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
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten