The sky
started out OK today... lots of low blowing snow appearing as a band of
cloud across the horizon, but then clear sky above. As the sun came up
above the cloud/snow band, Felicia and Rodica were able to get about 8
or 9 good FTS measurements before that annoying diagonal cloud that has
haunted the last few days came rolling in again. They were done by
noon. On the plus side, this gave Felicia a good opportunity to work on
the PARIS code, and Rodica and I a chance to work on comparisons.
In the UV-VIS lab, the strong winds continued to restrict work on the
roof or installation of the PEARL-GBS in the penthouse. But inside,
work progressed well on updating operations: Volodya gave the SPS a new
macro, and has been working on the macros for MAESTRO, and Cristen has
finalized the filter wheel integration with the lab view software, and
additionally added a MAX-DOAS mode.
We are also developing a nice "ozone wall" with ozone, ozone anomaly
and temperature maps from Environment Canada, and the ozone, wind and
temperature profiles from the ozonesondes pinned up along the hallway.
This year has been an unusual one in terms of the polar vortex, with a
major stratosphere warming occurring in January which the vortex hasn't
really recovered from. While it is now fairly strong again in the
mesosphere, down in the stratosphere where we are more sensitive,
conditions are more like those typically experienced once the vortex
has gone. There are some nice pictures/movies of this on Lynn Harvey's
website (follow the "What's Happening with the Polar Vortex?" link on
our web page). We are interested in seeing what happens over the coming
weeks.
The thick cloud that came over at noon turned into pure whiteness by
late afternoon - one of those great days where you can't determine the
horizon and it is just white in all directions. The wind picking up the
snow really helps to blur out all distinctions! By early evening, when
the ozonesonde was launched, it was snowing. Tonight Andre launched a
Totex (rubber) balloon, as the winds at the station were quite strong
and the smaller balloon is much easier to handle. The DIAL team
was again grounded. All of us have our fingers crossed for clearer
skies tomorrow.