Wow. What a day. First I have to tell you, if you read the 'Current Weather' on Weather Underground this afternoon (for you, morning for me), it may have said that winds were 58 mph, with a 'Light Thunderstorm'. Well, I can say with certainty, there was no thunderstorm. Though that did make me laugh.
But there were 58 mph winds, and I heard that the max we got throughout the morning was, I believe 108 mph. As some of you may know, that is hurricane force. Cooooool. I got to be a weather weenie for sure this morning. We had a storm move through from about 5:30 am until, well, it is still passing through (6 pm), but the worst of it was over by noon. I woke up to the building shaking, and took a peek outside and all I could see was...white. I'm not kidding. Just a window of white. It was incredible. I'm sure glad I wasn't on I-80 driving back to Laramie. At McMurdo they use a 'Condition' system for weather: Condition 3 is good weather, Condition 1 is horrible weather. During Condition 1, you are not allowed to leave the building you are in. So, poor me, I just had to go back to bed. But it was Condition 1 until about 11 am, when they changed it to Condition 2. It was so surreal. But, it is spring. Weather is crazy in spring. I wish I had had my camera. Next time.
Anyway, I thought I'd post a few pics of recent balloon launches, courtesy of Luca, our Italian colleague who has been running the LIDAR.
Here is Mahesh (holding the balloon), Jen and myself getting a balloon ready to launch an ozonesonde. Prior to this stage, we have to inflate the balloon with Helium.
Jen is checking that the balloon has enough lift to take the sonde and balloon up to 30 kilometers.
And on the other end, here I am inflating it. That gun is heavy. I look like a bank robber.
Here I am posing with Benny, the balloon. (I didn't really name it, it just came to me right now.)
Once we have everything set up, we can launch. It takes about 3 hours or so for the balloon to ascend and fall, the whole time we are getting live data from the instrument. It is pretty cool to sit and watch the ozone increase, and then sharply decrease when the instrument gets to the hole. We have seen some good 'zero' ozone levels up there.
Well, that's all for today. Hope your weather is better than mine! Go Cubs!
Here is Mahesh (holding the balloon), Jen and myself getting a balloon ready to launch an ozonesonde. Prior to this stage, we have to inflate the balloon with Helium.
Jen is checking that the balloon has enough lift to take the sonde and balloon up to 30 kilometers.
And on the other end, here I am inflating it. That gun is heavy. I look like a bank robber.
Here I am posing with Benny, the balloon. (I didn't really name it, it just came to me right now.)
7 comments:
Wow what a fun post! You do kind of look like a robber of some sort....'hey, don't move or I'll inflate your head with helium!' Sounds like a fun weather day.
Leslie, You go from Chicago...Windy, DeKalb...more windy, Laramie...really windy, now Antarctica...blowing you away. Good thing you are in the weather business. Stay warm and tethered.
You should name all your balloons! Why don't you Put some extra cellophane and tape on a couple balloons and fix that doggone ozone hole? Hope you had fun hunkering down in the blizzard, and good luck on your next launch!
Hello, Leslie,
I had no idea the balloons you worked with were so large. The balloon has a quiet poetic beauty about it. It looks like you're having a lot of fun in between the hard work. Your mom and dad are so very proud of you....
A thunderstorm in McM - that would be interesting :)
Fun to read your updates!
I am saving that picture of you looking like a bank robber. Hilarious. Your boots are perfect as well. Now are those weighted boots to keep you grounded? or are they just regular old boots. As Cindy said up top, that was a fun post. I hope you're staying warm. Antarctica seems to be fitting you well, with being able to lay in bed all morning until they say it's okay to leave the building and all. Keep safe and, of course, GO CUBS!
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