Blog from January, 2011

23 Jan: Oncley & Militzer

Purpose: Replace prop since twice has stalled for several hours overnight; new mote software?

1307: Aborted due to mud -- less than the last time we were there (primary because the mud was more frozen), but still very sloppy.  Recommed using the pickup next time.

23 Jan: Oncley&Militzer

Conditions: just a bit of snow clumped on the curb

1210: adjusted SPN-1 level (off by about a bubble -- the soil post is leaning)

1213: dry wiped radiometers

Until 1225: messed with shadowband adjustment.  Shifted the aziumth a bit to point nearly S, adjusted elevation to 60 deg (from 53), adjusted sensor level, moved collar to center shadow.

Daily status 23 Jan

Daily status 23 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

After a nice morning, yesterday turned cloudy with snow flurries most of the day.
This morning has mostly clear skies, with inversion starting in the valley.
Some frost on the van windshield at the Rez this morning.

Summary:
    - krypton at 3 was bad most of yesterday, but recovered overnight.
    - modem at 2 appears to have lost settings -- we'll reprogram it today
    - Shadowbands at 1&7 should be adjusted.  Sebastian will do 1 and we'll do 7.
    - Prop-vane at 6 has stalled at night for the second time.

Vdsm: ok.
Vmote.rad: ok.
Vmote.soil(aux): ok.

P: ok, rising since min at 6AM yesterday
T: ok, -7 to +6 degC
RH: ok, 45-95%.
Rainr (3,4,6): ok, hiland3 reported 1 tips yesterday (real, from snow) and 2 last night (either still from snow or false tips).
Spd (1,6): Prop stalled again at 6 last night, similar to a few days ago.  It <may> be related to freezing, but there wasn't much moisture.  It has recovered now.
Dir (1,6): See Spd.

csat diag: ok, several sites showed glitches at 4PM yesterday -- probably not real
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok,
dir: ok, mostly N during the day yesterday
u'u': ok,
v'v': ok,
w'w': ok,
u*: ok, max 0.7 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok

tc: ok,
tc'tc': ok
w'tc': ok, -30 to +200 W/m2.  Some sites apparently had nice conditions yesterday.

kh2oV:  ok, max 1.4--2.0 yesterday, stn 3 down yesterday, now ok
kh2o'kh2o': ok
w'kh2o': ok, up to 0.05 (120 W/m2) during day yesterday

Rsw.in: ok.  max 550-780 W/m2 yesterday!
Rsw.out: ok.
albedo: ok, 0.07-0.25, except for higher morning values with frost on incoming
Rsw.dfs (1,7): "ears" in morning and afternoon in shadowbands (but not SPN-1) show that adjustment is needed (see Summary)
Rsw.global (1,7): ok.

Rlw.in: ok, 200-320 W/m2
Rpile.in: ok,
Tcase.in: ok, 0-16 degC
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok

Rlw.out: ok, 280-400 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok,
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. Getting signficant diurnal swings, many into freezing at night
Gsoil: ok. All but 7 were negative yesterday
Qsoil: ok. apparent or real increases due to soil thawing
Cvsoil: ok. Jump at both sites at 6 just now, probably somehow due to water.

snow

22 Jan, 1150: Some serious snow flurries started at the University and still going 40 minutes later.  It had been nice when the daily briefing ended at 1045.

1420: Snow ended; had changed between soft hail, flurries, and some wet flakes

Daily status 22 Jan

Daily status 22 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

A bit of rain last night, morning of broken clouds.

Summary:
    - kryptons at 3,4,6 reading 0 due to the rain
    - 3G modem at 4 died yesterday and wasn't rebooted by dsm crontab.  Data saved locally, so no loss.
    - Shadowbands at 1&7 should be adjusted (more).  Inclination angle should be set to 60 deg.
    - Oil clean-up people left yesterday near base.
    - Tour given to John Horel's undergraduate instrument course yesterday

Vdsm: ok,
Vmote.rad: ok.
Vmote.soil(aux): ok.

