We are aiming to do our last flight of the season, flight 84. Just a final couple of hours of calibration maneuvers.

Started to dismantle instruments from the aircraft. Licor calibration and Pyrgeometers looking at Hangar Roof!

Dash-7 headed North with the VIPs.

A busy day. Good weather at Rothera and in the Weddell Sea. First we showed the aircraft to the Canadian visitors and then flew two flights to the Weddell Sea shelf edge to look at tidal divergence. Dave flew Amélie on the first (flight 82) and Mark flew Alex on the second (flight 83).

As the moon came up over the icebergs to the North we took the opportunity of the calm weather to repeat the GPS antenna calibrations for an hour with the aircraft level and the wing tip fuel tanks empty. The difference in figures did not show the wings sagging when the wing tanks are fueled.

Looks possible that there is a gap between weather systems to get to the Larsen for some useful measurements and probably our last chance of any interesting conditions there. Russ was the scientist on flight 81.

The Dash-7 comes south today bringing the BAS Director, Canadian visitors and HMS Endurance VIPs.

No flight today as weather on the Larsen and in the Weddell sea was all very cloudy.

It was a nice day although with a cold wind at Rothera for HMS Endurance to hold their 'winter olympics' outing and there was a barbeque on board in the evening.

Amélie was the lucky person today to head off towards James Ross Island (flight 80) in search of sea ice as the only bit of cloud free area of interest. It didn't turn out to be entirely cloud free but still able to collect data.

Alex was processing data and Russ' most productive period of the day was probably numbering boxes ready to send all the kit out when we are finished.

HMS Endurance arrived back in the evening ready for the VIP flight which might be tomorrow.

Poor weather in the Weddell today made an easy decision for no flying. It brightened up later at Rothera though so we had the aircraft out and jacked up for surveying in the GPS antenna baselines. This showed one of the wing tips was lower by about 2cm than last year. We hope to repeat this again without fuel in the wing tanks to see what effect this has on wing flex.

Also found a paper that had measured twin otter wing flex at 10-12cm between being on the ground and flying.

Amélie returned from a manhaul and night out in a bivy somewhere up the hill.

Looks good for a flight over Weddell sea ice. Amélie is flying. However we are waiting on a decent satellite image as there have been problems with NOAA-17, but it is transmitting again now. We are trying to make use of the near real time MODIS imagery instead.

No flying so radiometer calibrations in he afternoon.

No flying for us today. Poor weather at Rothera and especially on the east of the Peninsula.

We were joined by 3 further Ken Borek twin otters on their way north making a total of 9 aircraft at Rothera, all waiting for improvements in the weather.

We computed a first stab at the delay between readings from the BAT Probe and the LICOR and started to look at fluxes from the LICOR.

Wind forecast to increase at Rothera during the day. Conditions on the Larsen ice shelf look good for measuring, but we haven't been able to get any good satellite images yet to confirm that the weather is good enough there to fly.

Alex headed off to the Larsen (flight 79) after lunch just escaping before the Dash-7 called Point of No return (PNR), after which we can't take off until it has landed. Alex returned after a 6 hour flight with hopefully some interesting data. There was a low level jet evident even though the contrast did not permit any flight lines below 250 ft. She returned as a blizzard swept through Rothera, although the icing in these last few minutes was not significant.

David went flying up to James Ross Island to pick up Nerille and Louise from the successful drilling team, so we had a day on the ground.

LICOR calibration and boxes painted ready for packing.

Two Borek twin otters and the repaired Basler arrived having finished working for the American programme. Dash-7 went North including Steve Parker.

Amélie and David are making their way back from Sky Blu today (flight 73, 74) and the weather is not looking good for any further flying. We'll have more data to process and make some measurements on the tubing and positioning of the LICOR instrument.

HMS Endurance came alongside bringing in some BAS field parties and Martin Redfearn from BBC World Service for the day.

Another fine day at Rothera. Amélie has launched off (flight 71) for the second Ronne ice front flight. The weather at Fossil Bluff on the way was not very good but they managed to refuel and get airborne again to collect data over the Ronne polynya (flight 72). The weather however was poor as they started to come back so they headed to Sky Blu instead for the night, arriving in time for the Eclipse although it was cloudy. It was not visible from Rothera.

Rothera had a visit from one of the HMS Endurance Lynx helicopters to bring a patient who joined the patient from Golden Fleece to be evacuated to the Falklands on the Dash-7.

Better weather today so Alex and David have headed off on an early start (for us!) to the Ronne Ice Shelf via Fossil Bluff. That's Flight 68 to Fossil Bluff, Flight 69 to the Ronne with a large polynya of open water and many stages of ice thickness then Flight 70 back from Fossil Bluff. Loads of data to keep us busy. A very successful day.

