Testing WISSARD Instrumentation at Lake Tahoe August 2012

Field Report 1 – Tuesday 21st

Ross D. Powell Northern Illinois University

This is the first in a series of reports providing an up-date on the testing of WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) in Lake Tahoe prior to its deployment to Antarctic deployments. Over the past weekend DOER-Marine transported the majority of instrumentation and equipment, and heavy plant up to Lake Tahoe from their facility in Alameda, CA. All arrived intact and most were loaded on the working barge of Tahoe Marine and Excavating (TME), who are the contractor for operations, on Saturday 18th. Sunday was a forced day of rest due to Obexer’s Marina, where the barge is being loaded, and the State of California not allowing access. Monday 20th was a full day of operations for DOER and TME where they passed a major benchmark and managed to load all of the operational and scientific gear onto the barge. They welded and secured all launch and recovery (LARS) equipment on the barge and established the working space and architecture operations. Today, Tuesday 21st was another successful day where the NIU science team joined the operational team and started organizing the scientific instrumentation on the barge. Weather was great and cooperating well. Operations tested the flotation balance of the barge and made some adjustments in locations of some units and continued to secure all LARS structures. Wiring was run between generators, winches/umbilicals and surface data units. Two technicians from SCRIPPS were also working on readying their ROV for deployment. It will be observing all of the instruments and sampling we do in Lake Tahoe to help assess the operational robustness of the instrumentation. The science team also met with personnel from Tahoe Environmental Research Center of UC Davis who are generously allowing access to their Tahoe City field

facility for sample processing in the wet lab and staging space for sample preparation. All operational and scientific preparations are on track to be doing initial testing in the water from the barge in the loading area tomorrow. Operations will move from Obexer’s Marina in the morning to Tahoe City Marine where all future mobilization will occur.

Obexer’s Marina

The barge

Truck-mounted crane being loaded

Testing barge for stability and flotation

Tim and Matt setting up the topside computers and data acquisition system

SCRIPPS ROV getting prepared

DOER engineers working on the IPSIE oceanographic packages

Ian Griffith of DOER dealing with a stubborn bolt on IPSIEs

Generator and winch with multipurpose umbilical cable