10 December, 2000

Being a Sunday we actually didn't do that much work today! Von and I did however go over to ARO to get training on how to use the NASA Goddard LIDAR that will measure the thickness of clouds in the atmosphere. Here you can see Von getting familiar with the LIDAR that the Winterovers will have to monitor and maintain.

As you can see our (NASA's) LIDAR is fairly small and it is located in a less than desirable location in the LIDAR room at ARO. Here you can see James Campbell of NASA Goddard giving Von some tips on how not to bonk your head when checking the computer and instrument. James has spent most of his time here at Pole on the Orange Ladder in his "Office".

Here is the other LIDAR in the ARO LIDAR room. As you can see this is another way to build a LIDAR. This one uses two very powerful Alexanderite lasers that use 40,000 watts. The NASA LIDAR uses a .5 KW YLF laser. Of course the big LIDAR can see to 120 kilometers up into the atmosphere and the NASA LIDAR can see effectively up to about 20 kilometers. The big LIDAR would physically burn and blind you if you were to cross the beam. The NASA LIDAR is eye safe... no wonder it doesn't take up so much room.

Both Von and I were a little disappointed that the signal was lost right at the moment of transition. We were anxious to see if we had run out of 35 mm leader film or if the HYVIS camera battery had gone dead. Here you can see Von, very happy to have the HYVIS back in his possession. The box appears to be lightly frosted. Now to get it inside and see what caused the signal to be lost.