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.

Zeppelin arrived in Jämijärvi

The Zeppelin landed at 5:10 pm local time. It is a relatively windy day here, so the pilots had to show their skills to get the Zeppelin safely to the ground. We scientists were as happy to see it arriving as the few hundred people that had come around to see.

Zeppelin landing in Jämijärvi

Zeppelin on the way to Finland

The Zeppelin has left Skavsta at 10:50 am (Finnish time) and is currently on the trip to Jämijärvi in Finland (about 600 km). At the time of writing, the Zeppelin is over the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, our live tracker for the Zeppelin position is currently offline. We are working on it and hope to have it online today.

Currently, we expect the Zeppelin to arrive in Jämijärvi at 4:30 pm local time, but that could still change.

UPDATE: brand new estimated time of arrival is 5:15 pm local time.

Zeppelin start postponed

The transfer flight is shifted to Wednesday due to bad weather conditions. Tomorrow, the start will be around 9:00.

Flights with Nucleation package and the Secondary organic aerosol package on the weekend

On the weekend, the Zeppelin flew above the measurement site at Asprveten. On Saturday, after the flight with the nucleation package, we exchanged the instrument setup from the nucleation package to the SOA package.

On Sunday, we had rather bad weather conditions with wind and rain. Still the pilots managed to fly from 7:30 to 9:30. However, ice rain forced the Zeppelin to return to Skavsta airport. Again, instruments were taken out to lighten the airship.

Some of the scientists have arrived on Monday morning in Finland. The Zeppelin is scheduled to cross the Baltic Sea on Tuesday. The Zeppelin will start tomorrow at noon and reach Jämijärvi after app. 8 hours if everything works fine.

The Zeppelin returning to the mast truck at Skavsta airport on Saturday.
 

At night, the NOx-Rack had to be protected from the cold with a blanket.