Local contact:      ESRANGE, Po Box 802, 3981-28 Kiruna, Suède
Tel  46 980 72000,  Fax 46 980 21331        Archeops balloon Hall telephone numbers: 46 980 72 259/258/257

Sponsors for this flight are CNES   hosted by Swedish Space Corporation at Esrange (see also News) near Kiruna See also and the Balloon Page of the CNES

Preparation of the campaign in Grenoble (early November):  Photos

Shipping by lorry on Wednesday 8th November 2000 for Kiruna. Expected arrival on Thursday 16th

Thursday 16th and Friday 17th, 2000
Unload the lorry and install the experiment in the big balloon hall.  Repair kevlar chords in cryostat. Small network problems.

Saturday 18th, Sunday 19th, 2000
Busy weekend. Start cooling down the cryostat. Finishing touch to the gondola.
The gondola is almost ready. Monday, we will work with CNES for integration of crash pad, telemetry and flight chain. The opening flight (CNES only) that will check the Russian telemetry is scheduled for November 29. If everything is OK, the Archeops flight is scheduled for December 1st.
6 bolometers are inside the cryostat at the moment. These are the 6 from Trapani.  2 new bolometers were provided last week (Caltech) with 2 new cold optics (QMW) and should arrive in Kiruna on Tuesday to be integrated as 143 GHz channels.

Monday 20th, Tuesday 21st , 2000
First signal from the Gunn diode and Alain's hand on the 6 bolometers. Cryostat cooled down correctly.
Midnight on Monday, Sophie Henrot-Versille, Cecile Renault and Philippe Filliatre arrive from Orsay and Grenoble.

 Wednesday 22nd, 2000
The day is spent closing the cryostat. Crashpads are put by Bernard. A bache (the complete canvas cover for the recovery) is prepared by Alain, Jean-Charles and Cecile. Start cooling down. Solve problems with Ethernet card and on-board recorder with Laurent on phone.

Thursday 23rd, 2000
Restart the cryogeny, write the presentation for this afternoon, write the preliminary version of the Archeops Recovery Instructions for the Russian team (makes Vladimir happy), finish the canvas cover + wooden board and so on. Everybody takes part in all that. Go to the presentation and have a drink to celebrate the balloon campaign with other balloon experiments.

Friday 24th Saturday 25th, 2000
Prepare Recovery kit for Russian team.  The cryostat continues cooling down properly and is fixed on the gondola. Puncture the whole millar cover of the gondola (to avoid overpressure). Friday evening attend the first big balloon launch with a German experiment called Ozone sampler. Fix computer network problems. Gyros are repaired (small soldering problem). Mirror mechanical alignment was performed with a small laser. Saturday morning (800 mK), all bolometers see signal from the Gunn diode (equipped with a nice handle).

Sunday 26th, 2000
Pointing session: Gunn diode, laser and thermal souces are placed on Radar Hill. The pointing platform is inclined for the telescope to point at only 5 degrees above horizon inside the Cathedral, facing Radar Hill. Doors are opened. It is a bit chilly. It is hard to type on a keyboard with thick gloves. Bolometers reach 100 mK. Hourrah! Transputer problems (holes in data) were solved this morning. Beams were successfully measured this afternoon (we are not freezing for nothing). Nice individual beams can be seen Here

Yesterday evening we were able to see the  (photo by courtesy of Eric Schmitt) marvelous Northern Lights (Aurores boreales), which were red and green. We were told the red color was quite unusual. It was a good treat after one day of freezing in the open Cathedral.

Tuesday 28th
The cryostat is back on the gondola. During the night it reached the lowest temperature ever (85 mK). Baffling is almost finished. Bernard has put some counterweight to balance the gondola. A big discussion about the flight preparation: constraints from the Sun, Jupiter, the Moon and sky coverage. Software development for real time analysis is going on.

