First local research flight completed and Armada Day in the hangar

Daily campaign activities are already ongoing at Rio Grande Airbase again. The groups have reactivated their offices in the hangar and rearranged all the equipment which was stored in a container during the campaign’s break. HALO landed safely on 6^th November at Rio Grande Airport after a five-day trip from Oberpfaffenhofen.

The transfer included one ground day at SAL for the crew to get some rest before the long flight to Buenos Aires. Another ground day was spent in Buenos Aires where the German Embassy in Argentina, who supported many of the organisational activities prior to the start of SouthTRAC, met with a group of campaign participants and took a look into the aircraft. It’s always an interesting experience when seeing this for the first time because HALO stuffed with instruments looks so much different from the usual comfortable business jet.

How the inside of such a business jet could look like, and how it actually does in HALO. (Arrangement and Photo: A. Minikin/S. Gisinger)

After two days of aircraft and instrument maintenance, the first local research flight of phase 2 was performed on Saturday, 9^th of November. Measurements were taken north and east of Rio Grande between 46°S and 55°S. Mixing processes were investigated in an area characterized by pronounced changes in wind speed (horizontal wind shear) and by varying tropopause altitude. Polar vortex air changing its chemical composition (i.e. processed air) was probed during its descent to lower altitudes at the UTLS (upper troposphere and lower stratosphere).

Today, the “Armada Day” took place in the Hangar. It was organized together with the captain of Rio Grande Airbase.

Airbase Rio Grande and the hangar in the background. (Photo: I. Bartolome)

The research topics of the SothTRAC campaign and HALO were presented to members of the Armada Argentina stationed at Rio Grande Airbase (of course all en español). Without the support of the Armada and the hangar they provided, the SouthTRAC campaign could not have taken place here in Rio Grande.

Members of Armada Argentina stationed at Rio Grande Airbase during the Armada Day in the Hangar. (Photos: S. Gisinger)

The next research flight is planned for tomorrow, Tuesday, 12^th of November, and will bring HALO southward to the Antarctic Peninsula and as far south as 73°S. There a trace gas filament connected to a tropospheric frontal system and chemical composition at the polar vortex edge is investigated.