Early morning on Monday March 13, the 2023 Canadian Arctic ACE/OSIRIS Validation Campaign team departed Toronto’s Pearson International airport for their flight to Yellowknife with a brief layover in Calgary. The team comprised Ramina Alwarda and Erik Lutsch of the University of Toronto and PEARL Site Manager Pierre Fogal. They arrived in Yellowknife around 2 PM local time and met for dinner before returning to their hotel rooms after a long day of travel. On Tuesday March 14, the team stayed in their hotel to quarantine for 24 hours before their charter flight to Eureka the following day, as required by the Eureka Weather Station for incoming personnel.
On the morning of Wednesday March 15, the team checked out of their hotel rooms and headed to the Yellowknife Airport for their charter flight to Eureka. There they were joined by several staff members of the Eureka Weather Station who were headed to Eureka. The charter flight departed around 1 PM local time, making a short stop in Resolute Bay to refuel, before arriving in Eureka at approximately 7 PM local time.
On Thursday March 16, the team drove to the PEARL Ridge Lab for the first day of the campaign. At the lab, the team first checked the status of the building and supplies, and found that everything was in good shape. They then began to assess the status of the instruments. Erik spent some time organizing supplies for the Bruker FTIR, and checking that the instrument components were functioning properly. Erik and Pierre also checked the status of the solar-tracker dome and found it to be in working order. Erik then set up the FTIR's source chiller to prepare the instrument for cell tests to verify the alignment of the interferometer. Erik then performed a series of cell tests with the HCl and N2O cells, for the near-infrared and mid-infrared measurements, respectively.
During the first several days in the UV-VIS lab, Ramina spent some time working with the UT-GBS to begin measurements. A remote start-up was not possible this year due to two failed power supplies. After replacing them, the UT-GBS began its regular measurement schedule (zenith-sky + off-axis scans) and is currently operating nominally. The PEARL-GBS has also begun taking measurements, but conditions are currently suboptimal. The interior of the dome is frosted, and the dome heater continues to be checked to ensure it is operating properly to minimize the frost. Ramina also verified that SAOZ is operating and taking measurements.
High winds during the first week of the campaign have prevented the team from maintenance on the roof-top instruments. The team is hoping for more favourable conditions this week and plans to install a new tracker mirror for the PEARL-GBS, begin troubleshooting the Pandora spectrometer, and work on the FTIR solar tracker to improve its optical alignment before taking solar measurements.
Ramina Alwarda and Erik Lutsch
[On behalf of the 2023 Canadian Arctic ACE/OSIRIS Validation Campaign team]