We are done, having left Ny-Ålesund yesterday. Part of the team has boarded the plane and left the island, a few members are still out, hoping for a late drainage. We didn’t capture the drainage yet, but we still collected a massive amount of interdisciplinary… Read More »It’s a wrap
That was that. Leaving Ny-Ålesund after almost two months. Flying out and looking down on the lake. The water level is still going up. Seems to be a pattern here. At some point the lake will drain, but everything seems to be three weeks behind… Read More »Leaving Ny-Ålesund
This morning Clione pulled in the harbour, starting the final phase of our project. Or so we thought. The ship was supposed to map the sea floor after the lake had drained out into the ocean to see the impact the flood event had on… Read More »The final project phase
That was it. Our last field day. And the lake is still going up strongly. We did more water sampling at the glacier front and at the lake. Took down our GPSes and the pressure loggers that were not under water. Downloaded all timelapse camera… Read More »Final field day
One way we are currently using to try to find suitable deployment points for our drifter technology: We fly a drone over the area to find places where the water disappears below the surface and then fly over the glacier front to identify if any… Read More »Flying drones
Frustration continues. The lake level is still going up, even though the speed seems to have slowed down somewhat. The glacier next to the lake starts to make weird sounds. Continous cracking, buzzing and plumbing sounds. Something is going on. It’s just not draining yet.… Read More »Frustration continues
The lake starts to annoy me. It is still not draining. Now we are almost a month behind last years drainage date. We have three field days left, will lose at least one due to a big storm coming. And the lake level keeps going… Read More »Annoying lake
The water level at the lake keeps rising and rising and rising. Luckily we moved our equipment (car battery, gas bottle,…) higher last time. It would have been under water otherwise. All the moraines are gone, everything is under water and still no drainage in… Read More »It’s changing fast
Spending the day dropping drifters in moulins. Crossing all over the glacier, walking as close as we can to the calving face of the glacier, trying to find more moulins. And they are just everywhere. Loads of water going into the glacier all over the… Read More »An expensive gamble
Finally made it back to the lake again. After eight days. Too strong winds and high swell caused us to lose three field days during the past week. We tried to get out, but ended up turning around in the fjord, being soaked after just… Read More »Back to the lake after 8 days