Launchings radiosondes

February 15

We had a few really busy days on Tryoshnikov. We have been transecting through the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas, stopping for ocean stations every day. We have also been sampling underway and launching XBTs into the ocean. At the same time we were launching quite a few radiosondes into the atmosphere to study the precursors of the atmospheric river conditions.

As a result, Irina and I have been working quite a lot and I did not have time to update my blog for a couple of days. But I also got a few pictures of me working (thanks to Irina and other colleagues, who I gave my phone to take pictures). So here’s a collage of me preparing and then launching a radiosonde:

And here's an entry from my gradnfather's journal dating back to February-March 1960 in Mirny. As I’m writing this on the first relatively “calm” day after a few non-stop work days, I can totally relate the relaxing atmosphere of life at Mirny station and I am grateful to learn how much respect he had to meteorologists launching their weather balloons in any conditions:

Жизнь в Мирном удивительно не похожа на обстановку на Востоке или на шельфе. Может такое сравнение покажется кощунством, но мне эта мирнинская жизнь напоминает санаторий (правда я никогда еще не бывал в санатории, но представляю его по-видимому правильно). Здесь, в Мирном, твердый распорядок дня - завтрак, обед и ужин, на которые исправно собираются все миряне. Четыре раза в неделю по вечерам кино, куда от нечего делать также собираются все, пару раз работает библиотека, ежедневно вызывают на обследование врачи, дежурства, несложные авралы и прочее - прочее. 

Жизнь течет размеренно и спокойно. Работают научные отряды. Ежедневно в любую погоду выходят на свои площадки метеорологи - у них 4 срока, кропят над колонками цифр синоптики - они получают сведения о погоде чёрт знает со скольких станций в Антарктике и субантарктике, дважды в день запускается радиозонд - аэрологи долго пеленгуют его потом и принимают сигналы его миниатюрного передатчика, сообщающего о температуре, давлении и влажности воздуха на разных высотах. Летит этот пузырь, с подвешенными к нему на шнурке картонным коробком, километров на 25-30 ввысь.

Another very long day

January 4

January 3rd was a really long day for me. I keep meaning to write up my daily schedule hour by hour, but I keep getting into too many details. So I will do a combination of the two.

Midnight till 2:30 AM:
I was working at midnight, sampling the underway and watching the pump for an hour from 12 AM till 1 AM. "Pump watch" is an ad hoc activity we had to come up with to overcome our ship's design limitations. Our underway intake line is located 4.5 m below the water level, so when we roll for more than 5 m, there is a possibility to catch air bubbles. The pump dries out and many instruments in the lab do not like an inconsistent water flow. So during the rocky seas we "watch" the pump, to avoid breaking instruments. A bit of a reality check for all the PIs on board, especially those who expected our ship to have the 21st century equipment.
I spent 1 AM to 2:30 AM checking messages and talking to friends. It is usually much quieter at night and I get a better signal.

2:30 AM to 6:30 AM
I was sleeping.
I meant to get up at 6:00 AM as we were planning to do a deep CTD cast followed by a SOCCOM deployment, I had trouble waking up and since we were not stopped at this point, I got up around 6:30 AM.

6:30 AM to 11:30 AM
As I got to the oceanography lab I learned that the CTD stations have been canceled due to high swell, but we are deploying SOCCOM floats at around 9 AM. We decided to launch the sensors in pairs since we couldn't do a CTD cast and water sampling for calibrating the sensors. With two they can at least calibrate against each other.
Jenny and I with the help of Dave (there are a lot of guys named Dave on this leg ;) got one of the floats out and tried to secure it to the pole. It was extremely windy and the ship was rocking hard, so we did not dare to take the second one out. We used all our bunji cords and rope on a single one.
At 9 AM we did not get to the deep enough waters, so the SOCCOM launch was postponed. Finally at 10:46 ship time  6:46 UTC we started launching our SOCCOMs. We successfully deployed two (black one from this picture):

I do not have any picture of the deployment, since I was busy doing it. But there were a lot of people watching since there wasn't much else going on. I hope I will get a nice picture or two from them.
As we were putting the first SOCCOM out of the box, the crew was rather curious. At some point as I was checking on how well the first SOCCOM is secured to the pole, a boatswain asked what they are. And while we were deploying the float, I could hear him talking to other crew members explaining. It was rather cute!

11:30 to 14:30
After we deployed the floats, we had lunch and went upstairs to write to our collaborators about the deployment. It took a while since internet is slow.
I was also expecting another atmospheric river event to come, so I talked to Iris and Pascal to check the time we will need to start launching radiosondes. It wasn't until 9 PM ship time, so I signed up for the night shift to help out.

14:30 to 16:30
Since I knew I will be working all night I decided to take a nap.

16:30 to 21:30
As I woke up on January 3rd for the second time I decided to start off the day "right". I did my yoga and meditation.
At our daily PI meeting we were discussing coming to Hobart a day late since we are so delayed already. I have mixed feelings about it, I do want to have more work done, but I don't want to miss out on the valuable time with friends in Australia!
I spent dinner time and after sorting out the schedule for the radiosonde launches at night - it is impossible to launch a radiosonde alone, you need at least one person, maybe two or more in high winds conditions helping out. It wasn't easy to find help for my 2 AM and 4 AM launches and I am forever grateful to my colleagues agreeing to help out.

