5 March 2011
The clouds are back
Up at the lab today, there were some thin clouds in the morning prior to a
weak low pressure system entering the region. By the afternoon, thick
clouds descended upon Eureka. Hopefully things will clear up tomorrow.
The vortex has developed into a pear shape with the larger end extending
over Greenland and encompassing the whole of Ellesmere Island. The center
of this node is located east of Eureka over Greenland with ozone values of
250 DU. Temperatures in this same region are approximately 190-195K. The
FTS measurements obtained this morning may have captured some of this
activity. Something to look forward to in the post-campaign analysis!
The FTSs were able to measure for part of the morning today but, due to poor
weather conditions, stopped around noon. PARIS-IR managed to acquire 13 MIR
solar spectra before the clouds took over. While the Bruker 125HR obtained
18 MIR measurements, the weather was too poor to allow for any NIR
measurements today.
In the UV-VIS lab, Xiaoyi focused the PEARL-GBS and installed it in the
hatch and is ready for testing tomorrow. Cristen worked on software odds
and ends while the UT-GBS continues to take measurements in ozone/NO2 mode,
as does SAOZ.
It was quite an uneventful day for SPS and the Brewers. Even the new Brewer
software seems to be stable. In fact, everything seems to work except for
that same laptop that likes some attention in the morning. Oh, well, if
that's the worst part, we can live with that!
Cristen, Paul, Joseph and Volodya went for a lovely walk after lunch and
took many pictures and some video footage that will appear online soon.
Felicia