Blog from January, 2011

hiland3 site visit

18 Jan: Militzer & Oncley

Purpose: We found an extra TRH in the bottom of our spares box!  Thus, a quick run to this site to change out the known faulty TRH (which will be sent back to Boulder tonight)

1638: old: TRH19 122.17 -1.33 16383 2\r\n

1640: new: TRH23 8.16 48.26 4792 1509\r\n

(looks much better)

Daily status 18 Jan

Daily status 16 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

Sprinkles today (thus warmer)

Summary:
    - WVally4 Temperature/RH sensor had been down since 2PM yesterday.  Fixed 8AM today.  No good excuses this time.
    - Since 2 TRHs have just died with getting wet, we want to try sealing everything better.  This AM we also went to WSlope6 and ABC2 to recoat/seal the SHT connectors.
    - Eslope5 Radiometers were down from 9AM - 2PM 14 Jan.  The radiometer XBee radio had to be reset.
    - All kryptons died in rain last night -- some we've let recover on their own, but we cleaned/dried 2&6.
    - Warmer temperatures should give another opportunity to take soil cores.  We'll wait another day or two.

Vdsm: ok, lowest values still at 7.   Min this AM: 12.2-12.5V. Lowest is river7.
Vmote.rad: ok.  Min this AM: 12.5-12.8V
Vmote.soil(aux): ok. Min this AM: 12.3-12.9.  lowest is eslope5 main.

P: ok 845 to 875 mb, falling.
T: ok -6 to +6 degC, Playa1 lower than the rest
RH: ok 73-102% overnight.  Playa1 highest (note the now 102%).
Rainr (3,4,6):  ok. Totals 0.8, 0.3, 0.5 mm, respectively last night.
Spd (1,6): ok.
Dir (1,6): ok.

csat diag: ok.  Many had issues last night.
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, River7 bad 0600-0700 this morning.
dir: ok, 4,6,7 stations south, others variable
u'u': ok, max 1.0 m2/s2
v'v': ok, max 1.2 m2/s2
w'w': ok, max 0.7 m2/s2
u*: ok, max 0.5 m/s
sigma_w/u*: 1&3 have excursions below 1

tc: ok, 5 bad in last night's rain
tc'tc': ok max 0.6 degC
w'tc': ok, -0.03 to 0.06 m/s degC;

kh2oV:  max 0.9--2.0 yesterday.  All bad overnight.  4&6 kleaned today.
kh2o'kh2o': daytime very small
w'kh2o': max << 0.01 during day

Rsw.in: ok, max 200-450 W/m2 yesterday.
Rsw.out: ok, max 130-280 W/m2 yesterday.
albedo: ok, 0.55-0.75 yesterday. Snow is going...
Rsw.dfs (1,7): max 350&365 W/m2 yesterday.  River SPN-1 somewhat higher
Rsw.global (1,7): Within 40 W/m2 of Rsw.in values -- also true for SPN-1.  (but see my logbook entry yesterday)

Rlw.in: ok, 240-340 W/m2.  Coherent pattern across the network
Rpile.in: ok, -90 to 0 W/m2
Tcase.in: ok, -6 to +16 degC
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok

Rlw.out: ok, 280-320 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok, -70 to +5 W/m2
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. concave profile at 2.  Frozen completely only at 7.
Gsoil: ok. 7 now negative
Qsoil: ok. Most have increased, either due to rain or thawing
Cvsoil: ok

abc2 site visit, jan 18

18 Jan: Militzer&Oncley

Purpose: clean krypton (hasn't been good for a while, despite methanol cleaning not long ago); NESW photos

Conditions: frosty, broken cirrus, great visibility

found honey bottle (without cap)

NESW photos taken

0810: mast down

0814: klean krypton with methanol 0.1 -> 1.7

0816-0818: klean krypton with distilled 0.0->1.7

0821: replace Rsw.in dessicant

0828: soil core taken

0829: mast up

0835: realized that barometer line was disconnected from barometer nipple.  reconnected

Rain at base

1647: started raining moderately heavy at base.  Great for washing out soil core sample dishes!

