12 June 2008 Welcome to Balloon Island

June 12, 2008 – Welcome to Balloon Island

I think I am finally settling into the cold tent life. I enjoy the fresh cool air when I crawl into the sleeping bag and as long as everything is covered except my nose, it warms rather quickly. In the morning when I wake, it feels hot! At 7:00am it is about 22 deg F inside my tent, which feels nice and balmy!

The team is starting to settle in. Most of the equipment is up and functioning with some occasional hiccups that need attending. We are doing shift work with the tethersonde ("blimp” on a rope with instruments), so Craig Clements is working through the night and Barry and I will relieve him during the day. We are in "data collection” mode and that is where we should be at this point.

Craig Clements hauls equipment out to Balloon Island. The wire on the bamboo poles is a cord run out to our location to provide power for the tethersonde winch.

We spent the day getting a special ozone sensor running that can be sent up on the tethersonde so we can tell how much ozone is in the atmosphere. We stayed busy working on that in between launching the blimp.

Craig Beals demonstrates proper "blimp captain" technique. Balloon Island is the name for where we launch the tethersonde. The balloon can be raised and lowered with an electric winch to study different layers of the atmosphere. In the foreground are helium tanks used to keep the tethersonde filled.

Introducing Balloon Island:

Balloon Island is the name given to the plot of snow where we "launch” the tethersonde (blimp, balloon, "Nemo”; it has so many names even I can’t keep track). Craig Clements, Barry Lefer and myself spend a good portion of our days (and nights) wandering to and from Balloon Island as we raise and lower the tethersonde to study different layers of the atmosphere.