NASA is sponsoring an Arctic research mission from October 1999 through March 2000 called SOLVE.  This document contains aspects of this adventure from January 2000 through March 2000.  The subject matter is both work related and personal.

Kiruna, Sweden is above the Arctic circle at 68 N latitude and 20 E longitude.  The reason this site was chosen is because of the easy access to the polar vortex region in the upper atmosphere and the common occurrence of polar stratospheric clouds which are thought to be a key to the understanding of the chemistry of the upper atmosphere.  The first site visit was conducted in October 1998 and Kiruna was chosen partly because of its excellent facilities, which include the Arctic Arena, a huge hangar with laboratory facilities, located at the airport in Kiruna.

The SOLVE mission consists of several balloon and aircraft experiments.  Some of the balloon experiments and flights involving the NASA DC-8 aircraft were conducted in November/December 1999.  Kathy Wolfe was working in Kiruna during those missions and took some excellent pictures of the Kiruna landscape and local attractions.  In addition, Paul Newman, one of the project scientists on this mission is keeping an excellent diary that gives a nice flavor of the day to day activity here in Kiruna.

In order to save you the trouble of reloading the whole page, I have divided the page into several categories.  I will be adding to some of these categories and adding categories as time goes on.  Just click on the links below.

Kiruna Arrival with Clouds
Ice Hotel
Hangar
DC-8 Arrival
ER-2 Arrival
C-141 Arrival     Wendy's Story
Kiruna Weather
ER-2 Upload
Mine Tour
Town Hall Party
Snow Sculpture Competition
Another Upload
Historical Over Fly of Russia by the ER-2
Data Handling
Kiruna Sky
A Typical ER-2 Flight
A Winter Wonderland
A Balloon Launch of One of the OMS Packages (pictures by Greg Flesch)
Pictures from the ER-2 at Altitude (pictures by Jan Nystrom)
Hangar Relaxation
ER-2 Instruments

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