During the first week of May, a second preparatory meeting took place at UMAG, Punta Arenas. This time a three-person team from TROPOS (Cristofer, Zhenping, Martin) came to Punta Arenas to advance the preparation of DACAPO-PESO.

Cloudy sky over Punta Arenas in late fall.

A one-day workshop together with representatives from UMAG and Dirección Meteorológica de Chile (Chilean Meteorological Service) was the most important appointment during the week. Well organized by our collaborator at UMAG, Boris Barja, several talks were given on current research topics and opportunities for further collaboration. After the presentations plenty of time remained for discussions and networking.

Boris giving a presentation during the Workshop.

The remaining days were filled with various tasks. Scouting a potential field site for undisturbed aerosol sampling meant hiking up Cerro Mirador – a 600 m hill hosting several telecommunication ground stations and Punta Arenas’ skiing resort. During late autumn with temperatures slightly above freezing and winds around 40 kt this trip was a little bit demanding, but most likely there will be the opportunity for in-situ sampling during DACAPO-PESO.

Hiking up to Cerro Mirador at temperatures around freezing level and approx. 40 kt winds.

We also visited the local office of the DMC at the airport of Punta Arenas and discussed joint measurements and the exchange of data. From this office, the DMC monitors the surface observation network in the Magallanes region, launches radiosondes daily and issues the aviation weather reports. Furthermore, a short meeting was held with a logistics company regarding the final delivery of the LACROS containers at Punta Arenas.

After a quite successful week, the return trip did not start at the airport, but at the port, where we boarded the German research vessel Polarstern. During the four-week cruise back to Bremerhaven, Germany we took care of the OCEANET container.

 [mr]