The good weather continues...
When the Sun came up, the sky was clearer than it had been yesterday. Optimism was able to triumph over doubt for one more day. While the CANDAC operators enjoyed their Sunday morning relaxation, the "Sun followers" went up to the lab with Pierre, Jim and Peter Calamai.
Dejian and I started the PARIS-IR and DA8 measurements at 9:30 AM. Oleg joined us after brunch and we completed the measurements at 4:30 PM. There was a very thin layer of haze for the beginning and end of the day but otherwise it was perfect. We got through all of the DA8 filters and also made a test using a filter for a PARIS-IR measurement.
Prior to sunrise, Jim and Pierre put together the nitrogen liquefier and started testing it. The primary concern was effect of vibrations from the compressors on the FTSs. We couldn't feel any vibrations near the instruments and PARIS-IR did not lose any spectra or show any spikes in the interferograms. The liquefier ran all day and we were able to get about 1/10 of a litre of nitrogen at the end of the day.
The SAOZ and UT-GBS continued their zenith sky measurements and SPS and MAESTRO did both zenith sky and direct sun observations. Tobias and Annemarie worked on their data analyses as well as the packing and monitoring instructions for their instruments. This year all of the instruments except for PARIS-IR will continue to measure through the extended phase of the campaign. Unfortunately, PARIS is not yet automated enough to continue working on its own.
The winds were calm and temperature was a seasonable -38 C, when the Raven balloon carrying the ozonesonde was launched. Kelly and Heather promised they would get it as high as possible and they delivered. We have a new upper bound of 5.3 mbar (33.3 km). Pierre was quite thrilled to win (finally) with a value of 6.2 mbar.
In other events, Peter C. spent the day talking to members of the campaign team about the work that they are doing here. He is writing a diary for the Toronto Star website while he is up here. You can find his thoughts under the heading "Arctic Diary" on the Star website (http://www.thestar.com). Also, the annual ACE campaign team Oscar party took place this evening. There was the usual sarcastic commentary on the speeches, outfits and show content from the party attendees. All were happy that the show ended before 11:30 PM because sunrise just keeps getting earlier.
We have had an e-mail from Clive to let us know that he and Tom, Michael and Richard have arrived home. He said that it was a long haul with the two 7 hour flying days of travel back to back.
Best regards,
Kaley.