Mike Obland: A Clear Day for Aerosol Tracking

Fairbanks, Alaska, April 15, 2008 -- Today was a long day. It officially started at about 6:20 a.m. when Rick, Mike, Dale, Ray and I left the airport to head to the hangar. We had to move our airplane out of the hangar to fuel it for today’s flight, and then we put it back in to keep the instrument warm. Hangar coordination has been complicated, because of the number of planes being kept in there. The NOAA P-3 was first in the hangar, and our much smaller King Air was placed next to it. The Convair aircraft that we have been flying frequently with us in Barrow was in front. It had to be pulled out first before we could go. All of this had to be done early in the morning so that each plane could prepare for its flight later in the morning.

While Dale was dealing with fueling the plane, Ray and I went into the hangar building, where most of the ARCTAS scientists are set up, and worked on our usual tasks: uploading and disseminating data and going over today’s flight plan. I took today’s flight, because it would be a longer flight, and Ray has been doing most of those, so it was my turn. He used the time on the ground to work on some improvements to our analysis code, moving us closer to being able to just hit a button in our software and have the computer perform all the data analysis steps autonomously.

The flight for today was coordinated with the NASA and NOAA P-3s early in the flight as we headed west from Fairbanks. Those two planes were flying in near formation for parts of the flight, and we were trying to scout out interesting aerosol layers for them to sample directly. Today had the best visibility that I have seen on any of our flights in Alaska so far. We were relaying our observations of the cloud and haze situation to the pilots on the other aircraft, and then down to scientists on the ground who were adjusting their flight plans moment-by-moment. Even one of our maintenance guys who is still in Barrow, Mark, was helping out. Apparently, one of the science teams could not reach one of their colleagues who was taking ground measurements in Barrow, so Chris called Mark to get the weather and sky visibility reports from him.

After working with the P-3s, we turned to intercept a CALIPSO track for the last part of a more than five-hour flight. Chris, Rick and Mike were working on tomorrow’s flight plan before we even touched down. Ray started analyzing the data as he, John and I went to an ARCTAS science team meeting to hear about what is going on logistically and scientifically with the other airplanes. With the campaign coming to a close, there was some discussion about planning for the last few flights and for packing up and shipping everything back to the lower 48 states. The time up here sure has seemed to go by quickly. Actually, at this point, with all the days that we have been working in a row, it is hard to keep track of the days. I have to keep checking calendars to see what day of the week it is.

We finished the day with another group dinner, this time at a Korean restaurant that happened to be in the basement of a bowling alley, so we had to eat there just to say that we could say that we did. The food was excellent in my opinion, and there was a lot of it, especially when they forgot Chris’ order and gave us a few free plates of shrimp and dumplings as an apology. We walked out of there stuffed and went back to John’s hotel to hang out a bit longer before saying our goodbyes. I still have a little bit of analysis to do before packing my bags and getting to bed after the long day. We are heading back to Barrow tomorrow and it will be another long, two-flight day. I need some sleep!

Photo: Mike Obland