1701: ended

hail

17 Jan; 1603: FYI, we are in a small hail+rain storm at the 1300E interchange with I-80.  Only lentil-sized particles.  Hail stopped after a few blocks (<2min).

river7 site visit

Jan 17: Militzer&Oncley

Purpose: coat TRH; soil core

Conditions: Cirrus overcast; broken altoCu; only patches of snow left (20%?)

TRH looked good.  Added some nail polish and reinstalled.

1221: soil core taken (containers 5)

Added 3rd battery (just for giggles).  Should get a bunch of charging today.

1245: (radically) adjusted shadow band.  (Angle changed from 38->52 degrees

17 Jan: Militzer&Oncley

Purpose: coat TRH; soil core

Conditions: mostly overcast, calm, snow is melting fast here with perhaps 50% grass/soil exposed.

Radiometer dessicant okay -- no other action taken.

1110: TRH 18 removed for coating.   The probe connector had been greased previously.   There was some green corrosion on the transducer pins.   Cleaned with methanol and coated with nail polish before re-installation.

1120 MainSoil core sample taken (containers 3)

1132 AuxSoil core sample taken (containers 4)

Decided against Kh2o cleaning since yesterday it was at ~2.5v and there has been rain intermittently.   Currently at ~.3v

Decided against taking additional photos at this time because many have been taken here.

17 Jan: Oncley&Militzer

Purpose: Fix RH=0; soil; service; krypton

Conditions: Broken mid and upper-level cloud; snow about 1/4 gone

TRH had fixed itself, but serviced anyway

1010: soil core taken (containers 2)

TRH probe removed -- was wet and a bit of corrosion on SHT connector

old reading: TRH20 8.68 66.17 4861 2076\r\n (but we don't quite trust this) [pin now broken on this TRH :(]

new reading: TRH26 9.41 94.56 4914 3071\r\n (Goretex melted by methanol when we tried to clean)

newest reading: TRH19 11.56 83.88 5142 2666\r\n (when mast down)

1026: mast down

:) all bolts tight

1030: klean krypton 0 -> 0.9 (still not great...) (PS: up to 1.3 with mast up)

1032: wipe off radiometers; dessicant ok.

1045: mast up

photos taken

17 Jan: Oncley&Militzer

Purpose: coat TRH/soil sample/NESW photos/service

Conditions: calm, partly cloudy, above freezing, snow melting steadily.

0821: klean krypton (with residual water) 0 -> 1.1 V

take photos

0829: turn off TRH for fan/housing/sensor replacement.  Adding grease to connector.  Sensor removed, 26, appears to have coating on transducer pins.   The fan here was noisy but still aspirating.   Since we have new fans we swapped it out to be sure.   Very very small amount of corrosion on probe connector of housing that was here.

0830: turn on TRH new housing/sensor

0826: wipe off water (with residual water) from incoming domes, clean Rsw.dfs. Dessiccant is ok.

0835: soil core (but took 35 min to process since corer was jammed.) (containers 1)

hiland3 RH down

RH at hiland3 died within the hour.  Raw reading on this channel is now 0.  Temperature is okay.  Two "eio" power cycles and command "U"/"EXT" didn't help.  Guess we're off to the odd sites tomorrow...

TP01 values changing

With the rain today, we've started seeing large changes in values from the TP01.  As far as I can tell, there is a perfect correlation at every site with soil wetting and higher heat capacities from this event.  (This may be the first time I've seen this good a correlation.)

wind variance variations

In every daily status report, I've noted large variations in the wind variances from certain sites.  I've just poked into this a bit.  It appears that the variances become large for certain wind directions that generally are site dependent.  I've concluded that this effect is from local obstacles (though I haven't been able to completely understand S+ wind directions).  For example, at wvally4 I'm pretty sure that the highest variances are for winds over the mortuary building to the north-northeast.  River7 also has huge wind variances for the same north-northeast directions, that may also be a building, though this is not as obvious to me.

