A winter visit to Clean Air

the Clean Air Facility lit up
At some point during the winter I headed out to the NOAA Clean Air Facility (CAF) after
seeing that all the lights were on. Turns out that work was being done in the instrument field.

micrometeorology at work

In the dark sector science field upwind of CAF, Craig Whan and perhaps Marshall Soares (although I didn't meet up with Marshall) were adjusting their instruments. Their UC Davis micrometeorology project involved measuring temperatures, air movements, heat gain etc from many locations and elevations in a small area. Their data was recorded on one of the computers in the dome.



Brad Halter in CAF Here's NOAA observer Brad Halter in CAF, checking his computers. This is one of the spots that has watched the decline and fall of the ozone layer over the years. That is part of the project called "Geophysical Monitoring for Climatic Change" in our day. It has since been renamed the "Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory" project. Brad was with NOAA for awhile, he made later trips to Pole in this century, as well as to other observation sites around the world.. Oh yes, during the 1996-97 summer season the new "Atmospheric Research Observatory" (ARO) was completed. This two-story elevated modern structure (built in the general vicinity of CAF) replaced CAF which was demolished the following summer, presumably to be shipped back to the real world along with the rest of the trash and garbage nowadays..

Gary Rosenberger


Here's NOAA tech Gary Rosenberger at his bench in CAF. He was a great guy...unfortunately he died in a motorcycle accident near Queenstown about a week after we left the ice.

This was perhaps the only year when the NOAA team did not include a commissioned NOAA Corps officer.

the CAF team gets cargo



John Heg (seated at left) is warming up and is chatting with
Gary, Craig and Brad after driving out to deliver supplies.

folks in CAF



And at some point this happened. Gary,
Craig, Lloyd, and Brad. We're all friends.
the Clean Air Facility during winter 1978



Here's what the place normally looked like during the winter with lights turned off. This photo is from Kevin Bisset, the late 1978 Kiwi met tech.