A typical day

This is a map of Addu Atoll. The hotel where most DYNAMO scientists are staying is located in the Gan Island. The S-PolKa and SMART-R radars are in the Hitadoo, which is in northwest part of the map. The distance between hotel and S-PolKa radar is about 7km, and SMART-R is farther north than S-PolKa. I usually ride a bike to go there, but sometimes take a van.

This is the bike I use in a clear day to commute between hotel and radar sites. I brought it from New York City to here.

I found that it was a really good idea to bring it, which is Adam's idea. In rainy days, or if I'm too tired to ride a bike, the folding bike could take a car with me.

This is a typical scene when I get to the S-Pol site. It consists of radar facilities, containers that are used as offices (inside view of the containers is available below), toilet (see Eric's 'a rainy day' post), and some necessary ingredients that I'll introduce at the end of this post. The sky is somewhat different from what Eric showed in his 'a rainy day' post.

There is a signal of the S-PolKa radar.

In the following few pictures, I'd like show how hard are the DYNAMO scientists working.

Inside view on the container for National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientists.

Scientists from University of Washington are working in another container.

There is a container for visiting scientists (the container 9 that Eric introduced). Here is where I'm working mostly.

Here are some non-scientific, but necessary ingredients of the S-Pol site.

A lightening rod protecting radar facility from any damage caused by lightening. There are several of them around the radar.

The radar site is secure: there is a team of guards (local people) working 24 hours. When I first came here and was taking a picture of the radar, they asked me what was my purpose and didn't allow me to approach to the radar. At that time, fortunately, I wore a 'DYNAMO' t-shirt and it helped me to convince him that I'm a related person.

Temperature here is around 28~32 degree Celsius in a clear day. Nothing is replaceable with an air conditioner in the tropics!