Campaign diary on 04 September 2008

The fifth successful mission was performed today. The wind lidar didn't get much more than cloud returns, but that was expected and the DIAL performance was perfect as always. Bessho-san made his first flight as dropsonde operater and the the ground crew was impressed by the regular spacing of the sondes. No errors occured with the sondes, but he did seems quite exausted after the flight. Obviously, his tactic of commenting every step and confirming everything by pointing worked well and we are keen to see the video that was taken during the flight!

A full rest day is scheduled for tomorrow (except for the lidar crew), and for the first time, we will not attend the daily planning meeting at 8:00 in the morning. Finally there is a chance to catch up on sleep. In the evening, Bessho-san guided us to a great restaurant with Korean BBQ and a nice bar with sake and sotchu afterwards.

Author: Martin W.