Blog from September, 2012

September 18, 2012

All Day

Jesse and I tried to finish what we could on the Main Tower and got shutdown due to booms needed and brackets.  Kurt showed up and we started to dress all the A-Towers starting from the East.  We did not dress all of the C-Tower due to questions for a scientist on what boom they would prefer for the upper pressure port.

These are the numbers we went off of on all A-Towers.

Lower TRH - 84cm to top of boom to edge of base plate.  

CSAT - 91.2cm top of boom to base plate but 92cm to top of boom to edge of base plate.

Upper TRH - 2.36cm to top of boom to edge of base plate.

We did all the East towers to the transect line, just West of the Main tower.  The Main Tower did NOT get dressed.  Questions for a scientist was needed.

Used the ATV today.  GREAT help.  Trailer did well and easy to get instruments that were stashed at Main Tower to the rest of the towers.  We have been locking the ATV w/ trailer to the Base Trailer at nights.  Key is in the base trailer by front door.

Tensions are in foot/pounds (ft/lbs) and from inner to outer.

September 17, 2012

Afternoon - Early Evening

Chris and Jesse on site.

Began to dress the Main Tower this afternoon.  Set the Rohn clamps at 20,10,5,4,3,2,1 and 0.5m.  Hung instruments on upper three heights.

20.5m:  0741, B4 (this cable was marked with flagging and a BUNCH of knots.

10.00m:  1119, 1393 (this cable was marked with just flagging tied to coiled cable.

5.01m:  0538, B5 (no cables hung on this level).

4.05m:  

3.03m:

2.0m:

1.04m:

0.50m:

The ATV was unloaded and locked underneath the Base Trailer.  The ramps were also locked to trailer.

The fence stairs have been secured and stable.  A LOT better than first week of set-up.

Friday with Kurt, Chris, Jesse, SteveO, John.  Started about 0830, worked through until 1500 to give enough time to return the rental truck.

Drove second truckload into the field with all sensors.  Fairly quickly discovered that the U-bolts we intended to use to mount all A-tower booms didn't have the back "strap" and thus couldn't be used.  Placed an order for more, but they won't be here until at least Monday.  So, in the meantime:

- Put TRHs at each site with their appropriate booms.  They are simply strapped on the tower with cable ties for the weekend.

- Handars also placed but only strapped

- Installed sonic clamps/booms/arrays at the C tower and all A towers that had clamps (4? sites)

- Left a cache at the main tower of all remaining sonics/kryptons/licors/barometers

- Left stuff for one barometer at the C tower.

- Moved A17 into position

- Staked all solar panels

- Spooled out some of the AC cable from the C transformer

- Wired solar panels at A18 and A19

So, remaining tasks are:

- Spool out remaining AC cable (now at base trailer) to tower C

- Wire solar panels at A1, A4?, A17, A15? when we get cable

- Add all sensors to M tower

- Mount TRHs the correct way at all A towers

- Mount sonics on most A towers

- Mount all barometers

- Possibly move all battery boxes to solar panels (allows the DSMs to be moved high on the towers)

Setup Day 3
Lots of people and stuff.  Started about 8:30, lunch break 12:00-2:00; Ended at 5:00
(Chris, Kurt, Rudy, Jesse, Steve O, Steve S, John, Mike D visited)
By lunch time:
- TP01 reinstalled in grass soil site
- all solar panel stands (except for 2 still in base trailer) positioned (still not staked)
- main tower up to 50' with permanet guys
- base trailer delivered, leveled, porch&steps set up 
After lunch:
- main tower completed
- base powered up
- rental truck loaded with sensors, etc. for second run (tomorrow)
- Gordon/Andrew got networking working in lab; plan is to install data systems on Monday.
Tomorrow is sensor day!
(Entered on Friday for Thursday, since internet at the RIC was down.)

Lots of people and stuff.  Started about 8:30, lunch break 12:00-2:00; Ended at 5:00

(Chris, Kurt, Rudy, Jesse, Steve O, Steve S, John, Mike D visited)

By lunch time:

- TP01 reinstalled in grass soil site

- all solar panel stands (except for 2 still in base trailer) positioned (still not staked)

- main tower up to 50' with permanet guys

- base trailer delivered, leveled, porch&steps set up 

After lunch:

- main tower completed

- base powered up

- rental truck loaded with sensors, etc. for second run(tomorrow)

- Gordon/Andrew got networking working in lab; plan is to install data systems on Monday.

Tomorrow is sensor day!

