Early bird flight

Today we had to get up early to prepare the instruments for departing at 5:00 am local time. The Zeppelin flew height profiles close to the airfield with the photochemistry layout. The airship passed the airfield to times at low altitude to sample air close to the ground. Since thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon the scheduled night flight had to be canceled.

Sunday flight, engine trouble and tests

On Sunday, we started flying at 7:00 am. We wanted to do vertical profiles until at least 11:00 am, because the evolution of the mixing layer into our lowest flight altitude was expected at around 10:00 am. Unfortunately, we had problems with the control of the aft engine, so the Zeppelin had to come back after three hours.

The engine was fixed within two hours, but then the winds were becoming to gusty. We could have flown for additional two hours, but it did not make so much sense scientifically and technically it would have been risky flight.

Actually, in the quick look data we discovered a potential contamination from inside the cabin affecting the HONO and NOX measurements.

Therefore, we decided to repeat this flight on Monday, in the same way as planned for Sunday.

We also did some tests to understand / get rid of the contamination. The result: the windows in the cabin doors should be opened after start to vent the air ship and prevent cabin air to reach the sampling points of LOP, COD and NOX. (In Italy these windows were always open / the cabin was cooled by actively sucking air through ventilators mounted in the rear door window.)

The flight started at 07:00 am and the airship returned at 13:00h.
Results: nice height profiles of the evolving PBL and resolving the contamination issue.

After landing we built out the FFL and LOP rack to be ready for a CL5-SOA flight.
At 17:00h we decided to cancel the flight for Tuesday, strong gusts and strong winds in flight height are expected.

It looks like 5 - 6 days of good weather are coming in a row. The current preliminary plan is to fly CL5-SOA on Wednesday.

Details will be decided on tomorrows (chemical) weather forecast.
It looks that Thursday might be a good day for a nucleation event.

Collecting data - and nice impressions.

Flight over Jämi Forest

On Saturday, the Zeppelin will fly with the photochemistry package close to Jämi. The start will be at 10:30, when the fog has lifted.

No Flights till Saturday

Thursday was rainy and gusty with no chance to fly. We used the opportunity and had a small party in our hotel to celebrate our successful first week in Finland. Thursday was also a public holiday in Finland and a lot of people came to visit the Zeppelin. The next flights will be on Saturday, when the  the photochemistry package will be installed.

Nucleation package flight to Hyytiälä

The nucleation package CL9 was installed in the Zeppelin yesterday evening. Afterwards, some of the scientists were calibrating and fine-tuning their instruments until 1:00 am in the morning, to be prepared as good as possible for the so far best outlook on a perfect nucleation day.

After a rather short night, scientists and Zeppelin ground crew assembled at the airship at 6:00 am to prepare the takeoff.

  

At 7:00 am, the airship took off, reaching the Hyytiälä station at 8:10 am. At this time, ground data as well as on board instruments did not show any sign of nucleation yet.



At around 10:40 am, we were very excited to see nucleation started according to preliminary quick-look data from the Hyytiälä ground station.

At the time of writing, the Zeppelin continues to do height profiles close to the station.


Flights above and towards Hyytiälä

On Monday we flew with the Nucleation Package to the Hyytiälä site. The Zeppelin left the mast at 7:30 and flew above the mission area until noon, until gusts forced the Zeppelin to return. The predicted nucleation event happened just when we were about to depart from Hyytiälä as we could observe both from the instruments on the Zeppelin and the measurement station. In the morning, the atmosphere showed some layering as observed in Italy (Science at Sunrise). As in Italy the layers were mixed during the day.

To further examine the chemistry of the different atmospheric layers we equipped the Zeppelin with the photochemistry layout for the Tuesday flight. However, we had gust of up to 30 knots, so the Zeppelin had to return after a rather short flight of 25 minutes. Again, instruments were removed and the Zeppelin ‘flies’ on the mast.

Tomorrow’s forecasts predict again a particle event, so probably we will start again with the nucleation package.

First mission flight in Finland started

Today at 10 a.m. the Zeppelin started its first flight in Finland. Today’s goal is to observe the development of particles with the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) package. The Zeppelin will fly to the SMEAR station at Hyytiälä and fly spirals there. The airship will ascent within 30 minutes to the maximum altitude possible and quickly descent again. The Zeppelin is expected to return to Jämijärvi between 2 and 3 p.m. The position of the Zeppelin can be seen with the live tracker.