Getting Settled

So I have been on the island for about 4 days now, just enough time to get settled in, adjust to the jetlag and figure out which side of the island points due north :)

Getting to the island was a unique experience.  We "got" to fly in a C-17!!  For those of you like me out there who know nothing about airplanes ... a C-17 is a military cargo plane (one of the big ones that has the ramp in the back and they can drive cars/trucks onto or you know supplies for an island and dorky research scientists).  I unfortunately don't have any pictures of the inside of the plane because I left my camera back at the hotel in Singapore, but I am sure one of the other guys will let be borrow some of theirs.  The plane we were on was filled with a bunch of supplies for the island (as well as some of the ships that were docked off shore).  The seats for the passengers are attached to the sides of the plane and face inwards towards the middle of the airplane.  The canvas seats were horribly uncomfortable, but the plane was at least heated (people warned us that it might be freezing cold ... eek!)  The plane does not really have any fancy bells and whistles ... no insulation so we could see all the "guts" of the plane, no snacks or drinks served, no windows to look out of (which was actually rather disconcerting ...).  Anyway, I am not very good at describing this sorta thing, so I'll make sure to get some pictures :)

Landing on the island we were picked up by one of the students we were replacing, he took us to the "hotel" to get our rooms and then I zonked out.  The rooms we are staying in are simple, but clean ... and they are actually fairly big.  They are set up for two people to stay in, but fortunately we all get our own rooms here!  A picture speaks at 1000 words ... so here are some pictures to help you visualize.

Back of the room ... the bed where I sleep :)

Front of the room ... and the desk I use to "work", the couch and extra bed I use to hold all my stuff, and the TV I have yet to turn on! 

Our research site is set up about 6 miles south of where the little town is ... we are set up at the "tent city" that the air force uses when things are more active on the island.  Currently this area is completely deserted so we have a nice open space to launch balloons and monitor surface weather conditions.  Here are some pictures!  I hope to get a picture of me actually releasing a weather balloon sometime soon :)

The "crate" where we hold all the computers and work.

The crate where we keep all the helium ... we have to go back into this thing to open the tanks up and man it is HOT

Wind profiler 

Surface observation stuff

Inside the main crate ... computers we use to monitor the wind profiler and the surface obs.

Desk were we can sit and the computer we use to monitor the radiosondes

At first I was fairly nervous about all the things we need to do to get ready for a ballon launch, but after a few days it has become second nature ... nothing to worry about.  The process goes something like this.

• Open up a new Radiosonde and calibrate it.
• Call Air Traffic Control to get permission to launch a ballon.
• Fill up the ballon with helium and attach the sonde.
• Release radiosonde and ponder where it will end up next.
• Check to make sure everything is ok (it has GPS etc).
• Wait ... until the balloon pops.
• Write up some stuff in a log.
• Wait....
• Launch another balloon 3 hours later :)
• Check rain samples a few times a day.

We have set up our shifts so that the 4 of us here cycle through 3 shifts a day ... a 5am-2pm shift, a 2pm-11pm shift and a 11pm-5am shift (fortunately most of the time we get to leave our shifts about 30 min early, depending on what has happened with the balloon) ... also we have break time (or well maybe actual research time) in between each launch ... sometimes I have been going over to the lagoon to take a quick swim, sometimes I read and sometimes I do work.

So ... thats probably enough of the "technical stuff" I will post more about fun things and pictures of the island it self next!