Camp Raven

Location of the station in Greenland

Camp Raven is a research station on the Greenland Ice Sheet that is only manned during the summer months from around April to October.

General

The Camp Raven research camp is located in the immediate vicinity of a former US radar station called DYE 2 , which was set up during the Cold War , but was later abandoned in the course of the détente between the power blocs. The name Camp Raven , which is also in use today, has been adopted for the research station. The radar station is still there as it was when the US soldiers left it, but every year it is more and more enveloped in snow. The area in the immediate vicinity is still used by the US military for training purposes today.

The research camp is supplied with building materials, spare parts, food and other consumer goods by air. The station has a small wind turbine that produces enough electricity and also feeds a number of accumulators . Drinking water is obtained by melting snow, which is fetched from a specially marked area to avoid contamination.

Geographical location

Camp Raven : The tunnel tent serves as a kitchen, study and bedroom alike. The wind turbine behind the tent is used to generate electricity, the barrel in the foreground supplies fuel.

View from Camp Raven in west direction to the ice sheet shortly after a snow storm. The piled bales and boxes contain supplies, tools and other materials

The camp is located at about 66.5 ° north latitude and 46.3 ° west longitude on the Greenland Ice Sheet at about 2110  m above mean sea ​​level . The station is approx. 200 km from Kangerlussuaq , the closest permanent settlement with an airport. The ice sheet in this region is 2027 m thick (derived from geophysical radar measurements). The camp can only be reached by plane or by dog ​​or snowmobile.

use

Supply transporter for this station

Due to its geographical location near the Arctic Circle, the Camp Raven research station is only operated by two people during the summer months. Since the camp has no permanent buildings, the camp will be completely dismantled during the winter. The exact period of operation therefore depends on the prevailing weather conditions, but is generally between April and October.

The station serves as a contact point for glaciologists ( polar , more correctly: glacier researchers) and also looks after a number of predominantly meteorological , partly also geophysical measuring devices. Another task is to keep the runway open for the heavy Hercules machines of the New York Air National Guard (see also article Kangerlussuaq ), which carries out bomb-dropping exercises and survival training in the ice in this area. The cumbersome equipped with skids Hercules needed to start a very smooth slope that may require continuous grading and clearing work.

Web links

• Article about the military facility DYE 2 in the vicinity of the camp (English)
• polarpower.org - Camp Raven Renewable Energy System (English) (PDF; 364 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ also Ice Cap 1 or Ice Station Ruby . http://www.radomes.org/museum/showsite.php?site=Ice+Cap+1,+Greenland

Coordinates: 66 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  N , 46 ° 18 ′ 0 ″  W.