on the floe until it took off again, and arrived back at Barneo only a little over an hour later.
