Measurement
conditions were far from optimal today. Scattered and variable
thickness clouds taunted Rodica and Felicia, who did their best to get
measurements when they were possible, and light snow kept us clearing
domes and windows on the UV-Vis instruments. Cristen had a few more
problems with the PEARL-GBS in the morning, but was able to get some
trial direct-sun measurements with it through the afternoon.
Fortunately the other UV-Vis instruments continue to function well.
Bernard and Emily have now switched back to day-shift, and were up in
the lab putting the DIAL to bed. They cleaned optics, flushed the
system and made sure everything was safely put to rest.
We had another perfect Raven launch in the evening, with several people
out to watch it. Kelly gave a nice tour of how the ozonesonde worked
for those not familiar with this clever piece of instrumentation. The
sonde tonight made it to 7.5 hPa.
Another bonus for Emily and I this evening was a tour of the CANDAC
star photometer with Konstantin and Yann. They have been here since we
arrived, working with an instrument that determines aerosol optical
depth using stars as light sources. The instrument itself is housed in
an astronomy dome at OPAL, where it is subjected to very cold
temperatures (you'll remember that it is normally much colder at the
station/OPAL than at PEARL). They are both very pleased to have got it
operational in these conditions, and have been successfully collecting
data during clear nights. It was an ideal night for them last night,
with no clouds and a gorgeous full moon lighting up the night.