Continuing Adventures with a Ground-Based Microwave Radiometer, Fraser, CO 2002

Boulder, CO, January 24, 2002 Part 2. The week after they installed the radiometer at the forest site, Richard continued to work with the Japanese and German teams to get everything set up for the instrument to run. This included switching the power source from the gasoline engines (stinky and noisy) to an electric power line (no stink and a lot less noisy), an absolute calibration run (using the liquid nitrogen we had delivered the week before), losing power Sunday night, and running out of liquid nitrogen the next time they needed to calibrate again. The following week, Richard did a round trip to Boulder and ran another load of liquid nitrogen up to the site. On Thursday, January 17, Ken Knowles, Julienne Stroeve and I (all of us from NSIDC) went up to the site to watch a demo of the instrument and learn more for ourselves about how it ran and what it was all about. Here are a few more photes, from Thursday (thanks again to Ron Weaver for the digital camera, and especially for the great stitching job on the panoramic shot). (Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger image.)

One of several buildings at the site. This particular one was only built last summer, so there's no furniture inside, but there's plumbing, and after a short while outside, it sure feels warm by comparison!

The electric power running from the building, through the forest, out to the container.

Ken, outside the container, while the roof is opening so we can lift the radiometer up. Notice the fresh snow that's fallen (about 6 inches (15 cm)) since last week.

(Here's a similar shot from a week ago.)

Poor little empty R2-D2. You can't see it here, but there's a label on the side that says "Do not freeze" (Huh? This is liquid Nitrogen, remember? This stuff boils at something like -195 degrees C!!! Whaddaya mean, "do not freeze"? Is this going to be another one of those things I was supposed to be born knowing about?)

Fujii, inside the container. They've used this container in the midwest in the summer, before, so there are controls for A/C....but not for heat. Not that there's much point to either, since the roof is open when you're running the instrument!

Ken, Richard, and Fujii. I can't decide whether this one is blurry because they were moving, or because I was so cold, my hands were chattering.

A panoramic shot of the surrounding area that we measured with the instrument. You can see Fujii at right, center, downloading the previous night's data from the weather station. Our back-of-the-envelope calculation for snow depth is within 2 cm of the actual depth out here! (I have a feeling we're hallucinating from the cold.)

After this, we couldn't take the cold anymore, and headed inside the new building to warm up (everything is relative, believe me). Since Fujii was going to be leaving before we had a chance to come back up here, we decided we could endure the cold a bit longer and went back out to ask him a few more questions about the instrument.

Fujii couldn't believe we came back for more. He had been up since 3 a.m. that morning, doing a calibration under cold sky conditions, and he was very patient with us. I'm sure he just wanted to go to sleep (someplace that was relatively warm).

Richard, being diplomatic.

Julienne, Ken, Fujii, Richard. We're finished for today. We'll return in a couple of weeks, and try it ourselves. Now Fujii can get that sleep he needs.

Day Index
January 11, 2002: Liquid Nitrogen Delivery and Radiometer Installation January 17, 2002: Having Fun Training February 23,2002: Snow Pits and Absolute Calibration November 13, 2002: Repair Work

Mary Jo Brodzik <brodzik@nsidc.org>

Last modified: Mon Nov 18 13:20:37 2002

	One of several buildings at the site. This particular one was only built last summer, so there's no furniture inside, but there's plumbing, and after a short while outside, it sure feels warm by comparison!
	The electric power running from the building, through the forest, out to the container.
	Ken, outside the container, while the roof is opening so we can lift the radiometer up. Notice the fresh snow that's fallen (about 6 inches (15 cm)) since last week.
	(Here's a similar shot from a week ago.)
	Poor little empty R2-D2. You can't see it here, but there's a label on the side that says "Do not freeze" (Huh? This is liquid Nitrogen, remember? This stuff boils at something like -195 degrees C!!! Whaddaya mean, "do not freeze"? Is this going to be another one of those things I was supposed to be born knowing about?)
	Fujii, inside the container. They've used this container in the midwest in the summer, before, so there are controls for A/C....but not for heat. Not that there's much point to either, since the roof is open when you're running the instrument!
	Ken, Richard, and Fujii. I can't decide whether this one is blurry because they were moving, or because I was so cold, my hands were chattering.

	After this, we couldn't take the cold anymore, and headed inside the new building to warm up (everything is relative, believe me). Since Fujii was going to be leaving before we had a chance to come back up here, we decided we could endure the cold a bit longer and went back out to ask him a few more questions about the instrument.
	Fujii couldn't believe we came back for more. He had been up since 3 a.m. that morning, doing a calibration under cold sky conditions, and he was very patient with us. I'm sure he just wanted to go to sleep (someplace that was relatively warm).
	Richard, being diplomatic.
	Julienne, Ken, Fujii, Richard. We're finished for today. We'll return in a couple of weeks, and try it ourselves. Now Fujii can get that sleep he needs.