Today was a late start due to rain -- we started work about noon and ended about 5PM so that Kurt could run into town for misc. hardware.  Nevertheless, in these 5 hours we erected all but one of the A towers (since A17's parts couldn't be moved up the gully due to wet ground), the C tower, and the first 3 (of 7 total) sections of the main tower.  We also placed the rad stand.  So...only 5 more tower sections to go!

We started the day by noticing a diamondback rattlesnake (Kurt estimated 5' long) coiled up near tower C.  The poor thing was cold and tightly coiled.  Chris downloaded a photo.  We all watched our steps much more closely after that!

Weather is expected to be good into the weekend.  We expect the base trailer to arrive tomorrow morning.

P.S. I've put a few photos in this Wiki, but added more to the bottom of the SCP WWW page: http://www.eol.ucar.edu/deployment/field-deployments/field-projects/scp/shallow-cold-pool-scp-field-project

Chris located the "bottomland" set of soil sensors about 8m west of where I had been looking.  We'll still have to reinstall the TP01.

This from Jielun using her hand-held GPS yesterday:

Larry and Steve,
  Here are my GPS readings. Somehow, I didn't get A8 and A9 right, so you can ignore their numbers. I also plotted all the locations. They look pretty good. The red M is the main tower, the green C is the C tower, and the blue line is the fiber-optic line.
  Jielun

Comment by Gordon, Dec 18, 2013:  Jielun used the original station numbering, which was revised once the stations were set up. I've added a column to her table indicating the actual station numbering when it differs from hers. I've also substituted a lat,lon for her station a8, actual a9, averaged from the GPS data on the DSM.

lat_a1=40.81149;lon_a1=-104.78518;
lat_a2=40.81007;lon_a2=-104.78242;
lat_a3=40.80813;lon_a3=-104.78271;
lat_a4=40.80949;lon_a4=-104.78023;
lat_a5=40.80876;lon_a5=-104.78040;
lat_a6=40.80816;lon_a6=-104.78053;
lat_a7=40.80763;lon_a7=-104.78076;
lat_a8=40.80772;lon_a8=-104.77811; actual a9: lat 40.80812, lon -104.77788
lat_a9=40.80771;lon_a9=-104.77811;  actual: a10
lat_a10=40.80675;lon_a10=-104.77861; actual a12
lat_a11=40.80645;lon_a11=-104.77876; actual a13
lat_a12=40.80606;lon_a12=-104.77897; actual a14
lat_a13=40.80723;lon_a13=-104.77836; actual a11
lat_a14=40.80733;lon_a14=-104.77655; actual a15
lat_a15=40.80700;lon_a15=-104.77667; actual a16
lat_a16=40.80675;lon_a16=-104.77677; actual a17
lat_a17=40.80740;lon_a17=-104.77901; actual a8
lat_a17_old=40.80689;lon_a17_old=-104.77541; unknown
lat_a18=40.80720;lon_a18=-104.77485;
lat_a19=40.80640;lon_a19=-104.77451;
lat_main=40.80719;lon_main=-104.77811;
lat_c=40.80677;lon_c=-104.77467;
lat_fiber1=40.80705;lon_fiber1=-104.77706;
lat_fiber2=40.80679;lon_fiber2=-104.77708;
lat_fiber3=40.80736;lon_fiber3=-104.77700;

The first day of set-up for SCP went pretty well.  Despite PI last-minute adjustments and dead batteries both in the theodolite and in one of the vehicles, by the end of the day almost all infrastructure pieces were in place in the field.  Most solar panels were connected to batteries to give them a good charge.  One run of AC power cable also was positioned.  Exceptions (all minor) are:

- A17 was downloaded at its old location, rather than new (not our fault)

- One charge controller left in a battery box in the base trailer

- Several stations are missing power cables that are still in use in Boulder

- A few booms made it to incorrect locations.

- The rad stand is not exactly placed.  Larry and I will try to do it tomorrow, though we've formed a plan in any case.

With moderate rain tonight predicted to last till noon tomorrow, we likely will be slower tomorrow.  However, we should get a good start on erecting towers.

One problem is that flagging of one of the soil sites was removed.  (I found the bare metal wire of the flag several meters away today.)  Also, the TP01 at this site had been removed from the ground and is lying on the surface (though it appears to be in perfect shape).  I have spent a lot of time (even at low sun angles this morning) looking for traces in the area (I know to within 7m x 7m), but haven't been sure enough of any location to start digging for the buried cable ends.  My current idea is to buy a metal detector!  In any case, I'll have to rebury the TP01 after I find its PIC processor.

970-897-2276 (rings to dining room)