On Saturday, the team went to the PEARL Ridge Lab for the first time. They were extremely lucky to come across a herd of muskox that was assembled quite close to the road. After a short tour and safety instructions by Pierre, the team started to work on their instruments.
During the day, the temperature at the Eureka Weather Station increased from -30℃ to -20℃. This was due to intensified winds from the north, which means inland winds that are generally associated with a temperature rise at the site. At the Ridge Lab, the temperature stayed close to -17℃ during most of the day. At both sites, the sky was clear all day, with a few ice crystals in the morning. Saturday had approximately five and a half hours of daylight.
Clear sky conditions persisted throughout Saturday night and the whole next day, but the northerly wind picked up slightly at the Ridge Lab during the early hours of Sunday. While the temperature dropped to almost -21℃ around the same time, it increased to -16℃ in the afternoon. The sun was above the horizon for six hours. The 11 am Sunday brunch gave most of the team a chance to catch up on sleep and energy, while Emily and Ghazal spend their night at the Ridge Lab with the DIAL lidar. The rest of the team arrived there shortly after noon after a slightly bumpy ride due to drifting snow conditions.
Sébastien and Erik started mid-infrared measurements with the Bruker FTIR without any problems on their first day at PEARL on Saturday, following Peter's successful measurements on Thursday. 38 mid-infrared measurements were recorded in about 4 hours. On Sunday, 33 more mid-infrared measurements were recorded in about 3 hours. The new NDACC N2O cell has been stored in the lab as Sebastien and Erik wait for a cloudy day to perform cell test measurements. They will continue with solar measurements as long as the clear skies persist.
Kristof spent most of his Saturday morning on unpacking and setting up the PEARL-GBS. At the end of the day the instrument was ready for calibration and testing, but will have to be moved and the optical fibre replaced before measurements can begin. As this was his first visit to the Ridge Lab, Kristof also spent some time sorting through the GBS cupboard to familiarize himself with the contents. He found most of the things he needed or will need in the future. He intended to start the PEARL-GBS sun-tracker, but the new tracker laptop was not yet registered on the network, postponing this task for later. Kristof spent Sunday afternoon calibrating the PEARL-GBS. In a few more hours, the instrument will be ready for lab tests.
Ellen started her first day at the Ridge Lab unpacking PARIS-IR and its box. With the assistance of Erik, Sébastien and Pierre, the instrument was moved to its stand. After checking that PARIS-IR was properly levelled out, Ellen set up the globar for background measurements. Since both GPSs for PARIS-IR were broken, Pierre helped her connect to the PEARL time server, which seems to be working fine. This will provide accurate time records for the PARIS-IR measurements. Ellen was happy to be able to take two test measurements with the globar and transfer the data to the laptop without further problems after a few initial connection issues between the laptop and the instrument. On Sunday, Ellen set up the mirror for solar measurements. This time, the connection between the laptop and the instrument worked from the start. After one manual measurement for testing purposes, Ellen started regular measurements. 14 measurements were taken in total.
Ghazal and Emily went to the Ridge Lab in the morning on Saturday to get situated and make sure that they had all the required operating procedures for the upgraded DIAL lidar. When they returned to the lab in the evening with Pierre, they found that the instructions were clear. The only surprise was that the software required two tries to turn on the chopper. The lidar ran smoothly overnight until 8 am local time.
ACE/OSIRIS ozonesonde flights have not started yet.
The first weekend of the campaign was busy, but encouragingly successful and the team is looking forward to take up a steady routine during the next week.