Now the time has come: both aircraft, Polar 5 and 6, have arrived in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, yesterday afternoon!
Arrival of Polar 5 in Longyearbyen.
The aircraft belatedly started their ferry in Bremen on Thursday morning and had a stop for refueling in Tromsø over night. After the arrival in Longyearbyen, all hands were needed to unload the aircraft and prepare them for the first scientific flight.
Polar 5 after the landing at the airport Longyearbyen.
For Sunday, the first research flight is planned – provided that the weather condition is good enough for takeoff and landing! That means, that the cloud base has to be high enough to not directly fly into a low level cloud. This would bear the risk of a bad view and freezing of the propellers. And we do not want to risk a crash!
Hopefully, the plans can be realized. An update on the first flights will follow soon!
Last week we installed the radar MiRAC and radiometer HATPRO on the Polar 5. The whole installation took us three days, but the following time lapse video gives you an overall impression in only two minutes!
The video first shows the installation of the radar MiRAC which is covered by a belly pod below the aircraft. Then the screwing together of the HATPRO is shown.
MiRAC is a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar, an active remote sensing instrument, operating at 94 GHz with an additional microwave radiometer, which is a passive remote sensing instrument, recording at 89 GHz. The radar is hanging below the aircraft and is protected by a belly bod. The bottom of the pod has a hole so that the antennas of the instrument are able to transmit and receive microwave radiation. The transmitted signal is reflected by cloud droplets or the surface and received by the antennas again. These signals help us to detect clouds and to interpret their microphysical properties.
The radiometer HATPRO is installed inside the aircraft and is looking through a hole in the ground of the aircraft. HATPRO measures microwave radiation emitted by the surface and atmosphere below Polar 5. These observations contain information on the atmospheric humidity, precipitation, liquid water in clouds, as well as on the surface.
HATPRO inside the P5.
After the installation, it was time for a ground test, during which all instruments inside the P5 were connected to the aircraft electricity one after the other. Unfortunately, this did not work out as planned and after some minutes no electricity was available in the aircraft anymore. Nevertheless, the engineers repaired everything and the ground test could be completed successfully the very next day!
Before taking off to the Arctic, the instruments had to be tested during the flight as well. Thus, the first short flight took place over the North Sea and Helgoland. Luckily, all instruments on board worked properly!
Communication during the flight is only possible with a head set.
After the success in Bremen, we had to quickly pack our luggages. At the beginning of the week the great journey to the Arctic started. After a stop in Oslo and Tromsø, we arrived in Longyearbyen on Tuesday! Since then we are waiting for the Polar 5 and 6 and use the time to explore the area and plan the first research flights. We expect the aircraft to land in a few hours and will give an update on the arrival soon!
Part of preparing for a climate study in the Arctic involves preparing for polar bear emergencies. Blog followers will ask themselves: wait, but aren‘t we flying? Yes! But…safety training includes polar bear protection, as emergency landing on the ice is (an unlikely) possibility.
An image from the Arctic landscape… and a typical road sign in that region (photo credits: Pavel Krobot)
The ice is the home of the polar bears. Bears are very curious, and extraordinarily well adjusted to the Arctic environment. For a polar bear, a group of scientists means a great opportunity for some extra dinner. So even though many of us are faced by comments around „You‘re going to the Arctic: I hope you will see a polar bear“ we actually really want to avoid seeing one (other than from the plane).
But you never know, so better to prepare for the emergency case. This is why 6 of us spent a day at AWI Bremerhaven to learn about polar bears and their behaviors. We learned how to avoid meeting a bear, how to scare bears (hint: they don‘t like loud noises, including banging on cooking pots), and what to do when you see one from far away. For the troubling worst-case scenario of a bear attack, we were also trained on how to handle a rifle.
Insights from the group include: rifles are surprisingly heavy; we were lucky to have Arctic-like wind conditions as storm „Ylenia“ was passing the Bremerhaven area during our training; and fingers crossed for spotting a bear from the air!
During the past decades the Arctic climate is undergoing warming which impacts the local ecosystem and human infrastructure. To better understand the Arctic climate system and improve projections for the future, three aircraft will jointly observe various atmospheric processes over the North Atlantic near Spitsbergen during the HALO-(AC)³campaign in March and April 2022.
Group picture after the final rescue challenge with survival suits and life vests.
Researchers from our group visited Bremerhaven for an exciting two-day safety training in preparation for this campaign. We learned, how to avoid dangerous encounters with polar bears which actually spend most of their lifetime on the sea ice beneath the aircraft. Additionally, an exhausting sea survival training demonstrated the use of life rafts and other equipment in case of an emergency landing. During the training huge waves and a thunderstorm were imitated, including flashes, rain and thunder in a complete dark surrounding.
Impressions from the sea survival training at RelyOn Nutec in Bremerhaven, Germany.
The cloud radar MiRAC-A is mounted below the Polar 5 aircraft.
Moreover, the first instrument belonging to our institute is already mounted below the aircraft Polar 5! It is a radar called MiRAC-A which will detect clouds below the aircraft. The Polar 5 will be equipped with several remote sensing instruments from different institutions. Our working group will additionally install the microwave radiometer HATPRO. Updates on this installation, the calibration of the instruments and the test flights will follow!
Do you want to follow the upcoming activities in the Arctic and learn more about the HALO-(AC)³ campaign? Then follow our AWARES blog and the HALO-(AC)³ website, where updates and interesting background information on the project are provided.
