Blog

Paro 11B back up

A modified interface board for 11B, Pressure2,  was added this morning. Based on Gordon's data_dump function the pressure and temperature data looked good with little noise.

USBdisk swap

The pocketecs, #2 and #11, at downwind1 and downwind2 were removed this morning and new ones put in. Data being copied to base disk.

Downwind2 link down

The wireless link from Downwind2 was down this morning. It went down around 1 am. Power was recycled on the EtherAnt and the link came back to life.

eanth down

eanth is down, which means downwind2, pressure2 and upwind are not reporting.

 Again the log on the ap24 shows "extensive data loss" at 08:48 UTC:

 ssh admin@ap24eth
log
print
...
 08:48:42 wireless,info 00:20:F6:05:24:85@wlan2-Ext-Ant: disconnected, extensive data loss
/quit

In order to investigate whether the reference pressure system is working correctly,  the Vaisala barometer was removed from the profile tower and installed next to the reference pressure tank.  It is connected to the reference tube via a 1/16 inch T connector near where the line goes underground to the tank.  The barometer data cable is connnected to ttyS17 on downwind2.  The pressure variable is called Pref.  The data appears at  18:22 PDT, Jul 8.  So, at this point we have no ambient air pressure.  A second Vaisala PTB is being shipped from Boulder.

The barometer was removed around 18:00, July 8. The replacement barometer was installed around 10:30 am, July 10.

ptec#1 was removed from profile on Jul 8.  It showed errors when downloading with copy_usbdisk.sh, so I did a bb_fsck.sh on it.  As of 8:20 pm it was still running.

ptec#5 was removed from upwind later on Jul 8. It still needs to be downloaded.

To download data from a pocketec or usb pen drive, do the following:

  1. Plug the drive into the 1 spare port on the isff system (latitude D830) 
  2. On isff, do
    copy_usbdisk.sh AHATS
    
  3. When it finishes, power down the pocketec and remove.

It copy_usbdisk.sh reports errors, then you should do a complete bad block check of the drive. Insert the drive in isff, and do:

 bb_fsck.sh

The bb_fsck.sh command takes about 5 hours to complete on a 60 Gbyte pocketec.

Here are the sensor ids of the ParoScientific sensors and the frequency counter board numbers and the input pin numbers.

Note that 7t is on pressure1 and 7b is on pressure2.  Also notice that ids in the 3000's are not at the top height.

pressure1

Location

adam

temperature id

board,pin

pressure id

board,pin

3b

5

2034

0,1

2036

0,8

4b

5

2044

0,18

2046

1,1

5b

5

2054

1,8

2056

1,18

5t

5

2064

2,1

2066

2,8

6b

5

2074

2,18

2076

3,1

6t

5

3054

3,8

3056

3,18

7t

5

3064

4,1

3066

4,8

pressure2

Location

adam

temperature id

board,pin

pressure id

board,pin

7b

6

2084

0,1

2086

0,8

8b

6

2094

0,18

2096

1,1

8t

6

2104

1,8

2106

1,18

9b

6

2114

2,1

2116

2,8

9t

6

3074

2,18

3076

3,1

10b

6

3084

3,8

3086

3,18

11b

6

3094

4,1

3096

4,8

To display data for a given id, do (this example is for temperature from 3b)

data_dump -i 5,2034 -L sock:aster

If you are running on an adam, the data_dump is an older version, do:

data_dump -d 5 -s 2034 -L sock:localhost
Daily status, July 8

AHATS daily status 7/08/08

Staff: Maclean, Horst, Khoung, McIntyre; Semmer arrived today

Summary:

We will count July 7 12:30 PDT as the new start of (good) operations.

A revised configuration schedule, accounting for the start and stop
times of reconfiguration days:

Config  z (m)   S (m)   Dates   Length
1       3-4     4       7/7-15  8.7 days
2       3-4     1.3     7/18-23 6.6 days
3       7-8     1.3     7/25-30 6.6 days
4       7-8     0.43    8/2-9   8.6 days

Gordon replaced the serial board in the downwind-2 adam, which should
eliminate the outages we have been experiencing there.

