This evening we switched off the AMS pumps, now the instrument is really dead. Although the other data acquisition card was ok, we were not able to install its driver. We tried for several hours, but the AMS computer refused to cooperate. (For details ask Sören (; )
The positive news are, the rest of our instrument zoo works quite well, even the CPC! Tomorrow we will be back at Mainz, because we changed the route. At the moment we are in France - 750 km away from the MPI. Hopefully, there will be no snow on the roads, MoLa is not equipped with winter tires...
We will see what will happen tomorrow!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
"Crash Course"
At the moment we are near Barcelona and the sad news are: the AMS died today. :| The last two days I had a lot to do with reanimating the AMS behind nearly every pothole in the street. Today we reached the final hole und the data acquisition card (maybe not only this part) crashed. We (including Sören) tried to solve the problem for several hours - unsuccessfully. Tomorrow morning Julia will fly to Barcelona with the card from the other AMS and we all hope that this will save our AMS!
The other instruments are running, even the CPC, because I log its data with a hyperterminal again. The original software crashed almost as often as the AMS and two crashing instruments at the same time are too much even with multitasking. (;
Maybe the next days will bring some good news from Spain/France...
The other instruments are running, even the CPC, because I log its data with a hyperterminal again. The original software crashed almost as often as the AMS and two crashing instruments at the same time are too much even with multitasking. (;
Maybe the next days will bring some good news from Spain/France...
remote support
Yesterday, I spent a lot of my time handling and fixing MoLa and the AMS. No, I'm not in Spain, I'm still in old, gray and cold Germany. Nonetheless, I did "fix" MoLas instrumentation at least three times ....
In the morning, I got a call from Sarah-Lena. She asked me to send here a software for logging the measurements of on of MoLas instruments, the CPC (Condensation Particle Counter), since the software we used on the way to Spain has some serious issues ...
An hour later, I got a call from Frank. They had tried to install the software and only than found out, that the computer port (COM) used by the instrument was not supported by the software. So, I had to tell Frank remotely (without seeing the screen or anything), how he could change it.
Why all the trouble? Cause the Domino campaign is over, and MoLa's on the run again, heading back to Germany. The new MoLa crew left the site and Huelva anytime in the early afternoon. Shortly after they were passing Huelva, I got the next call. Again, they had acquaintance with the bumpy roads of Spain. Which the AMS doesn't like ...
And, guess what? Yes, it was not the last call, and it was not the last bump they hit. Around 5 p.m., the next call. Although I was "misplaced", when that call arrived. ;-)
Fortunately, Sarah-Lena has now all the experience she needs, because she encountered all problems that occurred on the trip to Spain in one day. And even better, since they'll head towards Madrid tomorrow, the streets will be getting better. Hopefully ... ;-)
In the morning, I got a call from Sarah-Lena. She asked me to send here a software for logging the measurements of on of MoLas instruments, the CPC (Condensation Particle Counter), since the software we used on the way to Spain has some serious issues ...
An hour later, I got a call from Frank. They had tried to install the software and only than found out, that the computer port (COM) used by the instrument was not supported by the software. So, I had to tell Frank remotely (without seeing the screen or anything), how he could change it.
Why all the trouble? Cause the Domino campaign is over, and MoLa's on the run again, heading back to Germany. The new MoLa crew left the site and Huelva anytime in the early afternoon. Shortly after they were passing Huelva, I got the next call. Again, they had acquaintance with the bumpy roads of Spain. Which the AMS doesn't like ...
And, guess what? Yes, it was not the last call, and it was not the last bump they hit. Around 5 p.m., the next call. Although I was "misplaced", when that call arrived. ;-)
Fortunately, Sarah-Lena has now all the experience she needs, because she encountered all problems that occurred on the trip to Spain in one day. And even better, since they'll head towards Madrid tomorrow, the streets will be getting better. Hopefully ... ;-)
Monday, December 08, 2008
Donana National Park
We had an uneventful weekend in Spain with lots of rain. "All instruments are running fine" and no instrument needed to be reanimated. The evenings were also quite uneventful, because I bought no beer on Friday. Maybe the food will be enough for this evening and tomorrow morning, but we are extremely running out of food! (; Just about 15 yoghurts are left...
On Sunday morning 14 scientists went to Donana National Park to visit some rare animals. I could join the trip and was looking forward to see many animals and an interesting landscape. When we arrived at the national park our "bus" (a small green thing) was already there. Everybody had to pay 25€ for a tour of about 3 hours through the northern part of the park. The trip with this vehicle was as comfortable as flying with Ryanair and it was jumping through the sand like a rabbit... I nearly got seasick.
Our tour gide was not able to speak English, so the tour had to be in Spanish. That didn´t matter much, because there were only broccoli trees and sand and broccoli trees. Sometimes, we could the some birds or horses, but the rare animals were so rare, that we could not see one of them.