Wednesday 29th
Jacques arrived during the night and already started practicing his Russian with Vladimir this morning. A new pressurised balloon launch took place this morning. First group photo (Bernard missing). Baffling is finished. Practise rotation of the gondola hanged on a rope. Test magnetometer (the big orange loop to measure the Earth magnetic field) and pivot round counter. First meeting with CNES to discuss the flight organisation. First date is still 1st of December depending on logistics for telemetry and recovery in Russia. This afternoon, Archeops went outside the building and is freezing alone. Test Inmarsat modem connection. Stellar sensor tests are starting now.

Thursday 30th
The tests of the stellar sensor were conclusive, so the preparation is almost done. To celebrate the achievement, we prepared a special dinner and gave a present to Alain, the only meal with the ten of us. WonderfulNorthernLights (our photos, this time!, looks like our first CMB fluctuations, doesn't it?) joined the party, even more colourful than the previous one. This morning, tests of the telemetry with CNES were performed. The stellar sensor is fully covered of aluminised mylar. Bernard brought Jean-Charles to the Kiruna Airport (passe un bon weekend, sacre veinard). The final weight of Archeops payload is 475 kg.
The flight is not possible till the end of the week due to stratospheric winds (they would bring us to the banquise-ice-fields).

 Friday 1rst December
Today, weather meeting is not very optimistic for the following days until Tuesday: winds would push the gondola too far North (Barens Sea). A flight on Wednesday 6 or Thursday 7 is still possible though unlikely. Keep in touch.
Yesterday, a mail from Andrew Lange arrived with good news: he will bring 19 bolometers to London on Monday. In the case there is no (weather-conditionned) possibility for a flight before the Moon arrives (8 Dec), Bruno Maffei will arrive on the 5th with the new optics and bolometers and we will integrate the new photometric pixels,  for a first flight in the 15-20 December range. A detailed planning is posted here.
Tomorrow, CNES Archeops opening flight will occur (without the scientific payload).
Bernard left this morning (Bon retour dans les contrees chaudes!).
Felix Friedl-Vallon from an ozone experiment to be launched later informed us of nice web sites about ozone:
http://www-iup.physik.uni-bremen.de/gomenrt2000/gonoz.html
http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/solve/
http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/tour_fr/index.html

 Saturday 2nd December
The  activity level is lower today, the day is spent checking everything. The Archeops flight for today would have been lost in the icy Sea. But the so-called Archeops opening flight, only containing a Russian hygrometer on a 50 kg gondola, has occurred today around 16h. It was possible because the opening balloon reaches a lower altitude than the Archeops flight, hence is not pushed as much to the North.
Alain left for the train station for a few days back home (Salut au Grenoblois). Norway trips for the others. Visit of diplomats in the Cathedral balloon hall. By Monday, we will know about the tiny possibility of a flight on the 6-7.

Sunday 3rd  and Monday 4th December
The Sunday was devoted to a trip to Narvick and the Lofoten Islands (except for FXD). It was beautiful in the middle of the fog and the night !
Philippe left  us (bon voyage a Oxford, via Grenoble). The tiny possibility of flying this week was closed on Monday. Next opportunity will be for the 16th of December.  The cryostat was warmed up.
Monday morning, another pressurized ballooon was successfully launched.  The coming of  new bolometers was confirmed for tomorrow night. Time is spent preparing data analysis. What's on Jacques'mind?
Happy (early) birthday to Karine, because Sophie leaves us tomorrow.

Tuesday 5th December
Today, we warmed up the dewar. The hope is to open tomorrow and integrate new bolometers, for a flight configuration of 17+- 1 bolometers. Weather forecast confirms that no flight is possible before the Moon. Sophie (la fan de fiori) left very early this morning.
Debriefing on Archeops opening flight showed that the Inmarsat telemetry and telecommand performed very well, as well as the TM/TC stations in Russia. The flight duration (from launch to separation) was 10h20. Ceiling was at a pressure of 5 hPa. The length of the trajectory was 1100 km, for a landing 75 km NE of Arkhangelsk. The separation was successfully triggered from Mourmansk using the Inmarsat connection. Fresh team members are awaited within a week.

Wednesday 6th December
Today we dropped-off Xavier at the airport for the 12:30 flight and took advantage of the trip to visit Kiruna by daylight (!). In the afternoon, we took out the cryostat from the gondola. Bruno is expected with the bolometers tomorrow at noon (yes! he made it!). We had our first serious rain today, surprising for the season. The sky was clear last night and we could see diffuse northern lights and a UFO (probably a laser).
We skipped the meteo briefing.

Thursday 7th December
Bruno arrives with the 11:50 flight and with the new bolometers (yes, he REALLY made it!!). While Jacques pick him up at the airport, Karine, Cecile and Xavier open the cryostat and attend the meteo briefing. Nothing new on the meteo side.
In the afternoon, we mount the new bolometers according to the plans: 9 bolometers at 143 GHz, 5 at 217 GHz and 2 at 353 GHz.

 
8-9-10th December
Cecile, Jacques and Xavier went back home on Friday. Karine and Bruno are left to start cooling down the  cryostat (Saturday-Sunday). Saturday nice weather with a chilly -15 degC. Nice Christmas lunch with CNES and Russian delegates on Sunday. Alain, Bernard and Federico are expected on Monday.

 
Monday the 11th of December
(Bruno's writing) Alain our magnificient and devoted PI is back with the noon flight. The midnight flight brings back Bernard for another delightful week(s) of work as well as Federico. We decide to warm up the dewar over night: After trying several solutions it is impossible to cool down the dilution system correctly. Several tests show that the level of radiative power onto the 1.6K stage is too high to allow the dilution to start.
 

Tuesday the 12th of December
Karine left the base today. The dewar is opened in the morning and the spare filters are added on the Back to Back horns to reduce by another factor 1/1000 the visible and NIR radiations reaching the 1.6K stage. Despite the fabulous quality of QMW filters (thank you Peter, Fred, Carole, Vic and Josie), these 10K filters where planned for HFI/Planck where the background is quite different from what we have here. During the afternoon the dewar is closed and we resume the cooling down. Everything looks fine up to now and by 23H30 the temperature of the 1.6K stage is below 3K..... That means that the cooling system is working fine.
This should allow us to perform some calibrations and pointing measurements before any possible flight at the earliest Monday the 18th or
Tuesday the 19th (if Eole is nice with us - which was not the case up to now, the vortex not being stable at all).
No new pictures.... The inside of the dewar still the same and our digital camera ran out of batteries....
Reminder: The optical configuration for the December flight is the following.
- 8 pixels at 143 GHz
- 7 pixels at 217 GHz
- 2 pixels at 353 GHz
- 3 blanked bolometers (217, 353 and 545 GHz detectors)
 

Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14, December
Cooling down was going slowly (180 mK on Thursday evening). IV curves have been measured. Sudden warming, Thursday evening, due to outgasing during He fill. But cooling down has resumed now. Weather forecast is very difficult these days, because it is not standard. Plans are made for a possible launch Monday or Tuesday, with a slow rise and a drift towards Russia and then a typical 8hr flight towards the South (Norway or Sweden).
 

Friday 15, Saturday 16, Sunday 17th December
Leak chasing: we had to cool down and warm up twice to be able to fix the He4 leak coming from one of the capilary. The dilution is now running
smoothly and we will resume calibration tests on Monday evening.

Monday 18th December
Final decision for December flight at the meteo briefing. No chance of flight for this year. The Monday weather meeting showed that
the winds for the following next 4 days will not be in the right direction and that the best estimates will insure a 6 hours flight finishing in the sea. Here 1, Here 2, and Here 3, you can find the trajectories expected by CNES for the next 3 days. Next window launch is from 12 to 31 January 2001. Federico left today. Bruno and Bernard will leave tomorrow. Alain will close the December campaign Wednesday.
That's all for this year folks !
See you in the new Millenium.......

Friday 05, January
We are back in the Cathedral, Archeops is still here !!
We opened the cryostat, and started the new focal plane with the new filters and the polarized 353 channels....
The new optics are mounted....a smell of aceton is in the air !!
Wheather is not that bad here, around -5 degreesC.
No meteo meeting today: CNES people arrived with the same plane as us yesterday !

Saturday 06, January
It's holidays for the Swedish here...so no breakfast is served this morning :-(

Anyway...back to work: all the bolometers/optics are installed in the focal plane: there are
    9 143GHz bolometers
    7 217GHz bolometers (one of them being blind)
    6 353GHz bolometers
    2 545GHz bolometers

Focal Plane schematics:

     143K01 217K01 143K02 217K02
   217T06 143K06 545K01 143K03 143B03
 217K03 143K07 143K05 217K04 217K06 143K04
   545K02 353K01 353K03 353K05 143T01
     353K02 353K04 353K06
                   217K05 (blind)

The electronics is tested: everything seems to work  properly at room temperature.
The alignment between the different stages is done and the light leaks have been tested.
No helium leak detected:  the cryostat is now closed, ready for cooling down tomorrow.
As Xavier would have said "The day is spent closing the cryostat" :-)

Sunday 07, January
Start the cooling in the morning...
Temperature curves can be seen here.
The dilution is started at 17h00 !
Everything seems fine... we knock on wood!
Nicolas and Stephane are arriving tonight: since everything is going so well, we will
take a break and have dinner in Kiruna with them (we finally could find a chinese open restaurant).
Back to work after dinner: Since the focal plane was not as cold as expected,
Karine and Sophie stayed longer to add liquid and check the cooling.

Monday 08, January
11H30: meteo briefing: a 12 hours flight seems possible for the 12th, (the gondola would almost go to the Oural.)
The day is spent checking the cooling and preparing the work for the coming days: the thermal source
is still on the roof of  the building on Radar Hill, and it works fine even if covered by 30 cm of snow !
Temperature of the focal  plane reached 800mK: Helium transfer was done after dinner.
Alain, Xavier, Federico, Armando, Jean-Charles, Laurent,  Bernard, and Alexandre are coming tonight :
Stephane and Nicolas are going to pick them up at the airport.

Tuesday 09, January
Everybody is here ...
A 14 hours flight is planned for the 13th: nevertheless the winds on the ground may be too strong for the
balloon to be launched.
Nicolas and Jean Charles made polarisation measurements: data are being analysed.
Armando and Federico put black paint on the gondola to avoid parasitic reflection.
Laurent and Bernard tested the second Inmarsat Antenna and the onboard recorder.
Bolometers impedances and electronics have been checked/measured by Karine and Sophie.
Telephone conference for Planck for Bruno and Sophie.
There should be a moon eclipse tonight...when we will be doing the contre-cryostat.

A big Hi! to our collegues from TopHat !

Wednesday  10, January
After a couple of days of hard working, Bruno left us this morning....Repose toi bien Bruno !!!
The cryostat has been installed on the gondola, the temperature of the focal plane is around 100mK.
Stephane and Karine finished the baffling around the cryostat.
A new phone for Inmarsat communication will arrive tonight since we had some problems with
the one we have.
CNES telemetry tests have been done and worked fine.
Pointing is supposed to be done tonight, if the wheather is fine (too much fog for the moment).
The Archeops flight is planned for friday: we cross our fingers !

Thursday  11, January
Everybody worked very hard in order to be on time for a flight tomorrow !! You can see the planned trajectory here...
Yesterday evening, very late, the gondola was pushed outside of the cathedral, with a cover to avoid freezing (not that easy to put tape without gloves by -20 Celsius degrees !!).
This morning, very early, the phone to Inmarsat was changed and tested; everything's working perfectly.
Baffling is almost finished, last changes in Archediab, put explanations for the recovery on the gondola, prepare the data analysis to have sky coverage almost online, analyse calibration data taken in the last few days, prepare the check list for tomorrow morning last hours before the flight, and..and...and...
We will try to get a few hours of sleep before the start of the CNES chronology (7:00 AM) Another ballon was launched succesfully this afternoon.

