Today
we awoke to a fog of ice crystals hanging over the station. With a
plane due to come in, a few people were a bit worried about the low
visibility. The temperature was -45C and there was no wind - at least
it wasn't a blizzard! Ascending to the heights of PEARL, we actually
climbed above the fog, where it was warmer (-33C) and windy (25 knots).
By about 10 am (just long enough to complete the DA8 cell measurement
started on Monday), the sun had risen above the fog, and it was yet
another fantastic day of measurements.
In the UV-Vis world, the instruments continue to work well. The
analysis of the data is progressing well, and Mareile, Clive and Tom
have been working hard to optimize the results from the SPS and
MAESTRO. Cristen has also been successful in getting her retrievals
running, and we saw the first fits from the UT and PEARL GBS
instruments today.
In the FTS lab, the daily tally ran to 17 Bruker, 16 DA8 and 53 PARIS
solar measurements, as well as the completion and processing of the
DA8's HBr cell measurement.
By early afternoon, the morning fog had cleared from the station, and
we had word that the plane was not only on its way, but was planning a
quick turn around - so our departing team members would need to be
ready to leave this evening instead of tomorrow. At the lab, there were
last minute things to get finished for Clive and Rodica before they
left slightly early in order to get packed.
There was another perfect sonde launch after dinner. Jane and Mike
launched the Raven before a small crowd, and the balloon made it to 5.9
hPa (33937 m).
With 10 people due to fly out on the plane, there was a lot of waiting
around for it to show up through the evening. Word finally came through
that it was on its way, after a bit of a hold-up in Resolute, where the
power had gone out. It arrived at the station at 10:30 pm, and turned
around in less than 45 minutes with many of our team members and
without ever shutting its engines down.
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank our departing team. The
DIAL crew, Mike, Bernard and Andy, managed to get measurements on a
record 11 out of the 16 nights they were here (and experience being
stuck at PEARL in a blizzard!). This will be a wonderful data
set. Clive has done a great job getting the GBS tracker up and
running, and worked hard on the SPS and MAESTRO upgrades. Rodica has
skillfully kept the Bruker running and measuring happily on every day
of her visit. Finally, thanks to Bonnie and Mike, the wonderful weather
station met techs who have prepared and launched so many ozonesondes
for us in the last two weeks. You guys have all done a fantastic
job. Thank you!