RFI on the horizon

We are now taking routine all-sky images with KAIRA, 24 hours a day. These are great as not only are we building up a fantastic data archive, but we are starting to get a good feel for some of the features.

In this image, there is a strong source on the south-eastern horizon. It is so bright that it saturates out all the other sources in the sky.

No doubt this is some RFI (Radio-Frequency Interference). It is possible to recover the data, but these require a reasonable amount of work. In the case of fast-burst RFI, sometimes it is easiest just to flag it (i.e. note it, but otherwise ignore it) and move on.

Snow laden branches

Just another wintry photograph to end the week. 

Have a nice weekend. (And stay warm!)

LBAs in the snow

At the moment, we have a few engineers on site to carry out maintenance work and continue with some of the general site work that needs to be carried out. They also took a few photographs and one of them is featured on today's web log post.

Looking south-southeast across the KAIRA LBA array. (Photo: M Postila)

An unexpected party

We don't normally get reindeer in around the institute. A few reindeer fences should put stop to them wandering through. However, our experiences at KAIRA indicate that one should not rely 100% on a reindeer fence and that there will always be occasions when these lovely creatures turn up for a party.

So, sure enough, the other day we did have a small herd wander in... I've no idea how they managed it! The first I heard of it was the doleful clanging of the bells that a few of them are wearing. They then spent a couple of hours digging through the snow trying to get at the left over grass from the past summer.

Reindeer at the EISCAT 32m dish at Sodankylä. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

The source of the clanging noise. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Snow posts

The Sunday before last, a great lorry rumbled through Tähtelä and put sticks into the ground along the side of the road. Yes, sticks. These turned out to be just eco-friendly snow-posts, to mark where the roads are before the snows set in (which they did soon after!).

The thin stick in the foreground is the snow post. I guess you just need to know what to look for.

Freezing fog

The other day we had a freezing fog come through. These are wonderful, as they leave the trees — especially the deciduous ones — covered in a thin "fur" of ice crystals. A few more of these, and even the conifers will be ghosts in twilight shadows.

Ice on the trees in Tähtelä. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

The Finnish State Flag

Today's photograph features the Finnish State Flag flying beside the EISCAT 32m dish at Sodankylä. Finland has quite a few "flag days", when it is customary to fly the national flag. This particular photograph was taken on 24th October 2012, and the flag had been hoisted for United Nations day.

The EISCAT 32m dish and the Finnish State Flag, 24-Oct-2012. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Link

• Flag days in Finland