POLARUBI : late spring sampling

Renata Martins, 03.Junho.2016, ALOMAR Observatory, Andenes, Norway

Recap: The main goal of the POLARUBI project is to study the aerosol fraction bellow 10 micrometer in a clean environment located 300 km north of Arctic circle.

Previous work was done by other team members in February. Now, I am here to continue the campaign for 2 more weeks on ALOMAR (69N, 16E), the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research. In this way we will get samples during winter and during late spring, allowing a better characterization of the local aerosols.
 
The ALOMAR Observatory is managed by the Andoya Space Center and at the main entrance of the Center they usually display the flags of the different nationalities of the researchers currently working here, so the Portuguese Flag is flown every day since my arrival.

The main procedures consist in daily filter change, equipment assessment and data collection to guarantee that everything is performing correctly. The filters containing the samples will later be analyzed in Portugal.

I arrived Andenes a few days after ceasing of dark night periods. Right now in Andenes there are no dark nights as you can see in the picture below. During the last week the temperature varied between 10 to 14 degrees Celsius. There is barely any snow left and very low wind speeds.