"You've got to be kidding"...
That's all I could say this morning when I looked at the sky. It was as cloudy as ever with a tiny patch of clear sky on the eastern horizon. I am surprised that nobody woke up while I was yelling at the clouds.
Michael had spent another evening hoping for clear skies but to no avail. He came up to the lab to do some inventory and get ready to shut down the DIAL. He has been able to do lots of preliminary data analysis over the last several nights but would much rather have been taking data at PEARL.
Today, Dejian and Richard completed their preliminary analysis of the DA8 and PARIS-IR data for February 26 (so far the best day for solar measurements). They found that the comparisons for measurements taken simultaneously were quite good (all were within 3-4%). However, if daily averages are compared the differences are greater (up to 6%). This result goes some way to explaining the differences between the daily averages that Keeyoon and Richard have seen in the past years.
There was some activity this morning in the UV-Vis lab. After sunrise, Annemarie, Tobias and I did polarizer tests with SAOZ. This task needed three people because Annemarie had to stand on a ladder up on the mezzanine to position the polarizer and the lamp, Tobias had to steady the ladder and I had to be down on the main level at the control computer. Tobias had a secondary function to relay messages between Annemarie and me to allow us to coordinate the measurements. Annemarie is still working on the analysis of all of this new data.
At about 2:30 PM, Al called up to the lab to say the weather was picking up and that we should get ready to head down to the station. Pierre was on his way back up after dropping off Michael downtown. The nine of us were ready to go when he arrived however the water truck was not. Because we only had one of the two trucks available, Oleg, Paul and Tobias stayed up at the lab to wait for the second run. As we headed down to the station, the wind had picked up quite a bit and the tire ruts were drifting in. It was much worse down by the beach and we ended up slipping part way off the road. This led to an impromptu group-building exercise. We tried shovelling and pushing to free the truck but, in the end, we had to call the station for a tow. With the wind blowing as it was, we were very happy that the temperature was still quite warm (-15 C) while we were trying to get the truck out. Al, Jobie and Don arrived with the loader to get us out of the ditch. After breaking one tow rope, the truck was freed and we headed back to the station.
Despite the 1.25 hour delay, we were not late for dinner! Also, it turned out that we got back to the station just in time. Within about 5 minutes of getting back, the winds and blowing snow had picked up significantly and everyone was told to stay inside because of the blizzard. Oleg, Paul and Tobias ended up staying at the lab overnight. They had food, water and network access so they could survive one night. But I am sure they will be bored and itching to get back down tomorrow. Down at the station, we listened to the new building creak and rattle all night as the winds reached 43 knots. Needless to say, there was no ozonesonde launch.
Best regards,
Kaley.