ITP 91 Deployment
On September 4 ITP 91 was the first ITP deployed on NABOS 2015 as part of an Ice-Based Observatory (IBO). There was no helicopter onboard this trip, so ice pilot had to search from the bridge, aided by satellite pictures, an ice radar, and his many years of experience working in both the Arctic and around Antarctica. The ship reached the ice edge around midnight but no reasonable floes showed until after 02:00. Several floes broke apart when the ship tried to park next to them as they were too thin. Eventually, just after breakfast, a survey on a floe finds 1.08 m at the first hole drilled and 1.18m on a second hole which is acceptable for the deployment. In all, it took about 8 hours to find this site after reaching the ice edge.
The ship's crew did an excellent job in getting all the gear onto the ice. Finally, in mid-afternoon, all was in place and the final test indicates that the communications with the ITP were successful. Meanwhile an O-buoy was also deployed at this location as well as a small surface buoy on the ice nearby for measuring air temperature and atmospheric pressure.
