Early morning on Saturday February 23rd, the majority of the intensive-phase
team for the 2019 Canadian Arctic ACE/OSIRIS Validation Campaign departed from
Toronto’s Pearson airport. The team flying out of Toronto was comprised of
Sebastien Roche, Kristof Bognar, Tyler Wizenberg and Ali Jalali from the
University of Toronto, and Tom McElroy from York University, as well as
Pierre Fogal, the PEARL Site Manager. Four hours after departing from Toronto,
the team arrived in Calgary for a brief 1-hour layover, and shortly after were
on their way to Yellowknife. At around 1:30pm local time, the team landed in
Yellowknife, marking the start of their three weeks in the Arctic. The team
from Toronto rendezvoused in Yellowknife with Xin Yang from the British
Antarctic Survey, who will be continuing his work from last year on a
collaborative project collecting snow samples at several locations around Eureka.
The seven team members spent the latter part of the day exploring downtown
Yellowknife and gathering any last-minute supplies they needed, and concluded
the afternoon with a group dinner.
At 8 o'clock the following morning, the team was scheduled to depart from
Yellowknife on a charter flight to Eureka, however after getting on the plane
and making it out to the runway, the pilots noted a warning light which would
not turn off. The pilots made the decision to bring the plane back to the hangar
to take a closer look, and an issue was later discovered, requiring more extensive
work by the Summit Air engineers. As a result, the flight was rescheduled for the
following morning (Monday), and the team spent an additional day in Yellowknife.
Many of the team members used this extra time to explore some of the nearby
attractions such as the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, as well as the
bush pilots’ monument and the currently under-construction snow castle. The team
ended their second day in Yellowknife with dinner, and then headed off to bed in
anticipation of another early morning. On the morning of February 25th, the flight
left on schedule and made two brief stopovers along the way for refuelling, at
Cambridge Bay and Resolute Bay, landing in Eureka around 5:50pm.
The newly arrived team members were greeted by Eureka Weather Station Personnel,
the CANDAC operators on site, and Alexey Tikhomirov, another member of the campaign
team who arrived in Eureka on February 2nd for the pre-campaign phase. The team settled
into their accommodations and the two newest members, Ali and Tyler, were given a
tour of the Eureka Weather station by Scott, the Station Program Manager. Tomorrow
morning (Tuesday), the intensive phase team will begin their work and will have no time
to waste, as they make up for the lost time caused by the flight delay.
The pre-campaign phase measurements have focused on the lidar observations by the DIAL and CRL.
A brief summary of the pre-campaign activities follows:
- The DIAL measures ozone profiles over the Ridge Lab. It was operated by Alexey,
when weather conditions permitted, starting on February 4th. However, on February
23rd it experienced a laser failure. The DIAL measurements have been temporarily
suspended as Alexey works on a fix. He is hoping to have it operational again in
the next few days.
- The CRL measures cloud properties over 0PAL. Emily is currently
operating it remotely from down south. Starting from February 1st, it has
been measuring 24 hours per day as weather conditions permit and it
continues to operate nominally. Emily has been monitoring instrument
alignment and has not needed any on-site support from Alexey or the
operators.
Cheers,
Tyler Wizenberg
[On Behalf of the 2019 Canadian Arctic ACE/OSIRIS Validation Campaign team]