Early-March status

Wow! The year is moving on and the first site image for March has now come in. The photograph featured in this web log post was taken by a member of the KAIRA team on 4^th March 2011. The raised tile is clearly visible on the right, but the ground tile still remains blanketed by snow. It is just possible to make out its position on the left of the photograph behind one of the posts.


We are now entering an interesting time. Temperatures are starting to rise, sometimes even hitting highs of –10 degrees celsius. From a technical point of view, this is a challenging period for the test antennas, as they will be subjected to ever-compacting snow. There is also the chance of localised melting and re-freezing, especially in the places where direct sunlight can strike the black antenna covers and warm them up. These are the sorts of conditions where ice movement can cause significant damage. Only a few months to go and we'll know if this experiment has worked.

But is will also be interesting from a more artistic sense. As the Arctic approaches the equinox, there is, for a few weeks, a semblance of normal day and night. This is accompanied with a great variety of lighting directions and conditions, plenty of sunshine and some still inky-black nights. Being the tail end of winter, the weather is much nicer, with more snow on the ground and less cloud in the sky.

No doubt, there will be some more lovely photographs to come.

Photo credit: Markku Postila