For more details, see the ahats logbook at https://wiki.ucar.edu/display/ahatslogbook

Good wind direction: For the period 7/7 12:30 through 7/8 12:30, we have
only 3.33 hours (14%) of good data.  We no longer are getting good wind
directions either day or night.

Pressure:
--------
11b not connected. Pressure, but not temperature, bad at 9t.
Diurnal variation of fast pressure is an order of magnitude less
than ambient pressure.

Profiles:
---------
Missing data 17:30 - 18:50, July 7 (power outage at trailer)

diag: spikes around 14:30, July 7.
samples.sonic: same spikes
spd: ok
dir: ok
w: ok
tc: ok
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'w': ok
u*: ok
w'tc': ok
T: ok
RH: 4m may be low by less than 1% RH
P: okay

Upwind (hts=3.5):
----------------
(+/- = ~1 std deviation)
Missing data 17:30 - 18:50, July 7 (power outage at trailer)
Missing sonic 7u 13:00 July 7 - 10:25 July 8 (bad port on new serial card)

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 15 cm/s (6u has +15 cm/s offset in u)
dir: ok, +/- 5 deg
w: ok, +/- 5 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.2 deg
w'w': ok, +/- 0.01 m^2/s^2  (30 min avg for second moments)
u*: ok,  +/- 2 cm/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.02 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.05 degC^2

Lower (hts=3):
-------------
Missing data 17:30 - 18:50, July 7 (power outage at trailer)
Missing sonics 7b-13b 10:15 - 10:40 July 8 (swapping serial board)

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 20 cm/s
dir: ok, +/- 6 deg
w: ok, +/- 5 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.27 deg
w'w': ok, +/- 0.01 m^2/s^2  (30 min avg for second moments)
u*: ok,  +/- 3 cm/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.02 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.1 degC^2

Upper (hts=4):
-------------
Missing data 17:30 - 18:50, July 7 (power outage at trailer)
Missing sonics 7t-11t 10:15 - 10:40 July 8 (swapping serial board)

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 20 cm/s
dir: ok, +/- 5 deg; 6t is about 6.5 degrees off from profile sonic
w: ok, +/- 6 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.2 deg
w'w': ok, +/- 0.01 m^2/s^2  (30 min avg for second moments)
u*: ok,  +/- 4 cm/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.02 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.1 degC ^2

When the air conditioner in the trailer kicks on it often triggers the UPS's to kick on.  We had all the computer systems and disk drives on the smaller unit, the APC SmartUPS 1000.  Perhaps on hot afternoons, when the ISS trailer air conditioner is also running, the power surges are larger.

In any case the SmartUPS 1000 was shutting down on every AC turn on, since it eventually drained its battery after so many hits. This causes disk problems, which is NOT good. We now have the USP's cabled in serial, with the SmartUPS 1000 plugged into line power, the big SmartUPS 22XXX (whose battery is toast) is plugged into the 1000, and the computer systems are running on the 22XXX.  It seems to work better than with the 22XXX first in  line.

We've asked Kurt to order a new battery for the 1000. 

The serial card problem is a bit mystifying. It didn't happen in CHATS, and we had about the same or more load on the data system.

Systems with the Emerald 8P cards seem to be the ones that are failing. I don't believe we had those at CHATS.  So I'm removing them from our systems.

upwind: had 1 8P card and 1 8M. It was only using 7 ports on the 8P and none on the 8M, so I removed the 8P and cabled the 8M as the first and only card.  There is still an available port for the 15th pressure system.

downwind2: removed 8P W274177, installed 8M W240036, which is a spare card.  This board has a dead port #1 (numbered from 0) which is /dev/ttyS6 when it is installed as the first card.  To minimize the cabling changes. I installed W240036 as the second card, and so W249924 is now the first card. This means that port /dev/ttyS14 is now dead, and the last sonic was switched to /dev/ttyS15.

