Event K085
1997/98

Event Personnel:

Ian Boyd
Brian Connor
Sylvia Nichol
John Robinson
Stephen Wood (Event Leader)

March 1997- February 1998

AIMS

• Maintain operation of the Dobson ozone spectrophotometer at Arrival Heights.
• Maintain operation of the visible wavelength spectrometers that monitor nitrogen dioxide and ozone
• Maintain and calibrate measurements at Arrival Heights with the diode array spectrometer aimed at retrieving BrO and OClO.
• Maintain measurements of surface ozone concentration at Arrival heights with the Dasibi ozone monitor, as a joint project with the climate monitoring and diagnostic laboratory (CMDL) group of NOAA.
• Maintain and improve the quality of infrared measurements with the Bruker 120M Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) which was installed at Arrival Heights in December 1996, to replace the previous Bomem FTS, especially during the spring period. This is a co-operative project with the University of Denver.
• Maintain operation of the microwave experiment at Scott Base for the measurement of stratospheric ClO, a co-operative project with the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

It appeared that planning before this season suffered a little by the dropping of a pre-season gathering. This event did not have an event briefing until Winfly. However, since it was very much a "business as usual" season for this event, this did not cause any problems. The pre-season training schedule for the science technicians, once it was finalised, tripled the time they spent at Lauder from one to three days. This time was immensely useful, and we hope it can be repeated.

CARGO

The amount of cargo this season was down on last as we had no major instrument replacements. The only unexpected equipment failure that required bringing anything home was a personal computer used as a file server at Scott Base. The handling of cargo and any customs clearances required was excellent, thanks to the efforts of Paul Woodgate, Helen Boerlage and others.

PERSONNEL

Herm Binnie Ant NZ 1997/98 winter-over science technician.
Ian Boyd NIWA Lauder
Brian Connor NIWA Lauder
Mike Mahon Ant NZ 1996/97 winter-over science technician.
Sylvia Nichol NIWA Wellington
Grant Redvers Ant NZ 1997/98 summer science technician
John Robinson NIWA Lauder
Stephen Wood NIWA Lauder

TRANSPORT

Most of the experiments are in operation at Arrival Heights, so transport between Scott Base and Arrival Heights is required on a regular basis by event personnel and the Scott Base technicians. This transport has generally run very smoothly by having one of the Toyota vehicles assigned to this role. This makes early morning or late evening work much easier to organise. The Toyota vehicles perform admirably for this task and there are few break downs, even though the road to Arrival Heights is rough and sometimes affected by snowdrifts. The annual breakdown for K085 was a power steering failure caused by a burst hose in very cold conditions.

EVENT DIARY

At times of the year when NIWA staff were not at Scott base, the operation of the various experiments was handled by the Antarctic New Zealand science technicians, Mike Mahon, Herm Binnie and Grant Redvers. Their support of our work, both, when we are at Scott Base and when we aren’t there, is invaluable. We are dependent on the calibre of the science technicians that the programme provides, and have certainly not been disappointed this season. With the introduction of leave in New Zealand for the winter-over science technician, we are more dependent on the summer technician during periods of leave than in recent years. However, this was all anticipated, and Grant’s support of our work while Herm was away was excellent. The following is a brief account of K085 activity this season

Winfly 1997

Steve Wood and John Robinson travelled to Scott Base on August 21 with a high resolution JY spectrometer. This was set up in and running within a few days of arrival. However, the main task was to spend as much time on the Bruker as possible, along with Tom Stephen from University of Denver, to sort out problems. Checks of the other instruments were completed. John returned to New Zealand on the final Winfly flight on 27 August. Although operation of the Bruker was improved, some problems remained. Operation of the Dobson and other spectrometers went without a hitch through the spring period. Despite the support from the on-site technician, having someone from NIWA on site to ensure the best possible measurement programme during the spring period is well worthwhile.

