The decision yesterday to wait another day to allow for fixing the radar has paid off. Today, the radar people could happily announce that the radar is ready. The traverse train will leave tomorrow morning. While the radar got fixed, we excavated a trench so that the traverse crew could begin analyzing surface snow in the way they plan to do en-route. This involves taking top snow samples in vertical plastic cylinders, and analyzing some of them in the portable analysis system: the LISA box. LISA is short for “Lightweight In Situ Analysis”. The vertical snow cylinder is placed on a hot plate on top of the box, and while it is melting, the meltwater passes through a small mini laboratory inside the box for analysis. We also began removing snow around the main dome. We need to remove snow around the undercarriage of the dome and from the skis before we can pull the main dome up a snow ramp to the surface. This move can be done while the dome is fully functional.
What we did today:
- Made a 1.8 m deep trench for surface snow sampling.
- Cleaned out ramp entrance to trenches.
- Making ramp for dome and began to remove snow around the main dome.
- Fixed radar system and tested it.
- Traverse train ready to go.
Weather today: Sunny and clear. Temperature −28°C to −18°C. Wind: 6 − 12 kt from WSW. Visibility: Good.
FL, J.P. Steffensen