After the tour we stayed in the "international city of horses" for one hour, where children learn to ride horses instead of bicycles. Every house has its stable and the village is crowded with horses. A typical spanish church is also located in this village and so (it was Sunday and an official holiday...) it was crowded by many visitors and churchgoers. The most interesting thing was a one thousand years old olive tree, which was really impressive. (The photo was taken from inside the bus...)
This morning Jovana went back to Germany and Thomas arrived in Spain. During the morning MoLa moved from the measurement site to the INTA for an intercomparison of the spanish aerosol measurements and our results.
After the relocation I showed Thomas the wonderful beach near the campsite while Frank was in a very interesting data meeting. Now our crew for the trip back to Mainz is completed and we are going to start tomorrow afternoon! Our plan for tomorrow is to reach the Ravioli Hotel, where Thomas had this gorgeous ravioli last time.
At the moment Thomas and Frank are doing an operation at the open heart of the AMS to install the new blower. I was not allowed to monitor the procedure, but I hope the AMS will be still alive afterwards...
This evening we will have another BBQ to kill some part of our food reservoir. Otherwise MoLa will be loaded with tons of food. (; Or I will leave the food for Bambi, who is always hungry...
On Sunday morning 14 scientists went to Donana National Park to visit some rare animals. I could join the trip and was looking forward to see many animals and an interesting landscape. When we arrived at the national park our "bus" (a small green thing) was already there. Everybody had to pay 25€ for a tour of about 3 hours through the northern part of the park. The trip with this vehicle was as comfortable as flying with Ryanair and it was jumping through the sand like a rabbit... I nearly got seasick.
Our tour gide was not able to speak English, so the tour had to be in Spanish. That didn´t matter much, because there were only broccoli trees and sand and broccoli trees. Sometimes, we could the some birds or horses, but the rare animals were so rare, that we could not see one of them.
After the tour we stayed in the "international city of horses" for one hour, where children learn to ride horses instead of bicycles. Every house has its stable and the village is crowded with horses. A typical spanish church is also located in this village and so (it was Sunday and an official holiday...) it was crowded by many visitors and churchgoers. The most interesting thing was a one thousand years old olive tree, which was really impressive. (The photo was taken from inside the bus...)
This morning Jovana went back to Germany and Thomas arrived in Spain. During the morning MoLa moved from the measurement site to the INTA for an intercomparison of the spanish aerosol measurements and our results.
After the relocation I showed Thomas the wonderful beach near the campsite while Frank was in a very interesting data meeting. Now our crew for the trip back to Mainz is completed and we are going to start tomorrow afternoon! Our plan for tomorrow is to reach the Ravioli Hotel, where Thomas had this gorgeous ravioli last time.
At the moment Thomas and Frank are doing an operation at the open heart of the AMS to install the new blower. I was not allowed to monitor the procedure, but I hope the AMS will be still alive afterwards...
This evening we will have another BBQ to kill some part of our food reservoir. Otherwise MoLa will be loaded with tons of food. (; Or I will leave the food for Bambi, who is always hungry...
Friday, December 05, 2008
Saving the AMS
Yesterday nothing worth mentioning happened: No power supply interrupt killing pumps, no fire, no explosions. All of our instruments were running fine and I spent my day at the INTA to have a closer look on my data from the trip to Spain. In the evening another BBQ with a lot of beer took place and after midnight 2/3 of our crew decided to change the location to an emptier place to drink most of our beer alone. Today you can really see how much alcohol they consumed...
This morning I decided to sleep a little bit longer than usually and to have a nice breakfast. But my plans got destroyed by a phone call from MoLa: "The AMS is dying, the pumps are going crazy and all values are red!" I left my breakfast alone in our hut (maybe the cockroaches ate it) and rushed to the measurement site to save the AMS. (I had no idea what was broken and how to fix it.(; ) Reanimating the AMS by cleaning the pinhole seems to be successful until now...
Tomorrow and on Monday the Spains celebrate (the saint of the aircrafts or something like this) and all shops are closed, so I had another trip to Huelva to buy some food and wine. Now we are prepared for the next famine. (;
This evening we will have a BBQ at the beach, because the weather is very nice at the moment. I don´t know if the rest of our crew is strong enough for another long evening, we will see.
This morning I decided to sleep a little bit longer than usually and to have a nice breakfast. But my plans got destroyed by a phone call from MoLa: "The AMS is dying, the pumps are going crazy and all values are red!" I left my breakfast alone in our hut (maybe the cockroaches ate it) and rushed to the measurement site to save the AMS. (I had no idea what was broken and how to fix it.(; ) Reanimating the AMS by cleaning the pinhole seems to be successful until now...
