BARREL Daily Status Update: December 28th

Hi all, 

There is a Russian ship stuck in the ice at the moment but BARREL is not affected. All of our cargo has made it to the base. We do not plan to have another launch until Sunday if ground conditions are good. 

Ground Weather:

SANAE IV: 

Temp.: -11 C

Wind speed: 14 knots 

Halley 6: 

Temp.: -1.6 C

Wind speed: 4 knots 

Payloads up: 

SANAE IV: none  

Halley 6:  2T

Payloads coming down:

none 

Collection times for EFW: 

2013-12-27

A: 16:00 - 19:00 (MLTs from 14 - 17)

B: 16:00 - 19:00 (MLTs from 14 - 16.5)

2013-12-28

A: 16:00 - 20:00 (MLTs from 11.5 - 14.5)

B: 16:30 - 20:30 (MLTs from 11 - 15)

2013-12-29

A: 18:50 - 21:50 (MLTs from 11-14)

B: 19:00 - 22:00 (MLTs from 11-13.5)

2013-12-30 (nice pass b/t stations)
A: 15:45 - 18:45  (mlts from 14 - 16.4)
B: 14:00 - 18:00 (mlts from 12 - 16)

2013-12-31 (nice pass just to West of stations)
A: 16:00 - 18:00 (mlts from 12 - 13.5)
     19:45 - 21:45 (mlts from 14.5 - 16)
B: 17:15 - 19:30 (mlts from 12-14)
     20:00 - 22:30 (mlts from 14-16)

2014-01-01 (pass quite a ways to the West of stations)
A: 19:15 - 20:45 (mlts from 12 - 13)

     23:00 - 2014-01-02/00:30 (mlts from 14.5 - 16)

B: 20:00 - 21:30 (mlts from 11 - 13)

2014-01-02 (pass quite a ways to the West of stations)
B: 00:30 - 02:00 (mlts from 15 - 14.9)

Halley Bay :

No EMIC waves observed at the moment. Some ULF activity. 

GOES Electron Flux:

The electron flux is returning to normal. 

GOES Proton Flux:

There is a increase in the proton flux for > 10 MeV over the last 12 hours, but it appears to be recovering if not recovered. . 

Space Weather from Spaceweather.com and SWPC.noaa.gov 

Solar wind speed: 345.3 km/s 

Solar proton density: 4.3 cm^(-3)  

Sun spot number: 107  

NOAA has the likelihood of a M class flare at 25% and a 1% chance of an X class flare.  

Kp is quiet 

kp = 1 with a 24 max of kp = 2

Bz = 6.0 nT north

Btotal = 7.1 nT  

There is new coronal hole starting to show up on the Eastern limb of the sun which may be able to reach us on Jan 2 - 3. This coronal hole appears to be more equator ward than the previous one. 

From Kyoto:

AE: very quiet. 

Dst: very quiet. 

Have a good day,

The BARREL Team.