It was a
fairly quiet day at PEARL yesterday. The sun was shining through the
thick haze that has blanketed the fiord for days, giving us enough
light to make FTS measurements, but not enough for them to be
wonderful. PARIS ran fully automated all day, and we joined Felicia in
being delighted that her new automation software ran so well. The
Bruker also measured in macro mode, but ran into some trouble with the
detector selector motor. Grinding from the Bruker is not a noise you
want to hear! Fortunately we were able to convince it to continue
limping on, and are hopeful that it will survive until a new motor can
be sent up. Cristen turned her attention to the UT-GBS, and
completed her UV lamp calibration tests.
Tom and Volodya stayed at the station to finish their packing and be
ready for the early arrival of the plane. In the end though, the plane
did not arrive until about 7:30pm, and we were pleased to be able to
see them off. A record fast turnaround sent the plane back to Resolute
for the night and left us with a wonderful supply of fresh food.
The ozonesonde launch tonight was picture perfect, with a totex balloon
going almost straight up when the winds mysteriously died right at
launch time. The sonde reached 30 km altitude. It was also a good
night for the DIAL team, who were able to measure through-out the night.