Daily status 16 Jan

Daily status 16 Jan 2011
On site: Oncley, Militzer

Sprinkles today (thus warmer)

Summary:
    - WVally4 Temperature/RH sensor had been down since 2PM yesterday.  Fixed 8AM today.  No good excuses this time.
    - Since 2 TRHs have just died with getting wet, we want to try sealing everything better.  This AM we also went to WSlope6 and ABC2 to recoat/seal the SHT connectors.
    - Eslope5 Radiometers were down from 9AM - 2PM 14 Jan.  The radiometer XBee radio had to be reset.
    - All kryptons died in rain last night -- some we've let recover on their own, but we cleaned/dried 2&6.
    - Warmer temperatures should give another opportunity to take soil cores.  We'll wait another day or two.

Vdsm: ok, lowest values still at 7.   Min this AM: 12.2-12.5V. Lowest is river7.
Vmote.rad: ok.  Min this AM: 12.5-12.8V
Vmote.soil(aux): ok. Min this AM: 12.3-12.9.  lowest is eslope5 main.

P: ok 845 to 875 mb, falling.
T: ok -6 to +6 degC, Playa1 lower than the rest
RH: ok 73-102% overnight.  Playa1 highest (note the now 102%).
Rainr (3,4,6):  ok. Totals 0.8, 0.3, 0.5 mm, respectively last night.
Spd (1,6): ok.
Dir (1,6): ok.

csat diag: ok.  Many had issues last night.
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, River7 bad 0600-0700 this morning.
dir: ok, 4,6,7 stations south, others variable
u'u': ok, max 1.0 m2/s2
v'v': ok, max 1.2 m2/s2
w'w': ok, max 0.7 m2/s2
u*: ok, max 0.5 m/s
sigma_w/u*: 1&3 have excursions below 1

tc: ok, 5 bad in last night's rain
tc'tc': ok max 0.6 degC
w'tc': ok, -0.03 to 0.06 m/s degC;

kh2oV:  max 0.9--2.0 yesterday.  All bad overnight.  4&6 kleaned today.
kh2o'kh2o': daytime very small
w'kh2o': max << 0.01 during day

Rsw.in: ok, max 200-450 W/m2 yesterday.
Rsw.out: ok, max 130-280 W/m2 yesterday.
albedo: ok, 0.55-0.75 yesterday. Snow is going...
Rsw.dfs (1,7): max 350&365 W/m2 yesterday.  River SPN-1 somewhat higher
Rsw.global (1,7): Within 40 W/m2 of Rsw.in values -- also true for SPN-1.  (but see my logbook entry yesterday)

Rlw.in: ok, 240-340 W/m2.  Coherent pattern across the network
Rpile.in: ok, -90 to 0 W/m2
Tcase.in: ok, -6 to +16 degC
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok

Rlw.out: ok, 280-320 W/m2
Rpile.out: ok, -70 to +5 W/m2
Tcase.out: ok
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok

soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok. concave profile at 2.  Frozen completely only at 7.
Gsoil: ok. 7 now negative
Qsoil: ok. Most have increased, either due to rain or thawing
Cvsoil: ok

abc2 site visit, jan 16

16 Jan: Oncley&Militizer

Purpose: preemptive coating of TRH; krypton klean

1015: swap TRH with coated/greased sensor. 24 replaces 21

1019: mast down

1020: klean krypton, first time 1.3V;

1022: sprinkles just started

All mast bolts needed to be tightened (lowest section especially)!

1023: second kleaning 1.0V

1025: third kleaning. 1.1V

1032: mast up

1036-1040: replace dessicant in Rlw.in; wipe off incomings

forgot to take photos, but is raining.

Sunday 16Jan11 09:08-09:38 local; Militzer&Oncley

Purpose: Clean Kh2o, Check dessiccant, grease trh

0909: KH2O Cleaned.  Now reading 1.6V

0910: TRH out 24: It was working OK, however,...

0912: TRH in 27: We checked the DIN connector which was ok, but we cleaned it with ContactRenu anyway.   Sensor 24 now has nail polish on transducer pins and we greased the probe pins to hopefully avoid problems here as have been seen at other locations due to moisture and corrosion.

0913-0933: RAD: cleaned all.  Rlw.in,Rsw.out,Rlw.out had bad dessiccant, swapped; releveled (thought might have been okay)

Conditions: overcast, above freezing with snow cover melting.  Rain expected later today and tomorrow so expect kryptons to 'go away' at some point again.  Again

NESW Photos Taken