It was a
wild and windy day here today. At the station, temperatures were fairly
warm (-28C) but with 15 odd knots of wind and lots of blowing snow.
Up at the lab, it was even crazier, with -32 degrees, more than 40
knots of wind and only ~50 meters of visibility. We enjoyed the
reminder of the power of the Arctic weather - and stayed firmly inside
our nice lab!
Felicia had a very productive day, tightening up and testing her
automation code and readying it for its first day of operation. Bec and
Rodica worked on data from the IPY campaigns, while Tom and Volodya
made last minute touch-ups to their instruments and showed me the
ropes. Cristen spent the day removing and reinstalling PEARL-GBS
software, but with no effect on the PEARL-GBS problems. This is turning
out to be a very frustrating exercise.
We actually saw a bit of Bernard in the morning, as he replaced the
NEON cylinder and flushed the lines in the DIAL. Both he and Emily were
up later in the day, and we were able to get a nice team photo - in the
FTS lab, as the roof-top shot we were hoping for was clearly
unattainable given the weather conditions! The wind and wild weather
did keep them from DIAL observations later in the evening.
Back at the station, the ozonesonde was also thwarted by the winds -
twice. The first time the sonde was blown away during pre-launch
testing, damaging the radiosonde unit. The second attempt was a very
valiant try by Kelly to launch the totex balloon and ozonesonde in
gusty 20 - 30 knot winds. A gust at the wrong moment snapped the
string, and the sonde came crashing down, leaving the balloon to float
up an-aided. Better luck tomorrow Kelly!
But the evening was not a total loss. We joined with the night-shift,
the station crew, and the stranded Kenn Borek pilots in a great
send-off party for the folks flying out tomorrow.
As the first of our team mates head south, we'd like to acknowledge the
efforts of all the people who make our lives here such a treat. The
station staff ensures we're kept warm, fed, informed and entertained,
and like all of the many Arctic research and adventure groups that they
support, we really couldn't survive without them. Thank you Eureka! And
as they're flying out today, we'd like to extend special thanks to
Andre for all his ozonesonde launches and cheerful updates on the
weather, to Bill and Jeremy for keeping the station ticking and the
power on, and especially to our great team-mates Tom and Volodya, who
have been really wonderful people to be up here in Eureka with. We'll
miss you!