MATAGRO, 10JAN13: Diário de Campanha

For kindly concession of the Italian Program for Antarctic Research (PNRA)

The activities of the new arrivals (we) at the station are already started. The biologists established the works to be done with the boat (they are mainly interested in the Antarctic fishes) The geologists already started to fly with the helicopters' towards some glaciers with the rocks exposed or making samples and measurements for permafrost studies. The meteorologists have some fixed events that have to be done: the launching of the balloons for the atmospheric sounding every 6 hours. I participated in this last activity. Please note that the one in the photo is the midnight balloon!!!!

I already checked the equipment I installed during the previous expedition. It's a Control Box (CB) managing a UV-Visible spectrometer (the GASCOD) installed here at MZS since 1995. The GASCOD-CB system worked in automatic and unattended mode for the whole year also during the period when the station is closed (mid-February/mid-October). The observations of zenith sky scattered radiation will be used to estimate the nitrogen dioxide and ozone diurnal and seasonal variations.

Daniele Bortoli, Mario Zucchelli Station, Antártica, 10-01-2013

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