February 23 2008

Making up for lost time

Saturday morning, our first at Eureka, dawned bright (well dark really - there are still only a couple of hours of sunlight) and clear. The lidar team had made it back to the station without a problem, and with a few hours of measurements as well (though high cloud had hindered them through much of the night). A very eager U of T team piled into the trucks and headed up to PEARL, keen to make up for the days lost during our extended stay in Resolute. Pierre and Alexei had bought all the boxes up to the lab prior to our arrival, so after a quick tour of the lab, it was straight in. 

 In the FTS lab, getting the Bruker up and running was the simplest exercise. Unbelievably, it had even managed to hold a vacuum during its 5 month holiday.  Rodica got its beam splitter in, the tracks cleaned and the system pumped down with plenty of time to spare before the 11:14 am sunrise.  PARIS was unpacked, and a team of volunteers helped Felicia maneuver it around the Bruker and into location. The pick off mirror was set up, the instrument leveled and checked, and the first measurements were collected around noon.  The DA8 had a few more teething problems - it really didn't want to achieve alignment.  After lots of fiddling and begging, however, Bec finally got it operational and maximized (and the globar cooling fixed), just in time for the last measurement of the day, as the sun was setting, at around 2:30. 

 In the UV-Vis lab, Mareile, Clive and Tom were busy getting SPS and MAESTRO running. The instruments were checked out and installed, and by the end of the day, operational. The beautiful clear weather, warm temperatures (-16 C) and lack of wind made working outside much easier. Cristen was also busy. She and Pierre got SAOZ set up on the roof. In its new winter housing, it took up residence outdoors, by the FTS tracker, with its computer hiding in the corner of the FTS lab. It was fully operational by early afternoon.  The UT-GBS was also unpacked and checked out. By the end of the day, Cristen was nearly finished with the lamp calibrations and testing, so watch this space for operational status tomorrow.

 We made it back down to the station in time for dinner (steak and lobster - the food is amazing here!), pleased with ourselves for getting nearly all the instruments running so quickly.  After dinner and various computer and other related odd-jobs, most of us drifted into the recreation room, where Tom and Jon (the Dalhousie team) had entered into a guitar "no song repeated" playoff. Who would have guessed that you could be sitting around listening to excellent live music at the ends of the earth?


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