The equipment. Photo: Jan-Ola Olofsson

There was a lot of activity on the sea ice yesterday. A big part of the scientific scope of this expedition is to study the physical and mechanical properties of sea ice and icebergs. The different research teams were busy studying ice ridges, measuring ice friction and turbulence, performing borehole jack tests and so on.

Looking for a suitable ice ridge. Photo: Jan-Ola Olofsson

The equipment. Photo: Jan-Ola Olofsson

The micro drone team had a first test flight and everything worked fine, except for a bit of icing caused by the high air humidity. The micro drone was moving very fast and smooth in the air. Impressive! With the micro drone it’s possible to record video of the surroundings and, for example, drop a GPS unit on the ice. Maybe there’s time for another test flight today. At the moment the helicopter is in the air, so the micro drone team will have to wait.

The plan for the day is to continue the work on the ice until lunch time. Then we’ll start moving towards an iceberg a couple of nautical miles away.

Jan-Ola Olofsson, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat