A day in the life of a … station meteorologist
Hi there! Today I, Pablo, will be taking you along with me on a tour of the routine tasks that we meteorologists have here at Neumayer.
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For the meteorologists at Neumayer, our day-to-day work mostly involves regular weather observations (or “obs” for short), launching the weather balloon, and other fixed tasks. You – or this year, I – can virtually set your clock by the schedule. I’m the second ÜWI to inherit this “cheat sheet”:
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It offers a good overview of the time-critical tasks, even if there have been a few minor changes over the years:
- 5:42 am, 6 am obs: Thankfully, I’ve rarely had to set this alarm, since my supervisor Holger Schmithüsen (who was himself an overwinterer in 2010) took care of it for me during his stay at Neumayer this summer. That was a welcome relief. It changed when he left the station, but luckily only until the last plane departed from Queen Maud Land: during the winter season, that is, from early March to the end of October, only an automated obs is transmitted at 6 am.
- 8:42 am, 9 am obs: When this alarm goes off, I’m actually already outside, on my daily tour around the measuring field. Since the tour should ideally take place as early in the day as possible, it’s a good fit to do the 9 am obs on the way back and then enter the results in the computer. During my tour, I check our instruments, especially the radiation-measuring ones. All of them (except the pyrheliometer) need to be as perfectly horizontal as possible and need to be levelled at regular intervals. In addition, protruding parts (like the shaft of the pyrheliometer,which you can see in the photo) can become coated with ice, e.g. after exposure to fog, which then has to be removed. And every now and then I have to climb the meteorological mast to do maintenance work on the temperature, humidity and wind sensors.
- Wednesdays only, 10:10 am, ozone probe: The final preparations before launching an ozone probe take more time than for a standard radiosonde, as both the background radiation from the probe itself and the surface ozone level have to be measured for 10 minutes each.
- 10:36 am, radiosonde launch: I turn on the Sounding Processing Subsystem (SPS) from Vaisala and the Standard Humidity Chamber (SHC). Then I unpack the radiosonde, ready a spool of rope, and begin calibrating the sonde. To do so, I first warm it briefly, to achieve ca. 0% relative humidity and take a test reading. This calibration, during which speed, pressure and temperature are also checked, takes roughly 5 minutes. After that, the sonde is placed inside the SHC, where the humidity is 100%, for another 5 minutes. Now it’s finally time for me to go up to the roof, taking the balloon, spool of rope, and radiosonde with me, where the sonde is then placed in the GRUAN launch chamber for 5 minutes. In the meantime, I inflate the balloon and decide which corner of the balloon platform to launch from (in the lea, with as little turbulence from the hall as possible). Once the spool has been connected to the balloon, and the sonde to the spool, I hold on tight to the sonde and balloon, open the doors (using a footswitch), and launch the balloon between 11:00 and 11:15 am (important!).
- 11:42 am, noon obs: As a rule, Tim (our trace elements specialist) takes care of this observation, so the alarm has been turned off.
- 1:30 pm (first minor change), probe processing: I start with this script once the connection to the radiosonde has been lost. By now, the probe has climbed to an altitude of more than 30 km, while the balloon has expanded to more than 100 times its original volume, burst and fallen back to the surface (today, 5 May 2024: 32.9 km, 166 X volume, 5.5 X radius, 5.0 hPa!). I give the data a brief check before sending it off. During the balloon’s flight, data is automatically transmitted to Germany’s National Meteorological Service (DWD), which uses it to prepare global forecasts.
- 2:42 pm, 3 pm obs: Time to get dressed and go up on the roof (if there’s little wind) or go down the hill the station stands on (if there’s too much wind or e.g. fog) and make observations on the visibility, clouds, cloud cover, and any relevant weather phenomena, then go back in, strip off my gear, and enter the data.
- 4:30 pm, weather forecast: Taken off the list! This is now done by a service provider (StormGeo) and in the summer, I present the forecast at the daily station meeting (5:30 pm), aka the “evening gathering”.
- 5:42 pm, 6 pm obs: The same thing all over again! In the summer, there is also a METAR (flight weather report) every 6 hours (midnight, 6 am, noon, 6 pm UTC). In the winter, we briefly go over the plans for the following day at 6 pm instead of 5:30 pm.
- 8:42 pm, 9 pm obs.
- 11:42 pm, midnight obs: When it comes to the last two obs of the day, Tim and I take turns every two weeks; that way, from time to time each of us has one week where we can end our day with supper at 6:30 pm.
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In between these appointments, I have to validate the data from the previous day, take care of the first and second rounds of preparing the ozone probe, and check the measuring instruments, while also putting out any small or large “fires” I discover. This last task involves a lot less work in the winter, when there are no longer four people working in every part of the meteorological observatory … Here I have to e.g. replace cables, install new electrical contacts, reposition instruments after a storm, modify (computer) scripts, and allocate measuring instruments.
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Must-haves for station meteorologists at Neumayer: Plenty of hats, balaclavas and neck gaiters (since there’s not enough time between obs for wet ones to dry), sweaters/jackets you can slip on and off easily, and snug, warm socks.