P: ok, steady after falling until 11PM last night
T: ok, 0 to +7 degC (warmer)
RH: ok, 40-95%.
Rainr (3,4,6): ok, 0.8, 0.3, 1.0mm overnight, respectively
Spd (1,6): ok
Dir (1,6): ok

csat diag: ok, 6 & 7 showed simultaneous glitches yesterday, so must be physical
samples.sonic: ok,
spd: ok,
dir: ok,
u'u': ok,
v'v': ok,
w'w': ok,
u*: ok, max 0.8 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok, a few low values at 3 (why not at 2??)

tc: ok,
tc'tc': ok
w'tc': ok, -0.01 to +0.10 m/s degC.  Was pretty nice yesterday

kh2oV:  ok, max 1.5--2.2 yesterday, stns 3,4,6 now 0 due to rain
kh2o'kh2o': ok
w'kh2o': ok, up to 0.02 (50 W/m2) during day yesterday

Rsw.in: ok. overcast yesterday morning, but cleared up in afternoon
Rsw.out: ok.
albedo: ok, 0.1-0.2
Rsw.dfs (1,7): "ears" in morning and afternoon in shadowbands (but not SPN-1) show that adjustment is needed (see Summary)
Rsw.global (1,7): ok.

Rlw.in: ok, 240-320 W/m2
Rpile.in: ok,
Tcase.in: ok, 0-16 degC
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok

Rlw.out: ok, 310-390 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok,
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. Only 7 is still below freezing
Gsoil: ok. Interesting abc change during the day yesterday
Qsoil: ok. apparent or real increases due to soil thawing
Cvsoil: ok.

wvally4 site visit

21 Jan: Militzer&Oncley

Purpose: Entire station lost communication at about 1:30 today (while we were giving the tour of site5).

We've seen lots of reconnects in dyndns both since midnight last night and during the day yesterday.

Steps:

Cradlepoint WAN quick blinking/no USB or WLAN LED.  Cycled power to cradlepoint.  USB now on; WAN blinking; external connection via dyndns still not up, though www.dyndns does show request; am able to ssh in with IP address; data acquisition has been running.

See in messages that router_check ran, now access via isfs4.dyndns is working.

At Gordon's suggestion, did a bunch of tests of check_router script (which should have fixed this problem by itself).  It has a long time-out of 3--5minutes, but did work as expected with the LAN cable unplugged.  We next want to run a test by unplugging the 3G modem, but ran out of power on our laptop.  We'll do this test tomorrow on the spare in the base.

P.S. The next day, we did this test on the spare, which worked exactly as expected.  Thus, this failure at wvally4 is still a mystery.

eslope5 site visit

21 Jan: Oncley&Militzer

Purpose: Class tour; reprogram motes; clean radiometers

Didn't record exact time, but everything done between 1300-1345.  Should be able to tell from mote data.

The data may record that I did an "eio 5 0/1" cycle as a demonstration.  The radiometers had been done by this time.

PS: From the data, the times of these events were:

12:57:50 rad mote restarted

13:00:15 main soil mote restarted

13:04:37 aux soil mote restarted

13:13:20 Rsw.in cleaned

13:13:40 Rlw.in cleaned

13:13:50 Rlw.out cleaned

13:13:55 Rsw.out cleaned

13:22:22 TRH eio

Daily status 21 Jan

Daily status 21 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

High overcast over the entire valley; an inversion developing especially to the south. 
IOP6 is in progress.

Summary: Everything OK.

Vdsm: ok, Min this AM: 12.3-12.5V. (great charging yesterday when completely clear)
Vmote.rad: ok.  Min this AM: 12.5-12.9V
Vmote.soil(aux): ok. Min this AM: 12.2-12.8.

P: ok 850 to 890 mb, minium last night, now rising
T: ok -6 to +2 degC
RH: ok 50-85%.
Rainr (3,4,6): ok, zero everywhere
Spd (1,6): ok
Dir (1,6): ok

csat diag: ok.
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, river7 higher than the rest (normal for this situation)
dir: ok.
u'u': ok,
v'v': ok,
w'w': ok,
u*: ok, max 0.4 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok, odd at eslope5 at 01:30

tc: ok,
tc'tc': ok
w'tc': ok, -0.02 to +0.10 m/s degC.  Nice clear-sky case.

kh2oV:  ok, max/now 1.2--2.3
kh2o'kh2o': ok
w'kh2o': ok, up to 0.03 (75 W/m2) during day yesterday

Rsw.in: ok. Mostly clear yesterday with spikes both high and low
Rsw.out: ok.  Strange shape at wslope6, presumably due to snow melt
albedo: ok, 0.1-0.2 by the end of the day yesterday, though higher again this morning (probably frost on incoming dome)
Rsw.dfs (1,7): large values morning and evening even though shadowband at playa1 adjusted yesterday and river7 a few days ago.  Note that SPN-1 (with no adjustment capability) shows the same.
Rsw.global (1,7): ok.