Friday  12, January Flight
Back in business: the schedule is tight but we are on time !
The balloon filling has started...the gondola is ready from our side: it's in the CNES hands now... The outside temperature is around -22.

At 12h15 local time: the 4He flow-meter apparently broke down: the cryostat warmed up to 700mK.
We are going to test the Stellar Sensor and all the housekeeping and recover the gondola a soon as possible to be ready for the next flight.
Everybody here is quite disappointed but ready for another turn. Ce n'est que partie remise...
 

Saturday  13, January
Alain and Jean Charles left this morning with Esrange people with the helicopter to recover the gondola in Finland.
Last news from them (6:00 pm) they will arrive in about 1 hour with Archeops. Nothing seems severely damaged: except for the Inmarsat antenna (but we have a spare one here) and the battery box.
In the Cathedral we are working on the few data we have from yesterday's flight.
The quick recovery will allow us to get back on our feet rapidly.
Archeops was back in the cathedral at 7:30 PM. The cryostat is back on the table to be unmounted, and the gondola is being repaired. The stairs are on the way to be changed....

Sunday  14, January
After a long night of work, Laurent and Bernard left us this morning with all the on-board recorder data copied on cheops ! Thanks a lot ! Ne mangez pas trop de vrais chocolats sans nous !!
We are still repairing the gondola. The cryostat was opened during the night, everything seems fine, a leak test is under way. The flow meters are under tests...
We are analysing the flight data to understand what happened. The gondola is repaired thanks to Federico and Armando: have a good trip back home and say Hi to the sun for us ! The front baffle and the stairs are almost finished.
as Xavier would say: "Faire et defaire c'est toujours travailler".

Monday  15, January
The day is spent analysing the flight data, looking for leaks in the cryostat, cleaning the Stellar Sensor...
The calibration data on polarization have been analysed and the angles of the polarizers were changed to give the closure relation.
The weather forecast for this week is not very optimistic: click here to see the planned trajectrory for the end of the week.
We are very lucky to see a lot of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC ...not PSB!).

Tuesday  16, January
Today the cryostat was closed: the focal plane was re-screwed as well as all the other stages, and the kevlar cords (!).
We tested the magnetometer, rotating the gondola. Work for the new battery box has started.
In the evening we had a special dinner for Sophie's birthday.

Wednesday  17, January
We started cooling down the cryostat: everything's going well, no leaks, all the flow meters behaved perfectly.
The battery box is finished.
Software developments have been performed, and preparation for data analysis is going on...
We went to bed early to be ready for next flight !

Thursday  18 January
The cryostat reached 300mK in the evening: the cooling goes well !
The analysis of the beams measured last week can be accessed here: measured FWHM give 10 arcminutes for 143GHz channels, 9 arcminutes for 217 GHz and 7 arcminutes for 353 GHz (positions of center and corresponding names are given here. Detailed numbers will be given later.
In the afternoon we visited Esrange (more can be found here).
Cecile and Alexandre arrived in the evening, and Daniel left us at midday (ne mange pas trop de pates Daniel !).

Friday  19 January
Jean-Charles left us today: c'est vrai qu'il fait plus froid a Paris qu'ici ces jours :-) ??
The (anti-camel) stairs are back on the gondola, as well as the battery box and the cryostat.
This afternoon, CNES people came to test the telemetry and to weigh Archeops. We lost almost 5 kg !
Tonight since the CNES people finished their work, the cryostat is back on the table for polarisation measurements. We reached 200mK...cooling down is going on...
Weather forecast: no flight seems feasible before tuesday, due to strong winds at 40 km.

