Instruments start to appear on the roof...

We awoke to increasing surface winds at the weather station. With the winds came clouds which degraded the lidar measurements as the night wore on. Richard B., Michael and Richard M. started measuring a bit earlier last night (10PM) and got some good measurements before the clouds came in at 3AM.

The winds were not so high that it kept us from going to the lab but we spent the day phoning the weather station to check on the conditions. The produce charter was due in today to bring new supplies (and Tom McElroy). The flight was delayed all day because the visibility at the weather station was at most half a mile. It finally left Resolute Bay at about 7PM.

The tracker for MAESTRO and SPS was the first piece of equipment to make it on to the roof. Unfortunately, it did not function very well on the roof and came back inside for the rest of the day. There seems to be a problem with the end position sensors that only occurs when the instrument is outside. Jennifer and Clive spent most of the day working on this problem.

The grating spectrometer was the second instrument to make it on to the roof. Annemarie and I moved the instrument upstairs while Keith and Paul removed the heavy hatch cover. The DOAS was lowered into the hatch and Clive guided the cables from the roof onto the support shelf. The grating spectrometer was the first to take data however it appears that there may be a problem with the plexiglas that the UoT shop used to make hatch window. Tomorrow we will have to test the transmittance using a UV lamp to ensure that the proper UV transmitting plexiglas is in the window holders for the DOAS and SAOZ.

It took a bit of coaxing but I got the SAOZ GPS to register that it was in Eureka rather than Paris. I found out that the SAOZ GPS did not have a clear enough view of the sky to get a signal by taking the GPS receiver out of the SAOZ box and taping it to the window. Keith and I built the supports for the SAOZ platform and he installed them while I finished painting the dome cover. The SAOZ will be installed in the roof hatch tomorrow.

The PARIS issues got a bit more serious today. It appears that the problem is not with the computer used to control it, there appear to be errors in sampling occuring within the instrument. Keeyoon spent the day doing a series of tests to find out what resolution settings the interferometer could be operated at. We will have to continue to investigate to see if the highest resolution setting can be used. Meanwhile Richard M. continued the alignment process for the DA8. Also Richard M. started showing Paul how to operate the DA8, since he will be operating the spectrometer during the extended phase of the campaign.

At this time last year, we spent a lot of time watching for the "green flash" as the Sun rose above the mountains. Today there were not any opportunities to watch the Sun, as there was thick cloud covering most of the horizon during the day, and we have been very busy getting all of the instruments ready.

As Tom arrives in Eureka, we say goodbye to Richard B. His task was to get the lidar running and teach Michael and Richard M. to operate it. Now that his mission is accomplished, he started to make his way down south (with a 3 day stop over at the South Camp Inn in Resolute Bay).

Best regards,
Kaley.