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Sent Jason out to clean the radiometer
domes and asked him to take along the camera. He came back numb, with
his teeth chattering, but managed to snap this picture. Good lad! |
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All packed up. We found a way to save
the Program money on travel expenses. We decided to send Cliff Meyer
back "baggage class". |
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Jason Cole packing up the Pennsylvania
State University (PSU) sun photometer. I have utter confidence in
Jason. He always seems to know exactly what he's doing. |
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The local Nauruan observers staff present
MJ Post and Captain Parsons with a plaque and framed image during
a small ceremony at the ARCS site. |
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The plaque with polished phosphate map
of Nauru and inscription. |
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The framed image of Nauru surrounded
by local postage stamps. |
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Finishing up, Nicholas takes manual readings
and enters them in the log, while under intense video scrutiny. |
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A local video crew follows Nicholas around
to film the whole process of launching a sonde. |
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Intrepid explorers yours truly (Chuck
Long) and Robin in full tourist regalia (lots of cameras) tromping
the wilds of Nauru. |
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Our informative guide Nicholas demonstrates
operation of this two-barrel cannon. I think it's supposed to be aimed
up, isn't it Nicholas? |
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Another view of our little slice of paradise.
For perspective, the site is 7.1 meters above sea level. You can see,
it took a lot of rocks to build out the ocean side of the site. |
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While waiting at the docks for the RHIB
(small boat) at low tide, I caught these local boys enjoying a "swimming
hole" in the fossilized coral. |
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Our hard working Robin. We keep telling
her she should take a break once in a while. But she insists on constantly
hardly working. |
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View from the Ron Brown of the phosphate
being loaded onto a cargo ship, with the attendant dust plume downwind. |
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Directly downwind of the phosphate loading.
Yes, there is a ship in there somewhere. You can see why there was
some concern over health and sneezing. |
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Chuck Long is caught in the act of taking
one of the Panoramic snapshots. Thanks for the great photos Chuck! |
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An image of the MWR window tear for the
folks back home in Los Alamos and Albuquerque. |
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Amongst the hustle and bustle of yesterday,
this fork lift showed up to move our storage seatainer (which we've
been renting) to make room for the used one we recently purchased.
Now if only it could be used to transfer the stuff inside between
the old and new seatainers. Alas, we'll be doing that by hand. |
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A photo of one of the many "pillbox"
emplacements around the island. These were built by the Japanese during
World War II, and are still standing (somewhat). |
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MJ and the Captain check out the local
fashion offerings at Capelle's. Couldn't find much in the line of
ski apparel, though. |
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Jason and Dave finally get the Cessna
radiometers set up, leveled, and recording data! Don't ask where they
got all the parts they needed. Funny how the site truck wouldn't start
today...and the Ron Brown was listing a bit. |
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Jason and Dave's radiometer stand manufacturing
center. Give them a few radiometers and a pile of scrap, they'll get
it cobbled together in no time! |
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From our morning photo session. View
from the site. |
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On a tour of the Ron Brown, I caught
Bill settling in on the Bridge. Looking quite navel, don't you think?
Yes, I spelled it right. |
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After the July 4th celebration, we stopped
back at the site to gather up things. Caught this photo of the Ron
Brown with sunset in background. |
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Mother Nature teased us a bit before
the skies cleared into another beautifully sunny tropical day. |
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Nicholas Duburiya, the Nauru ARCS2 Observer
Officer in Charge, cleans the radiometer domes on the skyrad stand.
Our local Observer staff have been doing a wonderful job of maintaining
the site since we dumped all this equipment on them last November.
|
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We caught this picture when we went down
to the freight dock to meet the Ron Brown RHIB. We figured that they
have the cabin cruiser in case they run out of gas...they can send
it to get more. I have a moped in the trunk of my car for the same
reason. |
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Ed Westwater getting into the spirit
of things here. We might not get much done, but we sure have fun trying!
|
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Monty, who is leaving tomorrow, has received
many thanks from all for his fine efforts and hard work during Nauru99.
Here's the REAL story. |
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Dennis is also a "short timer".
