The Intensive Phase team spent their first day at PEARL on Thursday. After giving Sebastien a tour of the Ridge Lab, they got right to work.
In the PEARL Ridge Lab's IR lab, Dan and Sebastien worked on getting the Bruker and PARIS ready for measurements. Dan began by cleaning each panel of the Bruker, refilling the cooler, and generally checking that all seemed to be in order. Everything appeared fine. The instrument had already been turned on by Alexey during the pre-campaign when he temporarily borrowed the Bruker's scroll pump. After inserting the MIR beamsplitter into the Bruker and pumping the instrument down to near-vacuum, Dan attempted to conduct a standard HBr cell test. Unfortunately, the instrument returned errors indicating a problem with the calibration light source. After investigating with the help of Pierre Fogal (PEARL Site Manager) through email, the error was still unresolved at the time the team had to leave the lab for the day. Dan also tried to test Bruker solar measurements, but the suntracker also required troubleshooting. With the help of Jonathan Franklin (in Halifax), the suntracker issues were resolved; however, the day's limited sunlight ended by the time the tracker was operational. Tomorrow will bring a new day of troubleshooting, and more sunlight.
Sebastien began his first day at PEARL by unpacking PARIS and its boxes, and diligently checking that everything was there. It was. The entire team helped put PARIS on its stand. Sebastien then levelled PARIS and set up the globar for background measurements. He is pleased to report that PARIS is up and running! Tomorrow, Sebastien aims to continue background measurements in the morning, align the instrument with a solar beam once the sun rises, and begin solar measurements.
Over in the UV-Vis lab, Xiaoyi set up SAOZ, and Paul and Mike moved it up to the roof of the Ridge Lab. SAOZ appears to be operating nominally. Xiaoyi aims to upload spectra to LATMOS tomorrow. The UT-GBS is working, and is performing dark current measurements overnight. Xiaoyi shut down the PEARL-GBS to upgrade its Labview code. He had noticed a few bugs affecting the tracker and the filter selection. He has set up PEARL-GBS for dark current measurements overnight as well. Another challenge Xiaoyi is troubleshooting involves the PEARL-GBS dome, which is heavily frosted.
Paul and Xiaoyi spent the morning creating a way to bring hot air into the dome without opening it. They used a ventilation hole to connect a tube being fed hot air from a heater located in the Bruker's old suntracker cover (now beneath the PEARL-GBS dome). Initial temperature measurements show the "MacGyver-like" solution is helping, but it will take time for the dome to defrost. Xiaoyi is hoping to arrive at the Ridge Lab to find a clear PEARL-GBS dome tomorrow.
While performing his routine check of SPS today, Paul noticed the computer's date was incorrect. He adjusted the date and time, but the sun went down before he could do a new sighting, necessary to adjust the azimuth and elevation.
ACE ozonesonde flights have not yet begun.
It has been a busy start to the campaign! Expect updates and photos every day for the next three weeks.