NationalNationalInstitute Institute ofPolarResearchof Polar Research -312.2002 Mem.NatlInsl.Polar Res,. Spec, lssue, 56, 302 construction, and operation Design, transport, of the summer base Kohnen for ice-core driMng Maud Land, Aiitarctica in Dronning Frenzel, H, Gernandt and H. Miller C. DrUcketF. Wilhelms, H. Oerter,A, Meereofbms'chitng, Aiji'ect-Hil]gener-lnstirttt jiir Polar- ttnd Coiumbtts,gtt'aBe, D-27568 Brenterhaven, C;erniany the austral summer seasons 1999,12ooO and 2000f'2oo1 the Abstract: During '"Kohnen" as a for the EPICA deep ice eorc summ ¢ r base was built platform dri]ling in Dronning Vvaaud Land, Antarctica. The design is based en prefab- t"'o summer seasens. ricated container units, The base was erected within Overltind traverses with PistenbulLy tracturs and cargo sledges moved all needed the iXntarctic rnuterial und base containers from the German basc Neumayer ut were completed at the coast to the base Kohnen 750 km inLand. All installEttions trench with a cased end ot' the 2000,/2001 season including the drM and science 10()-m borehole. Tbus everything is prcpared to sturt the deep drilling operatLon during the 2001,/'O-O02 austraL summer seuson, 1. Introduction undenz'ay inAntarcticawithin the European Two major deep drilling operations are Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA). EPICA is ajoint project often European the last500(X]O nations with the aim to decipher the earth's climatic conditions during years at Dome Concordia.(D(I) <http:1/www.estlorg!life/lp/Epica), The first core is drillecl issues, the whether the stable c limatic (ref. Fig, 1) and addresses, amongst other question throughout the lastfive conditions during the last 1000() years were exceptional glacial cycles. season in Dronning Maud The second core will be drilled starting in the 2oo1/2002 ]inkthe last Land (DML) to attain a higher resolution tbr the last 150000 years and thus Members. 1993).GISP2 glacial cycle be[ng recorded in the Greenlandic cores GRIP (Grip 1997). site ofthe EPICA (Grootes et al. 1993). and NGRIP (Dah]-Jensen et al., The drill Fuji Dronning Maud Land core is situated on an ice divide originating at Dome {DF). Coring 1998)and The DML record will thus complement the DF (Dome-F Deep Group. higher resoiution over the last the DC (Tabacco et at,, 1998) records with a much glacial cycle, . after an extensiN,e multinational The drill site for the deep drilling has been chosen et al., 2000;Isakssonet at.. pre-site survey. The accumulation distribution {Holmlund Van 1999; Kar16fet al., 2000; Oerter et al. 1999,2000; Richardson and Holmlund, 1999; et al., 1999) den Broeke et al,, l999), sno"' chemistry (Sornmer et al., 2･ OOOa. b; Stenberg 1999) hax,ebeen and ice thickness as well as bedrock topogruphy (Steinhage et al., 302 NII-Electronic Library Service National Institute工nstitute of Polar ResearohResearch Design，transpor cons1ruction し ， alld oper 飢 ion of the sumrllcr base Kohnen 303 “ 撃 ． 靆 “ ・ 蝶 斜 奪 総 逶 鍍 磐 鋒 、 哦 拳羹 ． 雛 熔 郭 嚢 総 談 讓 ． 讓 弌 ・ 輪 蕪 龜 毒 戞 嶽 靆 奪 継 § 總 典 蓴 韆 嚢 ． 覊 騨 繋 攀 羹 講 蹌 榔 纛 襲 攀 論 嶷 § 3 獣 諜 諍 賦 繕 、． ． 貯 一 NII-ElectronicN 工 工 Eleotronio Library Service NationalNationalInstitute Institute ofPolarof Polar Research 304 C. DrUcker el aL thickness at the dril] site is 2750 ± 50 m considered in selection of the dril[slte. The ice 2oo1), 1 com- according to aifborne electromagnetic refiection survey (Steinhage, . .FLgure well as t'urtheractivities. piles the pre-site survey contributions cited above ug itselfrequires a camp as a logistic platform. The estimated The deepdrMing .drilling transport. construction and time to bedrock will be 3 summer seasons. Aspects ofdesign. wili the tbllowingsections, After operation oftlie summer base Kohnen be discussed in the erection of the base the location for the deep drMing was selected in autumn 1999, of the season was statled during the 1999f2000 austral summer season. Half 2000/2oo1 was named the memor>i of Dr. needed to complete the main buildings before the buse in Heinz Kohnen (5,2.1938-25.7.1997) on Januar>' 1lth, 20()1. Dr. Heinz Kohnen was rhe and European head of AWI"s logistics section und a ketr promoter of German polar research. especiall>' the EPICA programme. .. isthe meteorological cond]tion One of the most lmportant criteria of polar operations the baseisdescribed on site. Enyironmental conditions will be summarized first, before and the logistical operations are discussed. 