On May 8th maintenance visits were made to the Gilbert point and Haenke Island monitoring systems. Team members included individuals from CRREL, the New England District COE, the Alaska District COE office in Anchorage and National Geographic. At Gilbert Pt. programming modifications were made to the ranging system to allow for increased data measurements and other necessary refinements. At the Haenke Island Climate site, solar radiation and barometric pressure sensors were added. Additional solar panels were added to both locations. The system is currently functioning and data are flowing from the field to the database as hoped. DCF

Installation of the terminus monitoring system at Gilbert point and the climate monitoring site/radio repeater station at Haenke Island. Installation team consisted of CRREL, New England District and Alaska District COE team members. Installation at each site was successful but due to radio equipment failures in the field. Terminus data acquired failed to relay to the satellite system for transmission to the database. At this time only climate data from Haenke Island is available via the web. A tentative trip is scheduled for November to remediate the problem prior to winter.

A second site visit to Haenke Island and Gilbert point made on December 2nd and 3rd, 2006 for installation of a higher powered radio system and other minor maintenance. The installation team consisted of CRREL, USACE Alaska District and University of Maryland team members. Installation at each site was successful and radio communications between Gilbert Point and Haenke Island are now working properly. Currently, battery voltage and laser range measurements are flowing into the database from Gilbert Point. Because of reflection and return problems with the laser from the ice distance measurements at the current time are sporadic but we anticipate a correction to this soon. The photos below highlight both sites and the current equipment installed at each.

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