Destroying LOFAR — Removing the last of the snow

Although the digger could remove much of the 7.6-tonnes of snow and ice on the destroyed HBA tile, we did not want to risk disturbing the broken pieces and thus confuse the damage caused by the collapse with additional destruction from the clearing process.

Therefore, the remaining few tonnes were done by hand.

Here is the author digging out the area over the collapsed cells.

As we were clearing, there were numerous places where
melt water was starting to stream off the tile edge.

Markku Postilla clears the final few patches of
ice. Saana Mountain is in the background.