2. Enyironrnental conditions at the drill site at the drill site refiect its (75fiOO'06"S, The metereological conditions position above sea level O`04'04"E) on the interior of the East Antarctic piateuu at 2882 m height to Feb[u- {2892 m WGS84), The uir temperature during the austral summer {Decembcr -20'C -45 automatic weather station instal]edon sEte ary) is in the range ot' to C. An -70'C 2oo1). mean has recorded a temperature as lo", as during the "･inter <Reijiner. The -46'C and fitswell with annual temperature calculated from the observed data for l998 is -44.5'C, wind speeqs the firn temperature at 10 m depth of The weather station recorded i i. The wind is typically below 11ms and the annual maximum of 16ms direction mean accumulation mainly from Northeast to East {approximately 65' true Nocth). The i from ice cores fitswell w'ith the of 60-70 kg m'] yr for the last tsuo centuries determined and surface measurements, observed snow deposition of 20-30 c]Ti from sno"' pit studies 2 m respectively (Oeiter et al., 20(X}). The ice flow is less than yr'i. and the fleet 3. Logistics: Transport chain isbased on 20'standard The eargo transport concept frorn Bremerhaven (Germany) in the ISO container modules. From Brernerhaven to the departure port for Antarctica Seuthern Hemisphere, usually Cape Town <South Africa). or fi;om time t() time Punta or on Arenas (Chile). the containers are either transported on commercial centainer ships the containers are shipped the German polar research vessel Pokiistern, From these ports of on S.A. either on RV Pokmstern, or in coeperation "'ith the Republic South Africu Aguthas. ISO containers is the short loadingand The main adyuntage of using standard at the edge of the Ekstr6misen unloading times required in all ports and in Antarctica ice or on the sea ice in front ef the German base Neumayer. type sledges 2.7 The land transport t'or the ISO containers is based on Otaco {",eight `"Aalener t) built by Baumaschinen GrnbH" (httpi,/lww"'.aalener-baumaschinen.de). NII-Electronic Library Service NationalNationalInstitute Institute ofPolarResearchof Polar Research Design. transport. construction, a-d operution oi' the summer buse Kohnen 30s These stedges fittingsto provide mount 20' ISO containers with marine standard twist lock fitEings,Furtherrnore,they distribute the load evenly on all fbur skids by allowing the skids to t}trn around cardanic .their suspended axes. Typically two or three sledges are arranged in sledge trams, which are towed by Ktissbohrer Pistenbully (http:Z/www.pisten- bully.com) tractors (typesPB240, PB260 and PB3oo). Pistenbully tractors were originally PB24e-ts2, tankcontalner15mF cempoentainerNe.1 arctlcdiesel redloroem {AWIT201}17t withplececargo;6,Ot' 23.0 t 'e1}dlvor"dipt"oectrpa.ttttttt.tt:ttt-tt:tttttt:ttttttt'nytt;tt!･gsge: PB3oo tankcontalner1Sm3 tsIS ercticdlesel (AWIT223)17t 23.0 t pe24omp, tankoontainer15m cempcontalrrerNo. ercticdleeet messroom11;3.0 (AWeT224)17t jnct.2dua1bunks 20.0 t 11vlngcontainei Ftpm1tsN+Twt" s ･l:ttl:-t PB260 ' tottAWI113spareparts5.5t -tw-･/.AWIW202:&et･ osmpcontainerNo.4 Taj klichen;supply+s"C i/ii e.2t 21.0t me24o 20'opentop AW4OT207 campcentalnerNo.2 g,, eteelpartstor messrcom1 pratterm:15.5t ptececarDo;5,3t 20.8 t ---- 2 oolld ebeel beeme I 1 colll trusses I R19rk-]oo 1 4 coltl perlgirdca l ait oversltecl; 12 t 1-"-J 25.0t FZg. 2,Load plan for the .frst travense of the 199912000 season ex iVeutnaver base to Kohnen hase 7Vie weights izau,strate the t.)picat giT'en pa.vload of about 20 t per slecv31e train. NII-Electronic Library Service NationalNationalInstitute Institute ofPolarof Polar Research 306 C. DrUcker et aL Alfred-Wegener-Institut are deveioped for ski slope preparation. The ones used by (Awr) -'ith a torque up to 8.4tm. equipped either with a personnet cabin or a hydraulic crane The front is either equipped with dozer blade er a front shovel , Independentpreheaters, receivers are standard trailer couplings. VHF Radio and Global Positioning System (GPS) useful to carry boxes and the equipment as well, At the camp site. the snow shovel is Pistenbullywith its5.5t total weight crane is used for construction work. The Kiissbohrer ], Figure 2 the load ofthe flrst creates a ground pressure of about 40 gcm presents plan Each Pistenbully traverse from Neumayer base to Kohnen base in the 1999!2000 season, weight of201 t carried pulled inore than a 20 t payload. The six sledge trains vv'ith a gross vcry much on load, surt'ace a total payload of 133 t The range before ref'uelling depends 0 " i C ' Y"i 'Yigsili,,` b "egn,,9 ,t i:･2,gscg,2,1fu,g{iS,2oSr?ls't,,-,E//l5,ff11z,cOa]/ep1,/O.･:8. £R,;, i3,l･zk1-'-,.･Ztr/1fri.S.,,i,/･,"l:g,iktll:,Ja7S･ soft snow, bases are contacted by HF radio daily The traverse navigates by GPS, Surrounding Phone/Fax communication and furthennore Inmarsat Standard C Telex and Standard M sets are available. sledge trains, respectively, were driven In 1999 and 2000two traverses with slx and four ascent takes the 750 km long route from Neumayer base to Kohnen base.