Rlw.in: ok, 220-300 W/m2.  Coherence across network last night
Rpile.in: ok,
Tcase.in: ok,
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok

Rlw.out: ok, 290-360 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok,
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. many sites have freeze/thaw cycles
Gsoil: ok. Interesting abc change during the day yesterday
Qsoil: ok.
Cvsoil: ok.

playa1 site visit

20 Jan: Oncley & Militzer:

Purpose: Adjust shadowband; nail polish mote antennae; scout for tour

Conditions: water all over the field -- perhaps 50% cover.  Not good for a 14-person tour...  Soil clearly at field capacity, though probably is frozen at some depth.  Some of the water has an ice film (despite Tsoil reading about +4).

1634: Adjust shadowband - azimuth change from about 170 to 180 degrees; elevation change from about 35 to 53 degrees; releveled; adjust ring up a bit to center shadow.

about the same time...reprogram motes with new code; forgot to turn back on

1650: motes back alive

daily status 20 Jan

Daily status 20 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

Absolutely clear morning with great visibility.  There appears to be fog over the lake.
There was frost on the van windows at the Rez.
Everything's working, so we're off to Campbell Sci.

Summary:
    - Kryptons are happy
    - Batteries are happy
    - TRHs are happy
    - Motes are happy (we had to swap one yesterday that had rain damage)
    - We're happy

Vdsm: ok, Min this AM: 12.2-12.5V.
Vmote.rad: ok.  Min this AM: 12.4-12.9V
Vmote.soil(aux): ok. Min this AM: 12.2-12.8.

P: ok 850 to 875 mb, rising
T: ok -8 to +3 degC
RH: ok 60-90%.
Rainr (3,4,6): tips at hiland3 early this morning can't be real...
Spd (1,6): Prop stalled at wvally6 this morning, still hasn't recovered
Dir (1,6):

csat diag: ok.
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, except 5 now
dir: ok, some sustained E and W at different sites -- good drainage case?
u'u': ok,
v'v': ok,
w'w': ok,
u*: ok, max 0.6 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok

tc: ok,
tc'tc': ok
w'tc': ok, -0.04 to +0.08 m/s degC (-40 to +80 W/m2);

kh2oV:  max/now 1.3--2.1, the last krypton recovered from rain at 5pm yesterday
kh2o'kh2o': ok
w'kh2o': ok, up to 0.03 (75 W/m2) during day yesterday

Rsw.in: ok.
Rsw.out: ok
albedo: ok, 0.1-0.3 by the end of the day yesterday.  The snow we saw at 6 must be melting (hence the mud)
Rsw.dfs (1,7): ok, but SPN-1 seems to be high.
Rsw.global (1,7): ok.

Rlw.in: ok, 200-310 W/m2.  Cold and pretty clear last night (with a nearly full moon)
Rpile.in: ok,
Tcase.in: ok,
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok. tiny differences between sensors 1-2-3 seen during the day

Rlw.out: ok, 280-350 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok,
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. some sites freezing up again
Gsoil: ok.
Qsoil: ok. abc2 froze up again last night
Cvsoil: ok.  strange wslope6 increase...

wslope6 site visit

19 Jan: Oncley&Militzer

Purpose: take soil sample

Conditions: Still a glaze of snow everywhere, but lots of squishy mud at the surface -- 2 out of 5 on the mucky scale.  (Not sure if it could be torn down even using the pick-up.)

1420: soil core main

1425: soil core aux

nail polish all mote antenna

wiped off clear-hard ice from Rsw.in; dessicants ok

river7 site visit

19 Jan: (a frustrated) Militzer & Oncley

Reason: Rad mote had died at 0630, but fixed itself at 1045.  Still going to check it out...

Conditions: mostly solid deck across the valley, though broken towards the western mountains.  No snow at site.

1311: ID17 probably used the new version of code to internally reset the XBee.  It hadn't had a heartbeat, so it would have used the internal timers, which was set to reset every 6 hours.  We just changed it to 3 hours (#17xr=10800).

