Another clear and cold morning today, with temperatures again in the low teens. The rest of the day was very similar to yesterday, with beautiful clear skies and a high around freezing. Winds were mostly calm, but increased in the afternoon. The weekend looks to be a bit warmer and sunny, before the next weather system moves in around Tuesday.

As is customary at this point, we had to reset HRXL’s at CC, SP, and DCS first thing in the morning. The morning data check showed no other new issues, but the battery at DC had dropped to near 12.5V, necessitating a battery swap. While we were there, Liz helped troubleshoot the electrical issues with the electrician and I took a soil sample and measured the boom angle with the Leica GPS antenna. The ground was quite frozen and covered in about 6 inches of snow. For the electrical, it turns out there was a short at a junction outside of the barn. The electrician planned on bypassing that section as a temporary fix, so we will hopefully have power at the site restored by the time of this blog post. 

In the afternoon we returned to DCS to troubleshoot the thermocouple at 32m. Unfortunately the problem was with the thermocouple itself, forcing us to lower the tower to replace it. This did the trick and we are now getting data. We only have one spare thermocouple left at that site, but there is discussion about removing all the thermocouples from the towers before next week's forecast snow, which would alleviate this concern. We also decided to dress the cables at the tower to facilitate lowering and raising the tower. Thanks to Liz for doing much of the untangling and taping despite freezing hands! This should make life much easier for future visits to DCS. 

We wrapped up the day with the 4:15 pm sounding and a data check, finding no issues. Tomorrow is a down day for the project. 

5 Comments

  1. Did you use the Gravimetric form, when taking the soil sample? I don't see it in the responses.

    You can find the link to it in either the ‘Soil Sample Table’ page or the main page. 

    But, here is the link below:

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTrqgxUg95soC9iIqgHDeRayCXml186A_1eBM3WlduFu1FfQ/viewform

  2. Matt Paulus AUTHOR

    I started it, but we haven't finished backing the sample to get the dry weight. I wasn't sure if I could edit my response after I submitted, so I decided to wait. I will submit this afternoon after I get a chance to weigh the dry sample.

  3. Good call!  It should be editable, but Steve and Isabel noted that only the originator can edit, which isn't so practical if someone else does the dry weight. 

    Although the form is in the ISFS shared drive, editing should be allowed by team members. Apparently, that is not the case. 

    This has been a good test of this form. 


    1. I found that I could edit Steve's responses, but only once he forwarded me the confirm submission emails with the links to edit.

      1. Matt Paulus AUTHOR

        Thanks Isabel. I will keep that in mind for next time.