11:36am MST 31 Dec 2010
Cleared solar panlels, radiometers were clear on arrival.
Snow depth 4.5 inches with minor drifts around equipment.
Sun was weakly coming out while mainteanance was performed. This site was just south of the very persistent lake effect band that was hitting playa1 and wvalley4
10:35am MST 31-12-2010
Playa1 site visited, snowing heavily on arrival. Radiometers were clear on arrival.
Solar panels cleared, no ice was found.
2.5 inches of drifting snow on the ground as of time of visit. TRH at site sounds very rough.
Power cycled Highland at 7:00 AM. 4 inches of snow. Cleared off solar panels and radiometers.
Replaced batteries at West Valley at 8:15. 10 inches of snow. Cleared off solar panels and radiometers. ETI precip gauge is filled with snow and not melting into antifreeze. Needs to have known amount of antifreeze added. UU has antifreeze at Mtn Met Lab.
Multiple snow depth samples averaged to 8.9 cm at Hiland3 at 1700 UTC 1 Jan 2011.
-Dave & Johanna Whiteman
Power recycled twice at Hiland3 at 1000 and 1005 MST (1700 and 1705 UTC) while on phone with Tom Horst. Recycles were unsuccessful at allowing Tom to ping the site, which had been power-recycled earlier this morning by John Hortel, also to no avail. The station is, nevertheless, running the fan and collecting data on-site. Tom suggests that there may be an intermittency in the control line at this site, which will be handled by the ISFS crew arriving in Salt Lake City tomorrow.
TWH: the power recycle was successful, since I was later able to ssh in and data is being transmitted.
8:23am MST 31 Dec 2010
Solar panels cleaned at abc2. Some ice present on panels
Broke ice U of U scraper on thin ice.
Radiometer doms were found to be free of snow or ice.
Conditions at the site were various large deep frozen ponds, and 2.5 inches of snow
7:50am MST 31-Dec 2010
Hiland3 batteries replaced after dsm power cutoff at 2:30am MST on 31 December 2010. Replaced with 2 charged gel cell batteries
Old batteries retuned for charging
Cleaning:
Radiation domes found to be clear of ice and snow,
Solar panels brushed off, snow covered, but no ice formation yet.
3.5 inches of snow was present at the site as of my visit