Forecasted blizzard warnings and "the weather won't clear for at least
36 hours" notices aside, the morning dawned still and clear in Resolute.
Believe it or not, there is a very large hill right outside the hotel -
in the blowing snow of the last few days none of us even knew it was
there! The back-logged planes immediately started flying, with the
earliest flight to Grise Fiord taking off before 8 am. After chatting
with Kenn Borek, Aziz confirmed our hopes - we'd be taking off soon
after noon. The morning was a buzz of packing and eating.
Jacques, the chef, fed us breakfast, morning tea and a wonderful lunch
before we piled into Aziz's van and raced for the airport. With a
perfect take-off, we were off!
The twin-otter flight to Eureka (3 hours) was great. The very short
days of the north at this time of the year meant sunset colours for
most of the journey, and clear skies gave us wonderful views.
While the approach to Eureka was a bit bumpy, the visibility was good
and we were all very pleased for the plane to actually land this time
round! Pierre (CANDAC lab manager) and Al (Station Manager) met
us at the airport, and we were soon at the weather station, briefed,
toured, assigned our rooms and fed. We took an easy night, giving
everyone a chance to unpack, explore, and get to know the rest of the
folks on station.
As we relaxed, Mike, Bernard and Andy cautiously headed for PEARL to
make DIAL measurements. While we'd been waiting out the storm in the
luxury of Resolute, Mike and Andy had been trapped by the weather at
PEARL, where they had spent 2 nights. Their lidar is working well, and
they have already managed to get several nights of measurements.
CANDAC members Tom and John, from Dalhousie, have also been at the
station for a few weeks already, working on their (mostly tropospheric)
aerosol/temperature lidar at OPAL. The green laser beam coming
out of the lab as the evening went on suggests that their instrument is
nearly operational too.
And for us, we're all excitedly looking forward to getting this
campaign running tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for some
nice weather!