Tomorrow and on Monday the Spains celebrate (the saint of the aircrafts or something like this) and all shops are closed, so I had another trip to Huelva to buy some food and wine. Now we are prepared for the next famine. (;
This evening we will have a BBQ at the beach, because the weather is very nice at the moment. I don´t know if the rest of our crew is strong enough for another long evening, we will see.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
As I promised Sören, from now on I will continue to fill this blog with interesting news from Spain!
On Monday we had another change of our crew, when I brought Sören to the airport in Faro and picked up Frank. During these hours Jovana tried to look after MoLa, but (as usual) there were many trees on all roads around the INTA, so that nobody could enter the measurement site for hours....
MoLa was and is running fine (as usual as well), except for the ELPI and the CPC. Yesterday the ELPI software crashed and we had to stop most of our measurements to reanimate it. In the evening was a cocktail party without cocktails and with fingerfood. Some people had to leave the party being still hungry....
Today the CPC had some problems with its water, but this does not affect the other instruments. Due to the CPC problems Frank and Jovana came really late to the data meeting and missed my presentation. Again, the meeting was during lunch time and one part of our crew left the measurement site in a very bad mood. (;
Since Sören left, our food and wine reservoir decreased rapidly and was not filled again until now, so I have to stop at this point and try to get something to eat (and of course something to drink (comment from Jovana))!
On Monday we had another change of our crew, when I brought Sören to the airport in Faro and picked up Frank. During these hours Jovana tried to look after MoLa, but (as usual) there were many trees on all roads around the INTA, so that nobody could enter the measurement site for hours....
MoLa was and is running fine (as usual as well), except for the ELPI and the CPC. Yesterday the ELPI software crashed and we had to stop most of our measurements to reanimate it. In the evening was a cocktail party without cocktails and with fingerfood. Some people had to leave the party being still hungry....
Today the CPC had some problems with its water, but this does not affect the other instruments. Due to the CPC problems Frank and Jovana came really late to the data meeting and missed my presentation. Again, the meeting was during lunch time and one part of our crew left the measurement site in a very bad mood. (;
Since Sören left, our food and wine reservoir decreased rapidly and was not filled again until now, so I have to stop at this point and try to get something to eat (and of course something to drink (comment from Jovana))!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Seville
Yesterday, I took a day off. And not only I. Sarah-Lena, Zeinab and I went to Seville, after working nearly every day for the last week.
We left in the morning around 10, after I had an "early morning" look at MoLa. Seville is around 100 kilometers east of Huelva, a little bit more distant to the ocean.
It took us around one and a half hour to get there. Although the forecast for that day was predicting clouds and rain, when we arrived in Seville the sky was blue and the sun was shining.
While the girls went shopping, I seated myself in a nice Coffee, had a croissant and a cappuccino as a breakfast and wrote some postcards.
Later on, we went to the Cathedral of Seville and visited the Palace de Alcázar, the Torro del Oro and the Plaza de España.
After so much sightseeing and before going home, we decided to go shopping in a Carrefour, a big supermarket. Actually, one of us didn't join the sightseeing and an extensive shopping all day. ;-)
But before we could enter the Carrefour, it took us something like 30 minutes to find a parking lot. It seemed, as if nearly everyone living in Seville was heading for the supermarket. But finally, with a lot of luck, we managed and bought lots of stuff to eat and drink before heading "home" to Huelva and the site again.
Since I will leave Spain tomorrow and fly back to good old (and cold) Germany, I have handed over the reponsibility for this blog to Sarah-Lena, who will hopefully continue to tell you what's going on at the site and how MoLas first trip will finish!!!
We left in the morning around 10, after I had an "early morning" look at MoLa. Seville is around 100 kilometers east of Huelva, a little bit more distant to the ocean.
It took us around one and a half hour to get there. Although the forecast for that day was predicting clouds and rain, when we arrived in Seville the sky was blue and the sun was shining.
While the girls went shopping, I seated myself in a nice Coffee, had a croissant and a cappuccino as a breakfast and wrote some postcards.
Later on, we went to the Cathedral of Seville and visited the Palace de Alcázar, the Torro del Oro and the Plaza de España.
After so much sightseeing and before going home, we decided to go shopping in a Carrefour, a big supermarket. Actually, one of us didn't join the sightseeing and an extensive shopping all day. ;-)
But before we could enter the Carrefour, it took us something like 30 minutes to find a parking lot. It seemed, as if nearly everyone living in Seville was heading for the supermarket. But finally, with a lot of luck, we managed and bought lots of stuff to eat and drink before heading "home" to Huelva and the site again.
Since I will leave Spain tomorrow and fly back to good old (and cold) Germany, I have handed over the reponsibility for this blog to Sarah-Lena, who will hopefully continue to tell you what's going on at the site and how MoLas first trip will finish!!!
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