First helicopter stations


Third day in the Arctic - still trying to get used to the daily scenery of Ice, meltponds, seagulls, polar bears…..

The morning weather balloons went well, and the weather changed from foggy to cloud free conditions, where the sun beautifully got reflected from the many light blue melt ponds on the ice. 




Today was the second helicopter station - yesterday a few scientists went to try out the fishing gear - all instruments and gear worked, but they did not catch any fish. Today the second group went out to the Ice for some sampling - they are still out there. They got the perfect weather for ice work - it feels so warm when being out in the sun, almost no wind! This is just amazing! Before being this high up in the Arctic, I could only imagine how it would look like, but being here, experiencing and seeing it all with my own eyes totally topped all my expectations.

We were about to release our lunch - time weather balloon, but had to wait while the helicopter was taking off (since the balloon is released from the helipad). But I had time to record a small video from take off (unfortunately I can not send it now), but also captured the take off in a photo.




On the back of the helipad you can see a crane - this if for lifting the CTD (conductivity (for salinity), temperature and depth measurement) in the water and then take it to the bottom and back up. It retrieves vertical profiles and collects water samples. Many of the scientists on board are interested in the output of the CTDs. Unfortunately they had some bad luck with the CTDs yesterday, succeeded with only the last one (out of I guess 7?). BUT the polar bears in the evening made the day successful - even for them. Today I think they were more lucky and have currently one CTD in the water - scientist are eager to get their hands on their first water samples and analyse them in the labs and look at the profiles they get.

Our meteorological instruments are running nicely - as long as the weather stays this calm and nice, sending the weather balloons will be a lot of fun! Day or night - it will always be light and sunny if there are no clouds. Amazing! Some small things to fix and improve but we are ready to go!





 

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