There is also a radiometer horizon ring to bend back which looks like it must have got hit by a large chunk of ice at Fossil Bluff. At least it wasn't the dome...

Dash-7 flew North to Punta Arenas this morning. It looked promising to fly down to the Ronne ice shelf today but the weather wasn't in our favour. First Fossil Bluff had low cloud and then when it improved there it started snowing at Rothera. Even putting the aircraft back into the hangar didn't make it stop, so we called it a day.

The Golden Fleece called in this afternoon with a BBC film crew onboard to consult with the doctor.

Snowing at Rothera so no flying for us today but success on getting the avionics attitude system (AHRS) talking to our computer, so that's everything working now and after the next flight we can see how it compares to our JAVAD GPS attitude system.

We all took the opportunity to get out around the point or up the hill, although it was more suited to cloud measurements up the hill than getting good views. Wellies would have been useful too.

Amélie went off on the first of two flights (flight67) to look at tidal divergence effects on fluxes in the Weddell Sea. David won the game to see a penguin first on the flight. They also saw quite a few seals. Unfortunately the return flight to catch the opposite end of the tidal flow was abandoned due to incoming low cloud over the area, but still good sea ice flux data and hopefully we'll get another chance.

Meanwhile Alex and Russ made a start on decoding and analysing the new Laser Altimeter and Licor data.

Hoping for a Ronne Polynya flight but weather moved too quick. Weddell cloudy and also around Rothera.

Took our fan out of IRT in case that has been the problem. Logged some AHRS ARINC data to troubleshoot that.

Flight 66 in the afternoon collecting reference data over open water. IRT behaved itself, so for the moment just the aircraft attitude system left to get logging.

Looking at data and addressing three problem areas:

Data shows noise on outgoing longwave signal due to noise on Dome & Case temperatures. Hygrometer still not working and IRT did not start until half way through the flight yesterday for some reason.

Hygrometer tested on the ground with ambient and dry air. Seal changed and not fully tightened to allow airflow. IRT working fine on ground power. Longwave noise reduced by removing IRT analogue cable and Camera PSU.

Test flight (flight 65) in evening showed Hygrometer functioning well and less noise on outgoing longwave although a few spikes. IRT failed to start. IRT worked fine on ground power after landing.

Base scheduled powerdown overnight.

Joints tightened in hygrometer tubing. Poor join in Licor tubing replaced and now giving sensible results again. Waiting to do a quick test (flight63) ascent to check the hygrometer before heading over into the Weddell sea again but have to wait for the Dash-7 to return from Sky Blu first (PNR flight).

Looking at flight 62 data.

After re-fitting the Hygrometer correctly, Amélie flew off on flight 64 to the Larsen and Weddell Sea.

Medical Box training for all of us. Looking at data from yesterday's test flight.

A late Flight 62 over the Larsen (delayed by Dash-7 PNR), across an open lead and out over the Weddell sea-ice. Licor CO2 readings appeared to be in error after replacing the chemicals and probably a leak in the Hygrometer tubing. Otherwise looked ok.

Possibly even getting a return from the Laser Altimeter off the cloud tops on the transit back.
Amélie and Alex went for a trip doen the crevasse at the top of the ramp.

New Dewpoint mirror pressure sensor wiring problem corrected.

BAT probe now working after a problem with the power connector.

Other MASIN fit cabling checked.

Still 0.5 °C noise on non-deiced temperature probe.

Modified camera hatch panel fitted with Laser Altimeter. Instruments powered up from ground power. Power switchbox modified to work around one of the aircraft power feed relays having failed. Working through instrument problems. Dynamic pressure connection broken whilst removing roof panels. New fitting tapped into broken part.

L M Gould visit, band playing in the sledge store.

Amélie finished training.

All the instruments bolted on.

Floor camera hatch being finished off.

Discussions on emergency exits with MASIN fit. MASIN Modification documents pulled out to show that the fit is approved with roof and one underwing escape window blocked by equipment.

Burns night.

AZ doing Fossil Bluff runs. Panel for laser altimeter being manufactured.

Amélie doing field training. Briefed pilots on flight plans.

Started instrument fit in evening.

First full day at Rothera. Amélie starting her base training.

Alex and Russ locating all the cargo and sorting it with refresher training in the afternoon. AZ doing Fossil Bluff runs.

Camera hatch panel measured up for Laser Altimeter.

Flying by Dash-7 from Punta Arenas to Rothera.

Pretty cloudy but a nice day at Rothera.

Lunch in Santiago de Chile, consisting mainly of a dish called cheesecake festival which three of us struggled to finish!

Overnight in Punta Arenas.