Back in Kangerlussuaq

It is nine in the morning after an early start to fly back to Kangerlussuaq. Last days I have not given more updates on the work and live at Summit also since it has been quite stormy and because the system that I was supposed to use for additional measurements needs to be fixed. Hopefully, I can get some of the spare parts we need here in the warehouse in Kangerlussuaq. Today I flew in in my private jet; it was the Hercules but because of the high temperatures, making the snow at Summit really heavy they needed the JATO system to take off. These are kind of rockets that give the airplane the extra push to take off at this high altitude with the heavy conditions (so the C-130 being a jet for a short moment). I was also the only passenger going out and so could sit at the flight deck with the pilots having a great view especially flying in to Kanger passing by the mountain ridges quite close. By the way, it was also an expensive flight; they told me that using this JATO system costs about 180.000$! Consequently, they hardly use it and the crew was really happy that they took off without any problems, Maybe later some more updates on the data interpretation of this campaign Laurens

Inspector Clousseau at Summit

4th of July at Summit; all people have the whole weekend off except of us. We went today to the flux site also to find out why some of our instruments have failed. Yesterday afternoon we started another experiment with the "elevator" intented to measure the ozone concentrations at 5 different heights in a cycle of about 5 minutes. Yesterday it was working fine and logging in on the computer from the Big House, it seemed to run without a problem. However, then waking up this morning I found out that the temperature of the engine to move the elevator was 40C; a "little" too high. Coming to the site my suspicion was immediately confirmed; the wire to move the elevator has snapped but how did this happen? Putting all the evidence together, seeing ice formation at the opening of the engine box where the wire goes in and checking the detailed height information file it seemed easy to put the storyline together; elevator moving up, getting stuck, engine warms up, melting snow at the top of box, nighttime cooling results in ice formation, blocks cable, breaks, elevator moving down fast, and at the end ending at the surface; or....?
The next days we have to find out what went wrong and, especially, how we can solve this to get more of these useful measurements the upcoming weeks when one of the Phd students will operate the system.
By the way, you can see from the movie (and read my lips to interpret what I am saying; the wind is too strong to hear it); the conditions are not that optimal for a nice independence day BBQ and I also have to get shaved! Laurens

Another day at Summit

One more week to go; I like it here but also look forward to go back to NL next week; I heard that it is now there about 30C whereas here it is about -10C during the day, the "sense" temperature strongly dependent on the wind speed. Last night the wind picked up making it a little noisy in the tent. Since my watch is not working properly, waking up I guessed it was about 8 in the morning; time to go the site. However, then making it to the "Big house" for breakfast my watch turned out to indicate the right time, 3.30. At some lower latitude, the darkness would clearly indicate that there are some hours to sleep.
So with the winds we have had some accumulation of snow at the site due to snow drift but also had some snowfall. This implies that we soon have to put some of the lowest instruments higher up at the tower. This is also an issue for the different buildings they have here at the site. At one of the pictures below you can see the "Big house" put on poles to have it always above the snow whereas on the left hand side you see the last compartment of the "Greenhouse" where most of the staff sleeps. It got stuck into the snow so deep that they are now already for about 2 weeks moving it completely to a higher point so that it will be not burried into the snow pack for the next years,

Laurens