Measuring OH

After a few late nights we have now installed the laser rack and aligned the laser, wired both racks together, installed the inlet on the roof (in its newly designed housing) and plumbed up all the pump lines. We have been trying to work in the evenings when we can get the container to ourselves. The container is a little cramped with the FAGE, NOxy, GC-MS, CO, Ozone and ice camp logging instruments all running and that’s before piling in the people to operate all the instruments. Aligning the laser during the day has become an extreme sport so we’re working evenings when it’s a bit quieter.

We had a power cut Friday evening. Trev and I were at the site trying to prepare for our first day of measurements and Hilke and Anoop (Team DOAS) were aligning the long-path DOAS beam. Then the generator died. After an interesting drive back into town (some truck doors do not close at -30°!), I drove our rescuers back from the pub and by 1 am we were running again. That didn’t really leave much time for sleep. OH correlates really well with solar radiation. To see concentrations of OH start to rise with dawn, we need to be measuring for about an hour before dawn. So after 4 hours sleep Lucy, Marvin, Trev and I all trudged back to the site to get measuring in time.

Thankfully all went well and it looks like we have our first OH measurements at -20°C. But it was a very, very long day. My body clock still hasn’t come back to normal. We made the decision last night to take our first day off today and it proved to be an inspired choice. Trev and I were both wrecked and barely made it to lunch. So much for doing something different on our day off – I think any day off we get will be spent trying to combat sleep deprivation!

University College Cork:
Stewart Vaughan and Jun Chen work on a cavity enhanced spectroscopy instrument to measure BrO and IO for Andy Ruth in Cork, Ireland. This is the first time the instrument has come out into the field – so if it survives here it will measure anywhere!