Day Twelve - We have some more data
EISCAT shortly before dawn. Look, some clear skies with just a few clouds...As I reported yesterday we had some clear skies. The PAMS experiment ran well with some strange interference lines which we suspect might be meteors. This appears to be happening this morning as well, more on that later. Due to a beautiful ULF wave appearing I started DLETE a little late but we also managed 3.5 hours of combined VHF and Heating. No idea how that worked, we will need to get at the spectral width information to have any understanding of whether we successfully heated the D-layer (feel like doing some data analysis Vikki?).
The clear skies lasted well into the night as did the warmth (17 degrees during the day). It was fantastic. We had some great auroral displays including black aurora and some clear pulsating aurora, all caught on camera. The only optical problem was actually a biggie. Part of Todd's camera broke, it was kind of an essential part as well since it helped drive the filter wheel. The FACE experiment is highly dependent on multiwavelength imaging and this was our one chance to get this done properly. Todd had a solution, however. He climbed into the small loft space underneath the dome and manually cranked the filter wheel around every minute. He did this solidly for six hours. I am still in awe! Andrew ran the radar whilst I sat and shouted which filter was displayed and whether it was properly aligned, the system worked incredibly well for 5 of the 6 hours. In the last hour (23-24 UT/01-02 LT) things went quite wrong, the computer slowed down so that I could no longer see the images straight away such that I was ruinning with a delay. Also Todd went out of synch by one filter, possibly due to slight overcranking and the mix up with the delayed image. However it was a fantastic feat and I imagine he is having a well deserved sleep now.
Radar operations reportedly ran relatively smoothly. Andrew had some problems talking to Sodankyla via EROS, though this cleared up by 19:40 UT. Brett ran the VHF for the HFSEE stuff (I think).
All in all I think that last night was a success. At last. It was starting to look as if we would not get any data.
Photos of aurora, mars and stars shall follow, once I have had some more sleep...
The clear skies lasted well into the night as did the warmth (17 degrees during the day). It was fantastic. We had some great auroral displays including black aurora and some clear pulsating aurora, all caught on camera. The only optical problem was actually a biggie. Part of Todd's camera broke, it was kind of an essential part as well since it helped drive the filter wheel. The FACE experiment is highly dependent on multiwavelength imaging and this was our one chance to get this done properly. Todd had a solution, however. He climbed into the small loft space underneath the dome and manually cranked the filter wheel around every minute. He did this solidly for six hours. I am still in awe! Andrew ran the radar whilst I sat and shouted which filter was displayed and whether it was properly aligned, the system worked incredibly well for 5 of the 6 hours. In the last hour (23-24 UT/01-02 LT) things went quite wrong, the computer slowed down so that I could no longer see the images straight away such that I was ruinning with a delay. Also Todd went out of synch by one filter, possibly due to slight overcranking and the mix up with the delayed image. However it was a fantastic feat and I imagine he is having a well deserved sleep now.
Radar operations reportedly ran relatively smoothly. Andrew had some problems talking to Sodankyla via EROS, though this cleared up by 19:40 UT. Brett ran the VHF for the HFSEE stuff (I think).
All in all I think that last night was a success. At last. It was starting to look as if we would not get any data.
Photos of aurora, mars and stars shall follow, once I have had some more sleep...
posted by Kav at 9:00 am
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