Let the Sun shine in...

At breakfast this morning, the entire team was preoccupied with the weather. Every so often someone would get up look out the window and then return to their seat. Those who were superstitious thought that it would be best not to even mention what they had seen for fear of having the weather change for the worse. For outside in the twilight, the sky was clear with a few high cirrus clouds near the horizon.

At AStrO, the Sun rose above the mountains at 9:30 am and the measurements began. By 10:15 am, the Sun was completely out of the clouds and there was much rejoicing from the FTS team. Shouts of joy were heard with each new observation and happiness returned to the FTS lab. By 3:15 pm, Richard M. had completed a complete run through all of the DA8 filter regions (a first for this campaign!). In the end, 19 sets of observations were recorded by each of the DA8 and PARIS instruments over about 7 hours. Some of the DA8 measurements were made with the HBr calibration cell in the solar beam.

MAESTRO made zenith sky measurements for zenith angles greater than 90 degrees and made solar observations for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, the SPS alternated between zenith sky and solar measurements throughout the day. The grating spectrometer measured all day and obtained the best reference spectrum yet for performing the DOAS analysis. The NO2 retrievals were improved with the use of the new reference spectrum.

The ozonesonde was launched with the synoptic radiosonde at 23:15 UTC. The balloon reached 7.0 mbar (31.5 km). There was a tie for guessing the altitude the sonde would reach: Richard M. and Keeyoon guessed 7.5 mbar and 6.5 mbar, respectively.

This morning it was -42 C at the Weather Station and -30 C at the lab. It was quite pleasant to stand out on the roof at AStrO looking out at a generally clear sky. Maybe this is why Richard M. was singing "Let the Sun shine in"...

Best regards,
Kaley.