[All] ORACLES São Tomé update #4

Sat Aug 19 00:10:46 PDT 2017

Dear ESPO,

Another good week for ORACLES. We flew Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (again today, Saturday). This will be flight number 6, otherwise known as PRF06Y17 (P-3 research flight #6 in 2017). Thursday the team flew to Ascension for a circuit. The CLARIFY team from the UK is there with a BAE-146 and yesterday they flew a coordinated flight. Today they return here to São Tomé. The circuit to Ascension is a milestone, something we hoped might be implemented last year, but with the delays in ER-2 fuel delivery and the problems getting into Namibia, we just couldn’t pull it off. We just heard that the French team was approved to fly in Namibia this year, and will begin flights shortly. Perhaps that is a good omen for us for 2018.

We have begun to see some team swap-outs. Some of the departing team members, even pilots, were here for only 8-10 days. But they were in transit for quite some time before that (Wallops, Barbados, Wallops, Barbados, Barbados, Ascension, Ascension, etc.) so we know they are ready to return. Two new pilots, Alan Barringer and Trey Carter, arrived this week to serve the latter part of deployment. Scott Farley will continue on as pilot in command. Mike Singer and Gerrit Everson departed.

Probably our biggest milestone this week was delivery of the sea shipment Tuesday. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, it’s true. We were very happy to see these containers arrive, after shepherding the paperwork process for so long and most of that day. One container was full of P3 equipment, and our freight forwarder brought a forklift that was not ideal for the job of removing the P-3 ISU from the front of that container. I took photos of the effort, but it was night, so they are not really clear. The containers are unloaded. P-3 team topped off tires here and took a spare to Ascension to install. The taxiway here is rough and wears tires fast. The teams that use gases learned to get by with less, so that very few have accessed the gas cylinders yet. Also no need for repairs to HSRL2, so we have not assembled the clean room shipped for that purpose. We have assembled and began running the LN2 generator we procured from MMR Technologies, so we can produce LN2 for RSP. It is generating its first liter now. Like home brew.

Karla Longo and Arlindo DaSilva, two Goddard Portuguese speakers whose skills we exploited, installed a Pandora ground instrument (trace gases) here for the University to use for a time. Connor Flynn and Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer (of Ames) have installed a Cimel instrument (aerosols) for a shorter time. Both are installed on the meteorological building across from the tower just outside the airport.

I am pushing for discussions of our deployment site next year. If we deploy here again, we could reduce shipping costs (and headache). But pilots find this airport challenging in many ways. The science team, in contrast, seems very happy with flights and with data. I think the ESPO team would be pleased to deploy to a familiar location in 2018 – here or Namibia. Current discussion is about deploying to Ascension, however. Time will tell.

Attaching some pictures. (See the web site for many more great pics taken by Jhony). Susan and I believe we reached our half way point, so we are close to the end. ORACLES has flown 5 science flights out of 13, so not quite halfway through from that perspective. But things move quickly and we have had few hurdles to flying. There have been a few minor health issues, but the clinic appears to be satisfactory to those who have accessed it. Fingers crossed we keep going without incident.

Dan is returning next week, with a bunch of forgotten, replacement, and comfort items for people here; and Jhony leaves shortly thereafter. Still a lot to do: ~7 more flights, another circuit to Ascension, spare parts shipments and the long-awaited pack-up/ship-out that Sommer looks forward to. I think it’s fair to say we are all exhausted but we are making friends here in São Tomé, the scientists are appreciative of the ESPO persistence and effort, and it’s rewarding to be a part of this scientific achievement.

More in a week,

Bernie

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