Sunday is another day with the “brunch†routine. So I started the GC early to run and check the baseline. Keeping the detector, inlet and oven at 130°C worked fine, so I will keep it like that in the future. The baseline was mostly flat with a few small peaks starting at 15 min.
I also finished my assessment of the sites and set-up a schedule for sampling each site, including instruments and frequency. After brunch I was almost late for the tour of the GAW lab, but I made it. The lab, which is located approx. 6 km south of the base is extremely interesting, incl. generators for hydrogen and nitrogen on site to feed the various instruments and everything being automated. GCs, NIR spectrometer, mercury analyzers are part of the lab. Quite fascinating. I also saw the Special Studies Trailer, located approx. 200 m SE of the lab, which – if everything goes according to plan – I will use for my studies. I have to park the truck at a transmitter site and then get on foot to the trailer using a sled to get my gear around.
After getting back including a couple of photo stops, finished my preparations for my first sampling event. I moved the stuff to the TX site for a first run and it went really well. I sampled air (canister, SPME), snow (bottle, SPME) and took some ancillary measurements. I assessed the snow by visual inspection with the microscope. There is a tower next to the TX Building, which is very convenient for sampling. No danger that equipment gets eaten or damaged by wildlife.
I hauled the samples back frozen and cooled with ice packs (incl. the SPME fibres) and placed them in a freezer. I analysed the SPME fibres the same day. A long day and I have missed dinner – thankfully Brad got me a plate and put it into the fridge for me. So getting the MOUDI and the bio-sampler up and running is the next and final preparatory task, before I can settle into routing measurements.
The downside was that there is a furnace with a chimney on the roof, which is running, albeit being located downwind. But it was a good opportunity to test my procedures, although if I can avoid it I will not sample there in the future. The risk of local pollution sources is just too high.
