Today was one of those quintessential polar days… a little sun, a little cloud, a little wind and a lot of cold… The day started off as a mirror image of yesterday, clear skies threatening to cloud in by sunrise. Fortunately today the cloud was a little thinner for most of the morning, and the FTS measurements looked just a tad better than they did yesterday. As the day progressed though, the clouds thickened until by 2:00pm even Rodica couldn’t convince us there was still enough signal to make measurements! Clive’s tracker also appreciated the sun as it had its first baby steps with using a camera to actively control its direction. The UV-Vis instruments ticked along pretty much as normal.
The wind was also a bit stronger for a lot of the day today. Combined with the cold temperatures, we certainly knew we were in the Arctic when we headed outdoors! In contrast, the stratosphere overhead is unusually warm, leading to the decision to launch a Totex (rubber) balloon instead of a Raven (plastic) one. Fortunately the winds eased up for a picture perfect launch, with the balloon reaching 10 hPa (30 km).
Mike had some success with the LIDAR last night, managing to get measurements for about 3 hours during a clear patch. We have our fingers crossed for him that the thick cloud we’re seeing now will leave as quickly as it came.
Bec