1317: Relevel SPN-1 (about 80% bubble off) -- it appears that the post may have shifted a bit, perhaps with soils thawing?; wiped ice off of dome

1318: Wiped a bit of ice from Rsw.in dome.

nail polished both mote antennae

1318-1320: Downloaded microSD data from rad mote, just to test (later) if data were lost during the 3 hours this morning.  We think the data are just fine.

1328: reprogrammed ID16 with auto-resetting/eeprom/etc. code

wvally4 site visit

19 Jan: Oncley&Militzer

Purpose: restart radiometer mote; take soil core

Conditions: broken alto-cu; snow completely gone around site

1137: Rad mote not working; removed for diagnosis;

water came in through the XBee antenna, dribbled down the XBee and got into the real-time-clock capacitors on the back of the board, taking out the clock.  Data would have been lost.  Copied data file to Oncley's Mac.  Also found broken solder connection on GPS backup battery holder.  Mote starts okay when pressing on this holder!

1140: Soil core taken into containers 1

1153: blotted water off radiometers (though no data being taken yet)

reprogrammed spare mote to be used at this site

1234: Installed new mote; all data working and okay

added nail polish around mote antennae to avoid a recurrence of this problem.

Daily status 19 Jan

aily status 19 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

Rain started at 2AM last night and killed kryptons.  Sleet on campus.

Summary:
    - All kryptons now dead...again...
    - Radiometer motes at 4&7 both lost connections at 0630 this morning.

Vdsm: ok, Min this AM: 12.4-12.5V.
Vmote.rad: ok.  Min this AM: 12.5-13.0V
Vmote.soil(aux): ok. Min this AM: 12.3-12.9.

P: ok 850 to 875 mb, rising, minimum about 0100 last night.
T: ok 0 to +8 degC.  Hiland3 now fixed.
RH: ok 30-95%.
Rainr (3,4,6):  ok. Totals 9.4, 3.4, 7.1mm, respectively last night.
Spd (1,6): ok.
Dir (1,6): ok.

Sonics: 3, 5, 6 having problems in rain -- 5 especially has died

csat diag: ok. 3, 5, 6 all having problems with rain.
samples.sonic: ok, some big dropouts from 4 & 5
spd: ok, except 5 now
dir: ok,
u'u': ok, max 2 m2/s2
v'v': ok, max 3 m2/s2
w'w': ok, max 1 m2/s2
u*: ok, max 0.8 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok

tc: ok,
tc'tc': ok max 0.5 degC
w'tc': ok, -0.1 to +0.1 m/s degC (-100 to +100 W/m2);

kh2oV:  max 1.0--2.5, but now 0 in rain.
kh2o'kh2o': daytime up to 0.03
w'kh2o': mostly up to 0.04 (100 W/m2) during day yesterday

Rsw.in: ok, max 580-670 W/m2 yesterday.
Rsw.out: ok, max 60-180 W/m2 yesterday.  (no snow!)
albedo: ok, were all <0.2 at the end of yesterday, but now 5 & 6 are >0.6 with fresh snow/sleet.
Rsw.dfs (1,7): ok, but SPN-1 seems to be high.
Rsw.global (1,7): ok.

Rlw.in: ok, 240-330 W/m2.  Coherent pattern across the network.  A few low clouds at 1AM at 3&5?
Rpile.in: ok, -120 to 0 W/m2
Tcase.in: ok, 0 to +13 degC
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok

Rlw.out: ok, 320-380 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok, -50 to +20 W/m2
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. Interesting stuff.  All but 7 completely thawed.
Gsoil: ok. All sites had negative fluxes yesterday -60 -- +20 W/m2, almost like "normal" conditions
Qsoil: ok. Lots of movement, upward from rain
Cvsoil: ok.  Mostly tracked Qsoil increases yesterday

River7 heat capacity

I note that recent soilT profiles show intense heating of the top soil layers during the day, followed by almost instantaneous cooling back to below freezing.  Indeed, there is a "rebound" effect where the top soil cools to below the lower soil, associated with a change of sign in the heat flux.  I believe these large changes should indicate a low heat capacity, though the Cv values are just average.  I do note that the soil density is lowest at river7, so Cp (mass-weighted) may be quite low.