October-1997

Sylvia Nichol arrived at Scott Base on October 5 to check operation of the Dobson. Both she and Steve worked to train the new technicians Herm and Grant in the operation of all the NIWA instruments. Bad weather and several demands on the tech’s time meant this took right until the time Steve and Sylvia left on October 20. Hopefully Herm will have fewer conflicting demands on her time than her predecessor Mike did.

November 1997

Brian Connor arrived at Scott Base in November 17 to perform checks and maintenance on the ClO microwave receiver and to replace a faulty reference laser in the Bruker. He returned on 26 November.

December 1997

A replacement computer to act as K085’s file transfer server at Scott Base was sent down.

January 1998

John Robinson and Ian Boyd travelled to Scott Base on January 13 after several days of delays. They had an upgraded computer for the JY at Scott Base and performed a wide range of instrument checks and maintenance, especially on the diode-array system and the Bruker. They returned to New Zealand on January 23.

SCOTT BASE AND ARRIVAL HEIGHTS LABORATORY FACILITIES

i. Hatherton Geoscience Laboratory

The office space that was provided in the laboratory is greatly appreciated. It is a great help to have that space as a base for event staff while they are there. The compressed air snow clearing system for the microwave experiment ("Cloe") external mirror caused a winter fire alarm when a motor overheated. Subsequent conversion to a piped air supply from the garage has produced a more reliable system that works well. The modifications to the attic of the laboratory that houses a JY spectrometer have continued with the provision of a snow clearing system on the roof window and a computer network connection. At the moment this is a duplicate of a system at Arrival Heights so that a comparison of the data quality and reliability at the two sites can be made.

While we are committed to being on Scott Base for the spring period at the early part of the main season, some of our work can be more flexible in time. John and Ian found that while working long hours in January, getting enough sleep in Q-hut was difficult. Perhaps it would be better if we could plan to avoid times when the base is so full in future, at least until facilities are improved at Scott Base.

The maintenance of an internet link from New Zealand to Scott Base (and Arrival Heights) is seen as of great importance. The ability to transfer data out from the Antarctic so that quality checking and analysis can proceed without waiting for disks or tapes to be mailed out makes the work in this event much more efficient, especially during the winter. We have a computer at Scott Base to act as our own file-server. It is great to see the resumption of 19.2 kilobaud service again, after a period of operating at half that speed.

ii. Arrival Heights Laboratory

Most of the Winfly period was warm enough that icing of windows was not a great problem this season. The new accommodation block (ex Vanda) at Arrival Heights also helped, by reducing the amount of moisture introduced to the laboratory space by people. However the new air-handling system that was commissioned in late spring should help greatly in controlling this problem. The air handling system will also help in the quality and consistency of instrument performance by maintaining the ambient temperature of the laboratory spaces to within a degree or so of set point. These improvements in facilities at Arrival Heights are of huge benefit and are greatly appreciated.

One remaining issue remains, that of the roof leaks. While it is not going to be easy or cheap to provide a permanent solution to the problem, it took another incident of water leaking through joints in the roof and onto equipment this season to lift the priority of the job. A good short term solution has been made, by installing butanol strips over the joins in the roof panels, and the protection this gives to the equipment inside is appreciated.

The Bruker is making good use of the internet connection to Arrival Heights, both for the transfer of data and checking the operation of the instrument remotely. It is planned to make more extensive use of this facility for other measurement programmes by upgrading the computers that control instruments with networking hardware and software.

While every attempt is made by NIWA to be as self-sufficient as possible in the operation of its equipment at Scott Base and Arrival Heights, unforeseen events have sometimes required that technical help is required from the engineering or technical staff at Scott Base. The support of the event by Scott Base staff at times like these is first class.

MANAGEMENT OF SCIENCE IN THE ROSS DEPENDENCY

Work was carried out in the Arrival Heights SSSI in accordance with permit 96/1 until 31 August 199 and then under permit 97/1. A submission was made to ICAIR in response to their efforts in drafting a new management plan for the Arrival Heights area, but as yet, there has been no feedback from them.