Campaign journal extracts: Lompolojänkkä, July 2018

Following the installation of our instrumentation at Lompolojänkkä in the Finnish Lapland, the intensive measurement campaign was set for July. I spent two weeks there with my colleague and friend Dr. Simon Schallhart and decided to share with my readers some extracts of my campaign journal.

Figure 1. From top to bottom: posing in front of the FMI car; unloading the car from the train in Rovaniemi; the measurement site at Lompolojänkä; wetland chamber; reindeer out of the apartment's window; hiking on Pallastunturit; stormy clouds over Lompolojänkä; oil leak; the FMI car being towed away; birthday champagne at the sauna; evening view over Pallasjärvi lake; branch enclosure for emissions measurements. (Photo credits: Arnaud Praplan and Simon Schallhart, CC-BY-4.0)

1 July 2018: The departure.

03:12PM. Today is warm and sunny. I came to FMI around 1PM to meet Simon and load the car. It took less time than expected and everything fitted! Yay! There was time to go to the shop and have a late lunch.

05:57PM. We drove to the Pasila car station. The drive was very short, but neither of us has been there before and even though our colleagues said that it is very easy to load the car on the train, we went there early enough to avoid any surprise. Everything went smoothly. After loading the car, we walked to the Pasila train station to wait for the night train to Rovaniemi to arrive.

06:59PM. We boarded the train on time. Simon had been on the night train before, but it is the first time for me in Finland. The cabin is comfortable and I took the upper of the bunked bed. I start to worry that the trip will be long, but I have something to read with me and there is a restaurant car.

2 July 2018: Pallasjärvi.

07:00AM. The alarm goes off and we are almost in Rovaniemi.

07:40AM. After waiting a little bit on the platform in Rovaniemi, the cars are accessible and I drove out of the train. Off to Pallasjärvi!

11:45AM. After a short break for grocery shopping in Kittilä, we arrived in Pallasjärvi at the FMI apartment and settled there. We caught the glimpse of a reindeer leaving the yard as we arrived by car. Also one of our neighbors, Taina, came to greet us. The intensive part of this year's campaign is now starting.

05:38PM. We visited the site and prepared everything for the intensive campaign: sampling lines, plot chamber, etc.

[...]

3 July 2018: Heidi's visit.

15:22PM. We drove earlier to Kittilä airport to pick up Dr Heidi Hellén who is staying for a couple of days to calibrate our gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and to check with us various technical aspects of the campaign.

[...]

8 July 2018: Water everywhere!

03:32PM. Today the weather was still nice, so we decided to go for a hike on the Pallastunturit. It took us a few hours to make a look of about 9 kilometers, enjoying views of the Ylläs-Pallas national park.

11:15PM. After a few days of sampling from the plot chamber from the wetland, lots of water condensation happened in many parts of the instrumentation: sampling lines, pump, CRM reactor, etc. The relative humidity (RH) sensor placed after the reactor is saturated. We decided to let the system dry overnight by flushing dry air from the measurement cabin through the system.

9 July 2018: Running out of (compressed) air

06:37PM. To continue with technical glitches: the compressor providing air for our GC-MS and to flush through the plot chamber does not deliver enough pressure... Luckily we came prepared with an additional compressor that we just set up so that we can continue our measurements.

[...]

11 July 2018: Pancakes by the lake.

11:53PM. Today we got an invitation from our neighbors to enjoy pancakes by the lake in the evening. There is a group of people working during this month for Metsähallitus staying in the old park's guardian's house. Taina, who came to talk to us upon our arrival, told us to join them by the lake. She spent a few days refurbishing the fireplace there with new logs to sit on and stones around the fire. The pancakes were cooked in a pan directly over the open fire and we enjoyed them with strawberry jam and cream... They were fantastically delicious!!

[...]

13 July 2018: Friday the 13th!

10:10AM. Coming back from Lompolojänkkä, a reindeer was close to hour apartment in Pallasjärvi. I took a couple of pictures and also recorded a video message to wish my niece a happy birthday. When I passed by the car again I notice a huge... oil leak! I immediately told Simon to come and Valtteri, who is working for Metsähallitus in Pallasjärvi, helped us to contain the leak with soil and made a few phone calls.

11:45AM. The tow truck arrived and picked up our car. It will stay for the weekend in Muonio and then continue towards Rovaniemi to get fixed.

07:07PM. We organized a trip to get a rental car from Kittilä airport. We are not stuck and can drive to the measurement site again!

[...]

14 July 2018: I am getting older.

01:24AM. Today is my birthday. That is why I bought a bottle of champagne (and strawberries) earlier yesterday. I drank it together with Simon at midnight while having sauna and refreshing ourselves in the lake Pallasjärvi. That was quite a nice way to celebrate!

[...]

15 July 2018: No power. 

01:12PM. Today we switched our measurements from the wetland plot to a branch chamber attached to a nearby silver birch. The chamber was put in place as soon as we arrived as doing it disturbs the tree and increase its emissions. Now we only had to close the chamber and connect our instruments to it, so that the disturbances were minimal.

09:26PM. There were thunderstorms today. We had short power cuts before, but today we were without electricity for quite a long time. When we thought that the power finally came back, shorter power cuts happened. We waited patiently to be sure that it was worth going to the measurement site to put everything back up. It took us a while, but it is done: the measurements continue!

16 July 2018: Flight to Helsinki.

07:22PM. Simon drove me to Kittilä airport. After checking in and going through security, I waited for the aircraft to arrive. After it landed, I saw our colleague Toni Tykkä, a summer worker who will help Simon for the rest of the campaign, exiting the plane and heading towards the terminal. The weather is beautiful, I enjoy watching the Lappish landscapes from the air, while Trump and Putin are wrapping up their summit in Helsinki and prepare to leave.

09:14PM. We landed a little bit late. I did not spot Air Force One at arrival in Helsinki (it probably departed before we landed), but might have seen planes form the Russian government. Overall it was a good time in Lapland with some challenges, but I am confident that there will be an interesting outcome from this campaign!

10:58PM. It is definitely darker in Helsinki than in Pallasjärvi at this hour. I realized that I spent two weeks without seeing the sun setting behind the horizon. Home sweet home!