Drift Station
Vespasiano Jilg
A drifting ice station is a temporary or semi-permanent facility built on an ice floe. During the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States maintained a number of stations in the Arctic Ocean on floes such as Fletcher's Ice Island for research and espionage, the latter of which were often little more than quickly constructed shacks. Extracting personnel from these stations proved difficult and in the case of the United States, employed early versions of the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system.
The modern NP drifting ice station resembles a small settlement with housing for polar explorers and special buildings for the scientific equipment. Usually an NP station begins operations in April and continues for two or three years until the ice floe reaches the Greenland Sea. Polar explorers are replaced yearly. Since 1937 some 800 people were drifting at NP stations.
The idea to use the drift ice for the exploration of nature in the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean came from Fridtjof Nansen, who fulfilled it on Fram between 1893 and 1896. The first stations to use drift ice as means of scientific exploration of the Arctic originated in the Soviet Union in 1937, when the first such station in the world, North Pole-1, started operations.[1]
North Pole-1 was established on 21 May 1937 some 20 km from the North Pole by the expedition into the high latitudes. Sever-1, led by Otto Schmidt. "NP-1" operated for 9 months, during which the ice floe travelled 2,850 kilometres. On 19 February 1938, Soviet ice breakers Taimyr and Murman took off four polar explorers from the station, who immediately became famous in the USSR and were awarded titles Hero of the Soviet Union: hydrobiologist Pyotr Shirshov, geophysicist Yevgeny Fyodorov, radioman Ernst Krenkel and their leader Ivan Papanin.
Since 1954 Soviet NP stations worked continuously, with one to three such stations operating simultaneously each year. The total distance drifted between 1937 and 1973 was over 80,000 kilometres. North Pole-22 is particularly notable for its record drift, lasting nine years. On 28 June 1972 the ice floe with North Pole-19 passed over the North Pole for the first time ever.
During such long-term observations by NP stations numerous important discoveries in physical geography were made such as valuable conclusions on regularities and the connection between processes in the polar region of the Earth's hydrosphere and atmosphere and the deep water Lomonosov Ridge,[2] which crosses the Arctic Ocean, other large features of the ocean bottom's relief, the discovery of two systems of the drift (circular and "wash-out"), and the fact of cyclones' active penetration into the Central Arctic.
In the post-Soviet era, Russian exploration of the Arctic by drifting ice stations was suspended for twelve years. The year 2003 was notable for Russia's return into the Arctic. As of 2006[update], three NP stations had carried out scientific measurements and research since then: "NP-32" through "NP-34".[citation needed] The latter was closed on 25 May 2006.[citation needed]
The other day I took my students up to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for an afternoon of tours through the awe-inspiring Core Lab and for a visit with the Borehole Group; we stopped in at the Lamont-Doherty seismic research station along the way, where we watched our technician-guide create artificial earthquakes with a wooden mallet so that we could watch his digital equipment go to work. It was a great day.
During the period of active habitation, T-3 covers [basically postage stamps] were serviced, each stamped with a variety of hand-stamped cachets and markings, dated, and often marked with a manuscript notation of the geographic position of the drifting station on that particular day of ops. The T-3/Bravo covers were often cancelled at Barrow or at a USAF base in Alaska, and then placed in the mailstream.
I had no idea that USSR/Russian scientists have been leading drift expeditions on the Arctic sea ice for decades! The first Russian 'North Pole' Drift Station was conducted from 1937-1938. Overall, 40 drift station projects took place as part of the 'North Pole' program. Most of these drift stations were occupied for 2-3 months, but some of them lasted a year or longer. The program had three main eras: 1937-1938, 1950-1991, and 2003-2013.
These maps show areas covered by the 40 the Russian Drift stations and High-Latitude Sever aircraft operations that gathered additional meteorological, ice, and ocean data. On the left, grey lines show the routes of the USSR Drift Stations (1-31) and the colored lines represent the routes of the more recent Drift Stations 32-40 under the Russian government. Images courtesy the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.
