The team all had a busy day today. Instrument setups and installations are mostly complete. The Sun rose shortly past 9 AM, but after reaching above the nearby mountains an hour or so later, it was obscured by clouds throughout the morning. The weather has not been measurement-friendly. At the Eureka Weather Station, the temperature was -45°C; at the PEARL Ridge Lab the temperature was slightly warmer, -40°C. It was windy, making it feel like -61°C. Many layers of warm clothing thankfully kept us warm.
In the PEARL Ridge Lab's IR lab, Joseph, Paul, and Dan started their day by testing the Bruker's laser signals, which had not been done in a while. They confirmed all is well with the Bruker laser. Joseph and Dan next performed HCl cell measurements, since the weather was cloudy. Joseph then analyzed the HCl measurements while Dan finished preparing the campaign website. The weather cleared for a short time, enabling the first Bruker and PARIS measurements. Dan was warmly dressed and cautious when traveling up to the Ridge Lab roof to open and close the suntracker for the Bruker and PARIS. Joseph and Dan were able to take 5 MIR Bruker measurements before the Sun again became covered by clouds.
Debora's PARIS instrument had problems with laptop/computer communication and turning on the interferometer during start up this morning. After fixing that issue, Debora took HBr cell measurements. She converted them, and the background measurements from yesterday, into raw spectra. When the Sun emerged from behind the clouds in the early afternoon, she was able to take 6 good measurements.
In the Ridge Lab's UV-Vis lab, Xiaoyi's PEARL-GBS continued taking measurements on direct-sun/zenith/MAX-DOAS combination mode throughout the day, and direct-moon at night. The UT-GBS finished performing its resolution, stray light, and polarization tests. Xiaoyi is working on processing the test data. Due to weather, he did not yet connect SAOZ with its cable, but hopes to do this tomorrow.
Also at the PEARL Ridge Lab, Volodya installed MAESTRO and SPS on the roof. They seem to communicate with the computers correctly. He did not have a chance to verify the tracker movements due to weather conditions, which became very windy and cold.
The 0PAL team also had a busy and productive day. Zen's E-AERI is operational and both detectors are working properly. Zen fixed instrument parameters in the software package to ensure proper instrument monitoring. He cleaned the instrument outside and removed from the cover, hatch, and precipitation sensors. Despite this, the E-AERI hatch continues to malfunction. The software sometimes thinks it is raining or snowing when it is not. For the time being, limited E-AERI measurements can be made when the hatch opens. Zen continues to work on resolving this issue.
Also at 0PAL, Emily flushed the laser system with hydrogen peroxide to kill and remove any (invisible) algae that might have been growing, replaced water filters, inspected and de-dusted laser transmission optics, took an inventory of CRL lab consumables, and removed the pump chamber from the laser so she can perform a wire installation. She also helped Zen check the 0PAL roof hatch.
To their delight, Emily and Zen later saw muskoxen, an Arctic fox near the Eureka runway, and Arctic bunnies on the way to the 80° North sign. Check out our photo journal page to see them; the Arctic fox and bunnies are adorable!
ACE ozonesonde flights begin Thursday, February 28.
This has been a successful day of instrument preparations and measurement taking. The team has quickly gotten into the rhythm of running a world-class high-Arctic laboratory, and looks forward to the rest of the campaign.