23 February 2011
The clouds... they are upon us...
Today was our third day up at the PEARL Ridge Lab. The day started off promising at -35C and with just a few clouds on the horizon. When the sun rose at about 11:20 am, the FTS team finalized the alignment of the beam-sharing arrangement between the two FTS instruments, PARIS-IR and the Bruker 125HR.
Unfortunately, my magical powers over the clouds did not prevail and after only a few minutes a massive cloud took over the sun from above. To make the most of our time, we continued to record cell and background measurements with both FTSs. If the FTSs had been able to measure today, they likely would have sampled the vortex, which was centered over the pole.
In the UV-VIS world, while waiting for the PEARL-GBS parts, Cristen and Xiaoyi unpacked and set up SAOZ without any issues. Later in the day, they pulled the UT-GBS out of the hatch and began the installation of new parts. Since SPS was operating well, Volodya installed a heater in the Brewer #069 suntracker.
By the end of the day, we were all in need of some down time so much of the team spent the evening watching a movie. Joseph spent the day looking forward to watching Ghostbusters, but alas, the DVD didn't work. They settled for watching The Firm instead.
Felicia