Here, I caught him giving Jason Cole (his replacement) tips on how
to do the Cimel dance. |
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Proving Monty can do the impossible,
Chuck's car is appropriately licenced Nauru "1999". Following Chuck's
brief encounter with fame, he has now become an incorrigible camera
hog. |
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Showing little compassion, Connor Flynn
taunts the skiers. |
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This is a phosphate mining truck. Chuck
Long wonders if the smoke creates island effects of measurements.
|
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Site number 1, the top side meteorological
tower near the radio tower is shown with the surrounding area. |
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A view of meteorological tower site number
2. The two tower sites and the ARCS site form a triangle over the
island to study variability across the island and island temperature/humidity/wind
effects. |
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The ARM TWP Nauru ARCS truck. Still here,
still working. Nice door sign, too! |
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This is Chuck Long's favorite island
restaurant, Airport South. Chuck says the food is much better than
the appearance of the building! |
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A picture of Ray Edwards when he was
here, setting up the VHS antennae. |
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This HSI prototype was mounted atop the
U van. It's obviously been on a few of these field experiments. |
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Here is a view of the airport runway
from the Cessna. Note that you better not miss because there is ocean
at both ends! |
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Here is a view from inside the Cessna
in flight. The pilot Noel Roedinger is on the left, and Jorge Hacker
is on the right. |
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Cessna pilot Noel Roediger on the job. |
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Graduate student David Pethick monitors
incoming data during the flight. Note the life raft in the back to
the right. It's a lonely ocean out there! |
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The Cessna crew, from left to right Noel
Roediger, pilot; David Pethick, Graduate Student; and Jorge Hacker. |
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A local moth has adopted Conner Flynn
as a pet. While the moth had Conner out for an afternoon walk, they
stopped by the D van for a visit. |
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World famous atmospheric scientist (a
legend in his own mind) being interviewed for remarkable ground-breaking
video of the Nauru99 experiment. After two hours in the hot sun, I
later found out they hadn't actually loaded the video tape in yet,
but were just practicing. ;-) |
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Ted Cress, ARM Technical Director, and
I tagged along with Andrew Kaierua, one of the local Observers, to
visit the top side meteorological sites yesterday. Here's Andrew cleaning
the radiometer domes at site number 2, and pointing out some of the
interesting sights at the same time. Talented fella, and coordinated,
too! |
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Master Chefs Monty Apple and Robin Perez
whip up a salad to go along with the tuna we'll be barbecuing tonight.
The catch of the day from this mornings fishing expedition! |
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Another shot of the Mirai, this time
on station near the TAO buoy roughly 0 degrees latitude, 165 E longitude. |
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The NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown (or most
of it, difficult shot on a fast moving, bouncing plane) on station
near the TAO buoy roughly 2 degrees S latitude, 165 E longitude. |
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View of the ARCS2 site from the air.
The site is inside the fence. The balloon-borne sounding system (BBSS)
launch assembly is in the lower left. Radiometer stands are in the
middle, and the Whole Sky Imager (WSI), MWR, and Met tower are on
the right. |
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View from further away showing site (on
the right) in relation to surrounding area. Also shows relationship
to the level of the island top side in the background. Thanks Cessna
crew! |
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We get all kind of clouds here, thick
ones, thin ones, white ones, even black ones. Especially when they
set the island dump on fire, as they did a few days ago. |
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Jorge Hacker gives us a tour of the Cessna,
his office away from the office. |
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The Cessna airplane. |
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Scene #1 (left): Experts at work trying to set up the
sun photometer with the older gear-driven tracking mount.
Scene #2 (below): The hammer didn't work. Perhaps bowing in
prayer will.
|
 |
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Scene #3: That did the trick! Happy sun
photometry! |
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We use everything here. Waste not. An
example are these flowers the local observers planted at the east
end of the "D" van onsite. The constant dripping of water from the
van's air conditioners keeps them healthy and happy! |
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Healthy, as a matter of
fact too healthy, but not as happy is Jim Mather's infamous banyon
tree shown here sticking up behind the hydrogen van. It used to be
MUCH bigger. Unfortunately, it blocked a large part of the horizon
right where the sun rises, which didn't make the solar radiometers
happy. We had to have a local crew come in and "take a little off
the top". But it's already growing back. |
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Doing the Cimel dance! The Cimel goes
through it's scanning routine, twisting and turning and bobbing up
and down to do it's scans. We occasionally gather around and dance
along with it. A good time was had by all! |
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The local "Pizza Hut". Literally. Unfortunately,
looks like business wasn't so good, and it's no longer open. :-( |
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We almost lost Monty Apple to a hungry
"boat truck" while waiting for a ride out to the Mirai. This "vehicle"
is designed to haul in cargo from ships and drive it right to wherever.
I personally have never quite seen anything like it. Might have to
get me one to drive to the office during wet weather. |
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A rather sad picture from our top side
site scouting trip yesterday. Robin Perez is standing by roadside
with a view of some of the mined out areas in the center of Nauru
Island behind her. Unfortunately, most of the island interior is in
this mined out state, impassible, with little vegetation. |
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A view of the Mirai, just off shore from
the island site. About as close as a ship-land comparison can be!
|
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Our ARM Program Chief Scientist demonstrating
his supervisory skills while the rest of us are busy checking and
assembling instruments... |
