HAVOCEANO responded to the Air Force's request for assistance 

 by forming an ad hoc field party coitrposed of personnel from its 

 Coastal Oceanography Branch, Sea Ice Branch, and Ocean Dynamics 

 Branch of its Research and Development Department. The field oper- 

 ation was planned and prepared for under a quick-fix time schedule; 

 however, cleanup operations at the crash site delayed the NAVOCEMO 

 field survey until late March. The WAVOCEANO field party (authors 

 of this paper) arrived at Thule AFB on March 25, 1968 and departed 

 on April 11, 1968, after obtaining current measurements and sea 

 floor photographs, and proving the feasibility of through -the -ice 

 echo sounding. We found that conducting an oceanographic operation 

 over an ice -covered area was very different from working over open 

 water. The remainder of this paper will discuss both the methods 

 employed in the field operation and the data obtained. 



Field Operation 



The crash site was located approximately 10 miles southwest of 

 Thiile AFB, Greenland, midway between Saunder Island and the mainland. 

 The general area (Figure l) is a semi-enclosed basin bounded on the 

 north and east by the mainland, and on the west by Saunder and Wol- 

 stenholme Islands. 



The deepest water in tne area is located in a southwest -northeast 

 oriented channel which extends from Kap Atholl on the southwestern 

 end and terminates in Wolstenholme Fjord on the northeastern end. 

 Another relatively deep water channel trends westward from Wolsten- 

 holme Fjord between the northern tip of Saunder Island and the main- 

 land. Shoal water exists in the channel between Saunder and Wolsten- 

 holme Islands. Maximum water depth in the general area of the crash 

 site is approximately 155 fathoms {2k'J meters). All water depths 

 shown on the chart in Figure 1 are in fathoms . 



The geography of the area indicates four possible paths through 

 which water might flow out of the general area of the crash site: 



1. Between the northern tip of Saunder Island and Kap Abernathy 

 on the mainland. 2. Between Saunder and Wolstenholme Island, 3. 

 Between V/olstenholme Island and Kap Atholl on the mainland, or k. 

 Into Wolstenholme Fjord. To determine the direction and speed of the 

 current through each of these passages, current measurements were to 

 be made at mid-channel in each of the four passages. In addition, 

 current measurements were to be made at eacii of three stations ex- 

 tending across the general area of the crash site on a line from 

 Kasarssuak, on Saunder Island, to Nungavarssiik on the mainland. The 

 planned current measiirement sites (Figure 2) were precisely located 

 by a USAF geodetic survey team prior to the beginning of the KAVOCEANO 

 field operations. 



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