These drift expeditions were similar in approach to the MOSAiC expedition. A ship, helicopter, or plane brought researchers to the sea ice, where they set up an ice camp. Researchers and support crew lived and worked at the drift station for months or even years as the ice camp drifted across the Central Arctic Ocean. Of course there are differences between these drift stations and the MOSAiC expedition, but the general idea is the same.
One of the key differences from MOSAiC is that in most cases, the ship or helicopter departed the drift station location right after unloading scientists, gear, and instruments. The scientist and drift station crew constructed sheds and small cabins on the ice. The ice floe they chose was the homebase for science and all other activities of life until they were picked up months later. If they chose poorly or conditions changed, it could be a very dangerous situation.
One person who worked on drift station described the experience of a crack opening up in the middle of the ice floe. The drift station was split in half with an open water lead about 15 meters wide forming between the two parts of the floe. Some of the people, and the food, were stuck on one side. The other people, and the cooking and heating fuel, were stuck on the other side. After waiting many days, the ice in the lead was just barely thick enough for them to walk across. They could feel it bending and moving under their weight. One person fell through the ice; they had to quickly pull him back on to the ice and hustle across the rest of the ice to get him into dry clothes. Oh -- and all of this happened in the dark of polar night!
Melt ponds and changing ice conditions were a major difficulty for the Russian Drift Stations. In recent years, the rapidly changing conditions of Arctic sea ice have caused them to shift away from the drift station model to expeditions like MOSAiC where there is more vessel support. Photo courtesy AARI.
Living and working full-time on the ice, polar bears could also be a major challenge. Most of the drift stations had camp dogs, which helped to keep the polar bears away and warn people when the bears were around. But it is tricky when there is no boat to retreat to when the polar bears come around. Sometimes, the cabins were broken into by polar bears while the scientists were busy working. One story recounted returning to a cabin that had been ransacked. The polar bear tore into everything. Everything except the jar of honey, that is.
Besides producing numerous fascinating and entertaining stories, these drift stations were the key to building Russian scientific knowledge of the Central Arctic Ocean. All were equipped with instruments and scientists studying the ocean, ice, and atmosphere. Additional research focused on charting currents, ocean chemistry, biology and ecology, and even the health impacts for people living on the ice and through the polar night. Research from these drift stations spans nearly 80 years and provides an incredibly detailed, long-term data set. Though this sort of drift station is no longer possible in the changing Arctic, Russian research continues in the Central Arctic Ocean. Hopefully, collaborations between Russia, Germany, the U.S.A. and the 16 other countries involved in MOSAiC will allow for more access and wider use of the data from the past drift stations and ongoing Russian research.
I find it interesting, confusing, and a bit troubling that these Russian drift stations aren't very well known in the United States or Western Europe. The way that the MOSAiC Expedition is described often positions it as something utterly unique, that nothing like this has occurred for over 100 years dating back to the Fram Expedition. It seems there is much more nuance than that, and that the Russian drift stations have largely been excluded from the narrative. As an educator, I think it is really important for students and teachers alike to question these sorts of popular narratives and think about what might be missing from the story.
Education ExtensionLike sub-sea permafrost, Russian drift stations were a topic I didn't anticipate and thus I don't have any education resources lined up for it. Because they aren't very well-known in the United States, it is difficult to find any educational resources.
Many mixed production assembly lines can experience significant fluctuations in station cycle time based upon the specific work content required for each configuration (a variant of model and options) of product being produced. In order to maximize productivity, those companies often select a line rate (Takt Time) which is less than the peak cycle time of their highest work content product. Alternatively, some companies struggle with product quality or cycle time repeatability issues which also create cycle times in stations that exceed the line Takt.
The order selection window makes it easy to Include or Exclude single or multiple Units from the production build forecast into sequence planner for analysis. Once imported, the sequence planner quickly shows the production for the day with time-stamped rows for each station shown as columns. Unit sequence numbers (serial numbers) are then shown in the cells with their cycle times at those stations which are color-coded according to if (and by how much) they exceed the currently defined line Takt.
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