When Santo and Jakob first arrived on the island a week or so ago there was ice in the cove, a bitterly cold wind, and the tundra was pretty brown. A day later when Andy and Isla arrived the ice had gone, with the temperatures starting to warm up slightly. Preparations began on the drones along with other set up tasks, however the wind and rain prevented flying in the first few days. The tundra began to green in a big way, with the willows unfolding at a great rate.

A week or so later the sun broke through, allowing for Shrubcopter and Droney to be taken out to the floodplain for their test flights. Shrubcopter fared very well, whilst Droney had a bit of a power consumption issue. Nevertheless, both drones went airborne and some imagery was collected – so that is an accomplishment!

Yesterday, though still sunny, the wind picked up and shifted to the west- this usually means bad weather on the way. Santo bid a fond farewell to the snow patch out of the window, which is melting away at a rapid speed. Spring has definitely gone now and summer is here with warm weather, green tundra and mosquitos!

Sometimes the Arctic feels really far away from everything else, and yesterday was one of those days. Team Shrub is proud to be an international team and as news trickled in about Brexit, a fuzzy kind of disbelief hit our European team members. Right now our minds are running wild with possible scenarios, with so little information reaching us on the island.

From a rather pensive Team Drone