HiLDA

Yesterday in the morning, we could fix the mast and seal the OPC boxes, where two of the plastics threads were broken in the cold. We’ve learned that we have to do the according replacement for all stations.

Today – on our way to the meeting with Ingvard, our local station care-taker – the ‘moose’ suddenly rumbles unpleasantly and stops. The central transmissing shaft is broken. What a mess!

We call Ingvard, who comes by and picks up the supplies. The instructions we planned to give to him will have to be done remotely.

Meanwhile, we mobilize the German Motorcar Club, and after two hours of waiting, the Faroese fire brigade comes and pickups the car. But where to go to? The biggest Toyota workshop is too busy, so we have the moose put onto the ferry for Iceland. A broken car on the ferry? – Common business, the fire brigade tells us. – But what about the trailer, which is still at our living place? As the tow truck can’t go there, they promise us to send another one for the trailer.

Ten minutes before the scheduled ferry departure, Konrad is still waiting at the trailer, while Thomas stands ready with the day luggage to enter the ship. ‘Being nervous’ is not anymore an adequate description. Five minutes before departure, the fire brigade shows up – their car was in repair. We make it spot-on onto the ferry – which tells us, ten minutes later, that the departure will be delayed due to technical issues…

The fire brigade did a great job is helping us. They dealt flexibly with the circumstances and with Smyril Line. Many thanks for that!

Tomorrow, when arriving to Seyðisfjörður, we will need to find tools for a quick repair, so that we can make it to a workshop in Egilsstaðir. Unsurprisingly, this has a high chance of troubling our plans.

Yesterday we managed to set up the mechanical parts of the first BLM station, which is the wind vane / optical particle counter mast and the filter sampler box. During that time, we had five times snow and two times rain, but sun in between. Anyway, the locals call that a ‘great and pleasant weather’. The people of the nearby marine station helped us with tools and advice for anchoring – many thanks for that!

Today, we finally connect the electrics and setup the electronics, which takes again all the day of work. Some things still need to be fixed, for example, the mast can rotate too easily, but in principle, the station started recording and transmitting data.

While we are finalizing the station setup, already the first science-interested parties show up and inspect the station for their potential use – that’s really fast publicity!

On Monday morning, the ride on Norröna had got even worse, with the waves regularly reaching up to the eighth deck. But finally, with a delay of 12 hours, we reached Tórshavn. Here, customs procedures were quickly done, thanks to our local cooperator Sigurd Christiansen, who had prepared everything perfectly.

On day one on Faroe, Sigurd took us for a first site visit to Eiði. After a while of exploring possible locations, we decided for a place somewhat protected from the extreme winds up there (reaching 80 m/s), but without any obstacles nearby. We will have to drill into the cliffs for fixation.

Also, we managed to become digital locals with our station – we will have internet up there. That will offer us the oppertunity of having the data available nearly in real-time.

The second day we have to spend in our appartment, assembling the station and programming the control electronics. That takes – as to be expected – considerably more time than planned. Meanwhile, the weather constantly changes between rain and snow showers and the brightest sun.

The weather and wave forecasts were unfortunately right. Tonight we enter a rough sea and severe weather conditions, which delay the ship by half a day. It is shaky enough that standing still becomes a challenge. Every now and then, a sound of plates and cutlery tipping over is heard from the restaurant… hopefully the Moose with the instruments is safely stored, while we zigzag east of the Shetland isles to wait for the storm to calm down.

Yesterday and today were ‘logistics days’, so the customs papers for export were filled in Soltau and validated here in Hirtshals – customs offices opened at 6 am…

Apart from that, we spent most of the time on the road, Thomas driving and Konrad continuing to organize the further trip. Today, there is the opportunity for a short stroll through the dunes while waiting for the ferry.

Our first stop takes us to the company of Eigenbrodt, a manufacturer of – amongst other instruments – automated wet deposition collectors. We pickup an instrument intended for measuring in North Iceland, which we equip at the manufacturer’s workshop with a online computer protocol system.

A first box with a BLM station leaves us here and will travel on its own to Greenland’s Nerlerit Inaat airport, where it will hopefully await us in March. The other equipment is prepared for the customs inspection tomorrow morning, before we leave towards Denmark.

Where did the time go? After five days of leaving the institute not before 10 pm., all of us feel exhausted. A REALLY tough weekend lies behind us, and without Kilian doing a nightshift to Monday, the optical particle counters would still not have been ready. On Tuesday, everybody not quick enough to escape was forced to help with some tasks like drilling holes and packing materials.

Finally, at midnight tonight, the day of departure, Thomas and Konrad managed to pack everything into truck and trailer, so we can start for the trip!

Five more days to go, until everything must be ready. Slowly, plenty of single parts start combining into a measurement station. Kilian needs to be praised for constructing the prototype, which now makes the copying much easier. While ‘scientific helper’ is his formal job description, ‘engineer’ would fit much better.

Also on the administrative side, things get moving. Necessary papers, asked for weeks to months ago, start piling up on the desk finally.

HiLDA has two major sections: the baseline monitoring (BLM), where instruments for aerosol characterization are run for a period on 12-24 months, and intensive observation periods (IOPs), during which a single dust source is researched in detail.

On February 26th, the first BLM setup tour for HiLDA will start from Darmstadt. This first round will take Konrad and Thomas to the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Stay tuned!