Alan Nelson's Daily Commentary for 28 August 1999

Meck Island, Republic of Marshall Islands

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Here is the antenna that tracks radiosondes released from the island of Meck. We've been having trouble getting all the pieces to work at the same time! Here Chester and Song are checking readings on component boards with the oscilloscope that we brought out to Meck with us this morning. They now have the system working pretty well. We are now down to the point where the system loses its "ranging" sooner that we would like. There are three pieces of information that pinpoint the location of the sonde: elevation, azimuth and range. Note that in this setting elevation and altitude are two completely different ideas. Elevation in this context is the angle, in degrees, formed if you drew a line from the horizon to the antenna and then to the sonde. Another way of thinking of elevation here is how many degrees above the horizon the sonde is located. The azimuth is the direction of the sonde, again in degrees. O degrees azimuth would be straight north of the antenna, 90 degrees would be straight east, 180 degrees due south, and 270 degrees due west. The range is how far away from the antenna the sonde is. If you know the elevation, azimuth and range of an object then you know exactly where it is. In fact, the altitude above the earth can then be calculated from that information. We are currently losing the range information when the sondes get about 15 km away from the antenna. That is far enough away that the data from such a "sounding" (sonde/balloon release) is still very useful. Our sondes today were reaching about 35,000 to 40,000 feet and about 300 millibars (see yesterday's journal for millibars).

In order to get from Kwajalein to Meck, we took a catamaran ferry that leaves Kwaj at 6:05 AM. The 15 mile ride takes about 45 minutes. There were about 100 of us on the boat. Only five were TRMM or KWAJEX related. Everyone else is here getting ready for another missile launch coming up soon. After a day of radio sondes, I decided to stay on Meck and work on my proposal in a trailer on the old runway. The trailer is complete with tables, chairs, power, air conditioning and few distractions! Everyone was planning on coming back tomorrow, anyway. There are a few beds available in the fire station, and the tethersonde people fed me leftovers from last night (lasagna which is better the next day anyway)! All was good.

At 3:30, the ferry went back to Kwaj and took almost everyone with it. There are two security people, two power plant workers, four tethersonde people and me on the island. While walking around, I felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode where someone comes back to a deserted town. There are a couple cars with gasoline and keys in them, and dozens of buildings. Just no people. It is a little bit eerie. I certainly feel like I'm on a little island in the middle of the Pacific!

But Meck is not a beautiful island. It has been called the concrete jungle for a reason! These last two pictures were taken from exactly the same spot, just facing in two different directions. If you care to be creative, you can find trees and shrubs to frame a pretty seascape with the beautiful blue water in the lagoon (I still am not accustomed to that blue--I still find it remarkable every time I look at it). But this island has been modified to be functional. Amenities are not a high priority here. The only cafeteria on the island serves lunch only. Stark would be a good description. But the surrounding ocean is beautiful. At low tide, you can walk to the next island and barely get your ankles wet. At high tide, that same connection is waist deep. I hope to be able to do some exploring along that stretch soon. This may be my home for the next two weeks.

Best laid plans don't always work. The catamaran ferry won't be running tomorrow so the rest of the radiosonde crew can't get out to Meck! Turns out there is a Search and Rescue boat that makes a run to Meck each Sunday morning, so I will have to catch a ride on it tomorrow morning, otherwise my next opportunity to get back to Kwaj (and clean clothes) would be Tuesday morning.

Naahhh! I'm going to make sure I'm on that boat tomorrow!

Alan Nelson