SummerAtSummit

Well that was another long, frustrating day. Things were supposed to be nice and easy today, with the big instrument running on its own, me working up a little data, and then looking into the question of atmospheric transport for a couple periods of interest from last year. That would be it, then off to bed a little early and all would be right with the world. Of course after lunch I had the pleasure of seeing this bad guy go down

Left side is the back end, right side is the front…the syringe pump on the right failed this afternoon, so that was the cause for about 8 hours of consternation. The box itself is over 5 feet tall, but there isn’t a whole lot to the analytical system. There are air and water pumps, IC columns for the samples, and syringes (with pumps) that inject the samples and can move water around. I like the old-fashioned push buttons (yellow numbers) and toggle switches. Having said that, I was not happy to have spent most of the day sitting around watching Luke trying to get the system up and running. (He is a PhD candidate at UNH and was up at Summit doing this work last year, so he has to make sure I can function after he leaves next week.)

Well, long story short is that it was a software problem and the syringe got to a position it didn’t like and just sat there grinding away any time another command was input. Things are back up now and I’ve been checking on the temperature remotely for the past hour. Unfortunately it’s almost 3AM yet again and I am the last one in the Big House. I do enjoy the quiet time by myself, but I really should be getting more sleep. There’s a big soccer match this evening, with the teams divided up age-wise. I just missed the cut and get to be the youngest on the old team instead of oldest on the young team…should be interesting. I’ll try to get a picture or two posted.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I was thinking of doing a Q&A post later this week to cover some of the things that people have already asked about. Now that it’s after 3, I’ll wrap up with a few more pics. Top two are from Summit, the bottom left is meltwater from the ice sheet that I saw during my layover at Kangerlussuaq and the name of the hotel where I spent the night before heading to Summit. Hope you are well. -Jeff