Today was a great day. It started out bright and sunny (if a little hazy), with a relatively balmy -35C and no wind. It was ideal conditions for the first outside test of Clive’s tracker, in conjunction with the first direct sun measurements for Annemarie’s PEARL UT-GBS. We set the tracker up on the roof, wrapped in Styrofoam and a blanket for extra warmth, and told it to track the sun. This it did beautifully, putting the sun nicely into the PEARL UT-GBS for several hours until the cloud got too thick. OK, so there were a couple of downsides – the clouds, and the building railing, which somehow happened to be exactly the same height as the sun – but the spectra looked great, the tracker worked happily and showed no signs of freezing, and there were big grins on the faces of both Annemarie and Clive!
There were also smiles in the FTS lab, as several good measurements were able to be made in the morning before the clouds came in. During the cloudy afternoon period, Rodica and I were able to do a detector swap test as part of trouble-shooting a problematic pre-amp gain setting, and also carried out some tests on the stability of our globar. The return of the sun late in the afternoon was an extra treat, not only for the few extra measurements we were able to make, but also for the lovely sunset.
Back at the station, it was a busy day for everyone here. A total of 6 planes came through today, bringing in a group of Rangers and delivering fuel. Several of us hiked up to the airport in the evening, and were lucky to see the last plane arrive. Another plane is expected tomorrow – this will bring in fresh produce and supplies for the station, a few more faces and will take Mike home.
And in other big news, Tobias somehow managed to win the ozonesonde pool tonight!
Bec