Polona Rozman of AWI, Germany and myself had a ball on the ice: we were cutting two large holes (one with support from BASC and Lew Shapiro’s oversized chain saw, another one with Matt Druckenmiller and overlapping core holes (the method of choice in March)), did an 80 m under-ice transect to measure light conditions and determine ice algae content; pulled out a fair number of ice cores to filter for sediment and chlorophyl content (i.e. ice micro-algae); and did endless snow depth transects with Matthew Sturm’s amazing MagnaProbe. Did I mention we shoveled snow? We shoveled snow. Rather than low temperatures, we had to be concerned about extremely high relative humidity and condensation. In fact, it got so warm over the weekend that the ice was clearly desalinating in the upper 15 cm by the time we left.
We had a few days of overlap with Matt Druckenmiller who did just about the most tedious measurements I have ever seen: an ice thickness transect straight through rubble ice. This might have well been his last measurements on sea ice as a PhD student. Good on ya, Matt! (photo by Polona)
