Today the team visited PEARL for the first time, and started setting up all the instruments.
The temperature at PEARL was -25 ˚C, much nicer than the -36 ˚C endured in Eureka (but still very cold!).
It was only a half day at PEARL because all the vehicles available were needed to bring people and cargo to the departing flight mid-morning.
This included astronomers who had been working on a Eureka observatory over the last couple weeks (a very cool project they will continue this summer).
Everyone made good progress preparing their instruments for measurements.
Joseph restarted the Bruker 125HR, which had been winterized in October, 2011.
This involved venting the compartments, cleaning around the edges of each panel, and carefully cleaning the scanning mirror rods.
Joseph checked the number of hours the scroll pump has been used to keep the Bruker at near-vacuum pressure (just over 5000 hours).
The Bruker is now ready for ILS tests and taking solar measurements tomorrow if there is enough sunlight.
Debora diligently examined PARIS to be certain it didn't sustain visible damage.
It looks to be in excellent condition after its trip back to Eureka!
She plans to perform background and cell measurements tomorrow.
PARIS is ready for measurements once Debora finds a way to raise it off the table to the
appropriate height (PARIS shares the solar beam with the Bruker, requiring exact positioning to
ensure they don't block each other). The metal stand used to do this last year seems to have
disappeared that's ok, Debora likes a challenge!
After assisting Debora and Joseph with some of their work, and assisting Pierre move some astronomy
equipment into storage, Dan spent some time shoveling snow off the roof to help ensure access to the
instruments. It was hard work, and there was a substantial amount of snow, but the experience included fantastic scenery!
Over in the UV-Vis lab, Xiaoyi spent his time reassembling PEARL-GBS, attaching a new cable for SAOZ
with the help of Pierre and checking on the UT-GBS (which had been taking measurements since February 19).
Later in the campaign, he plans to update UT-GBS's optics and shutter.
The CRL had a successful first day. After cleaning the lab to reduce the dust, both lidar lasers woke up from hibernation! Emily refilled the cooling systems with distilled water, tightened all cooling connections, and checked for leaks. The pump chambers were installed without much trouble. Emily inspected both lasers and the transmission optics look ready for measurements.
Volodya started his first day at PEARL confirming all of the boxes for the Brewer, the SPS and MAESTRO were accounted for. Thanks to Pierre's efforts prior to the team's arrival, all boxes were indeed waiting patiently. Volodya unpacked everything and checked the SPS, which started with no problem and is communicating with the laptop. He also opened the double Brewer #021, which has been off line for a while, and found one micrometer
LED sensor shifted. It is running perfectly now!
The polar vortex has been centered over the North Sea and Scandinavia, extending from the Black Sea to Greenland. We will keep an eye for its movement closer to Eureka as the campaign gets started with measurements.
There were no ozonesonde launches today. The most recent launch was Monday night, and reached 32,500 m. ACE ozonesonde flights begin February 28.
Most of the team spent the evening catching up with weather station personnel, doing their own work and thinking about the work to be done in the next few days. Emily returned to the CRL lidar lab with Pierre and Debora to sweep snow off the roof hatch (there didn't appear to be much, thankfully) and turned on the hatch heaters in preparation for opening it up and firing the lasers tomorrow. Dan worked on the website, daily diary and photo journal.
We are all hoping to see the first rays of sunshine tomorrow!