Saturday  20 January
Jean-Christophe arrived in the evening and Elley and Alexandre left this morning: Hope you didn't have anymore problem with a car today ! By the way, Alexandre: est-ce que les boites de cafe ont les memes dimensions en France qu'ici ??
The day was devoted to polarization measurements. The cryostat reached 91mK.
Inmarsat tests have been performed: everything's working very well ! No holes in data !
The distance between the two mirrors has been checked: it is exactly as expected...

Sunday  21 January
Alexandre left us after a few days here: merci pour les explications du senseur stellaire !
The cryostat is back on the gondola.
Baffling is finished and the experiment is ready to go out.
We try to get everything as ready as possible if ever we can fly soon !
No meteo meeting today...so no news for an eventual new flight.

Monday  22 January
A (short) flight seems possible tomorrow or the day after. Stratospheric winds have never been so high here.
We prepared the possible launch of tomorrow.
The pointing has been done during the afternoon.
Cecile prepared crepes for dinner.

Tuesday  23 January
Early start in case archeops can fly today...The checklist is filled step by step....
9h30 AM meeting meteo: No flight is possible today: maybe tomorrow....but no more than 5 hours with a smaller balloon.
Some of us went to ski..the others stayed here...nothing new !
 

Wednesday  24 January
No flight today because of too strong winds on the launch pad.
A flight is expected for tomorrow evening: winds should be better.

Thursday  25 January
Archeops flight is planned for today.
At the last helium filling (10:00 AM) cryostat warmed up at 700mK and cooled down back slowly so we delayed the flight for tonight.
At 4:00 PM preflight meeting:

• cryostat will not be at the lowest temperature during all the flight and will have temperature drift
• the ground conditions for launch are not optimal: small wind and light snow
• we will not have Jupiter as calibration source for this late flight

Friday 26 January
Sophie and Stephane left us at the Kiruna railway station (bon weekend et reposez-vous bien).
Xavier and Xavier have calculated the likely sky coverage for a probable Monday flight (this is a 143 GHz simulated map from IRAS data, including the CMB dipole and anisotropies in units uKCMB; the map is Mollweide all-sky projection centered on the Galactic anticenter).
Alain improved the baffling around the cryostat.

Saturday 27 January
The gondola is ready, waiting for the planned Monday flight. A note for the on-board recorder was prepared for our Russian colleagues. A test of microwave leaks with the Gunn diode has been performed. A summary of our polarisation measurement analysis has been prepared by Nicolas. The baffling is now really finished. The cryostat is at 84 mK today. We have attended the reindeer race in Kiruna and saw some nice ice sculptures.

Sunday 28  January : Ready for the tomorrow flight !
Weather forecast is still favorable for tomorrow flight with about 8 hours at ceiling. Last preparations and last Helium filling were made to the gondola  before putting it outside, on the launch pad, under light snow. Meteo briefing tomorrow at 9h30 to confirm the flight. Launch is scheduled at 14h30 Local Time (13h30 UT).

FLIGHT  Monday 29 January : Flight Confirmed for 13h30 UT!
The cryostat was at 90mK this morning.
The planned trajectory gives a 6 hours flight.
The countdown has started...
Predicted trajectory was given by Pierre Dedieu from CNES

• We used a smaller balloon otherwise we would have flied too much north (with the risk of putting Archeops in the sea)
• The balloon went up a little more slowly and drifted more south than expected.
• We had 7h30 at float, with a temperature of the order of 90mK almost all the way long
• Thanks to long discussions with Russian people, we were able to fly south of latitude=64.
• We decided not to fly too close to the Oural: this would have been too risky for the recovery.
• The experiment was stopped (window closed and motor stopped) about one minute before the separation with the balloon thanks to Inmarsat (00h26m30 LT)
• Everything seems fine now that the experiment is back on the Earth: the gondola is at altitude 200m, lat 62.226 long 53.341 (N-E of SyktYvkar).

NEW  Tuesday 30 January :
Today we packed everything..we are ready to come back home !