21:30 to 6:30 AM.
I spent most of my time launching radiosonde or collecting precipitation samples outside. I also had my daily midnight underway Ocean water sample to take. I had big plans to go to the gym between the launches, but ended up having no time or energy for that unfortunately.
The 4 AM radiosonde launch was the most dramatic. The weather was awful, winds were very strong with even stronger gusts, it was raining too. I had two people helping me, who never launched a balloon before and we ran out of helium. At the time this happens, I was lying on the helo deck under the balloon launching structure, unable to leave as I was holding a half-blown balloon. So I couldn't troubleshoot anything and after waiting for two minutes in the cold we decided to launch a half-blown balloon to get at least some data. The launch was really dramatic - the balloon went down first, but then it picked up and was able to climb up to 3.5km.
After the launch I had to go change helium bottle to prepare for the next one - it was a hard task to do. The bottle (even empty) was really heavy and we had to travel down two decks and then all the way to the front of the boat. After realizing that there is no way I can lift the bottle even together with Ilya (ship meteorologist, who was super helpful, found a two-wheeler and everything!) I went around the sleeping ship trying to find help. It was hard, but I managed. I had an interesting failed attempt, when I asked a colleague checking his email to help, he said yes, came to help deck, saw the helium bottle and said "no way in hell I am lifting that" and left. I have to say it was my first time, when a person reacted like that. I was surprised he did not say "no" right away then, would have been less dramatic of a moment ;).

Since I stayed up so late after my last scheduled launch at 4 AM changing helium bottles, I decided to help the 6 AM shift with their launch. It was much smoother, the sun was out, helium was abundant and we have extra hands.
On that note, I went to bed. It was 6:30 in the morning on January 4th by then and I was totally exhausted.

I have to add, I spent most of the day on January 4 sleeping and doing minor maintenance and translating tasks. It is the evening of January 4th as I am writing this. I know by now that both SOCCOM floats we launched started communicating (hooray), we have a nice long record of vertical profiles through another atmospheric river event and I feel rather satisfied. We are approaching Kerguelen island and we decided to shut off the underway pump not to get kelp seaweeds on it. So no midnight sampling for me.
Good night everybody!

December 22, 2016, second day at sea

Hello,

Happy birthday to my friend Leshka, who almost forgave me for missing his birthday this year. I did have to use my circumantarctic journey as an excuse. Leshka, I hope you celebrated your birthday in style, even though I am not making crepes (bliny) for the party this year. Coincidentally we had crepes with cottage cheese for tea tonight. I guess the kitchen wanted me to celebrate your birthday the usual way :).

It has been going great. We are still rocking quite heavily, the swell today reached up to 16 m according to the ship’s sensors. I am happy to report that I am feeling great and apart from occasionally having to catch flying objects I do not notice the leaning of the boat much. What a difference between how I felt yesterday and how I feel today.

Since the swell was that high we did not do a CTD cast today - the main deck is rather high from the freeboard and the swell makes it impossible to safely lower the rosette into the water and take it out. We did, however, launched a radiosonde at about 4pm ship time (1pm UTC). We used the newly loaned balloon launcher station from Academik Fedorov and we were still figuring it out. The wind was quite high too. But I am happy to report it was a successful launch. Amazing how many people gathered to watch us launching the radiosonde - I guess it is always exciting to watch other people work. Plus looking at a balloon disappearing in the sky is rather exciting as well.

Members of ACE expedition enjoying warm weather on the deck. The swell just makes it more fun.

Other than that I kept myself busy solving minor and major issues different science teams have. I met most of senior crew members already and my people’s skills come very handy. I decided I will not be shy about it either, so I am telling it like it is. 

***

Coming back to my grandfather’s journals I wanted to say how far we have come with technology. I am able to write this blog and although I do not get any feedback from it, I am happy to at least know that my friends and family can read about my adventures in near-real time. At the same time I noticed how similar my feelings are to my grandfather’s. Here’s a quote from his journal:

18 ноября

Спать не хочется, я и так ночью плохо сплю, отоспался в первые дни рейса. Все лежу, вспоминаю дом, ребят, Москву. Как-то сейчас там? Помнят ли меня, или заботы совсем заслонили…

Радиограммами решил не допекать, думаю, что пока будет достаточно раз в пять – шесть дней. А то радиоузлу слишком большая нагрузка, да и отвечать мне хлопотно и накладно. Почему-то уверен, что все будет благополучно и дома и, Бог даст, у меня. Главное, чтобы они там не волновались и не обращались бы в разные бесполезные органы. 

and another one:

3 декабря:

Сильно я был раздосадован тем, что из дома не было телеграммы. Я отлично знаю, что волнение неуместно и напрасно, но уж как-то настроился раз в неделю давать знать о себе домой и получать сведения оттуда. Ведь это теперь довольно далеко!

Четыре дня я не находил себе места на этом корабле, на третий (это было 2 декабря) дал телеграммы домой и Саше и лишь сегодня получил сразу два ответа. Конечно дома все в порядке.

I called several people yesterday from the Iridium phone our expedition has available. Iridium actually decided to sponsor this expedition (big thanks to them) and hence we have the phone available for us to call our loved ones. It is usually busy during the day, but at night one can use it easily. So I called a few people and nobody picked up. I ended up leaving a few rather disappointed messages. “I am calling from the middle of nowhere and you are not picking up!” kinda messages. Anyhow. I am so lucky to have internet, my “blog helpers” and everything come together. I shouldn’t complain ;)

Thanks for reading,

Masha