Currently the profile tower has the only remaining 8P card (and it has been working quite well since we improved the voltage level).

Later noticed that port ttyS7 on upwind was not working. Seems that W240025 also has a bad port.  Since we want all ports to work on upwind in order to have one available for the 15 pressure system, I did another swap on Jul 8. At 10:20am removed the first emerald card, W249924, from downwind2, installed it on upwind. Took W240025 from upwind and installed it as the first serial board on downwind2.

The data system configuration is now:

name

viper#

box

tower

net link

serial #0

serial #1

profile

3

6

profile

eantg

8P W274095

8M 240017

downwind1

6

14

d4

hub in profile

8M W249918

8M 250043

downwind2

1

13

d10

eanth

8M W240025

8M W240036

upwind

2

1

u7

hub in downwind2

8M W249924 

 

pressure1

10

small

d4

hub in profile

 

 

pressure2

11

large

d10

hub in downwind2

 

 

These serial cards have bad ports

SN

bad ports

W240025

2(ttyS7)

W240036

1(ttyS6)

 W240025 and W240036 are on downwind2. The configuration on downwind2 skips ports ttyS7 and ttyS14.

Revised Schedule, accounting for estimated start and stop times of reconfiguration days:

Config

z (m)

S (m)

start

end

Length (days)


3-4

4

July 7 12:30

July 16 06:00

8.7

2

3-4

1.2

July 17 16:00

July 24 06:00

6.6

3

7-8

1.29

July 24 16:00

July 31 06:00

6.6

4

7-8

0.43

Aug 1 16:00

Aug 10 06:00

8.6




Daily status, July 7

AHATS daily status 7/07/08

Staff: Maclean, Horst, Khoung, McIntyre

Summary: Yesterday we deployed pressure-1 after lunch and pressure-2
around 20:30 PDT.  Pressure-1 serves 3b-6b and 5t-7t, but pressure-2
had only 5 new filter boards, serving 7b-9b and 8t-9t.  Unfortunately
the temperature channel on 9b is noisy.  Gordon finished the final
two filter boards this morning and installed them in pressure-2.
The bad filter board was removed, leaving 11b currently not connected.

We will count July 7 12:30 PDT as the new start of (good) operations.

A tentative revised configuration schedule would be:

Config  z (m)   S (m)   Dates   Length
1       3-4     4       7/7-15  8 days
2       3-4     1.3     7/18-25 7 days
3       7-8     1.3     7/25-31 7 days
4       7-8     0.43    8/3-9   7 days

Gordon replaced the serial board in the upwind adam, which should
eliminate the outages we have been experiencing there.

For more details, see the ahats logbook at https://wiki.ucar.edu/display/ahatslogbook

Good wind direction: For the period 6/25 17:00 through 7/7 13:00, we have
121.17 hours of data periods of length 20 minutes or longer with
wind directions from 295-355 degrees.  This includes 92.67 hours of periods
longer than one hour and equates to good wind direction periods 43%
of the time.  Sorted by stability, there are 61.08 hours of stable
stratification (<w'tc'> < 0) and 58.67 hours of unstable stratification.

Profiles:
---------

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok
dir: ok
w: ok
tc: ok
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
u*: ok
w'tc': ok
T: ok
RH: 4m may be low by less than 1% RH
P: okay

Upwind (hts=3.5):
----------------
(+/- = ~1 std deviation)
missing sonics 5u-11u 1:10 - 09:00, July 6
missing sonics 5u-11u 20:10 July 6 - 07:40 July 7

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 17 cm/s (6u has +15 cm/s offset in u)
dir: ok, +/- 5 deg
w: ok, +/- 6 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.2 deg
w'w': ok, +/- 0.01 m^2/s^2  (30 min avg for second moments)
u*: ok,  +/- 5 cm/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.02 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.06 degC^2

Lower (hts=3):
-------------
upwind2 stopped 9:10-11:30, July 6; missing sonics 9b-13b

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 20 cm/s
dir: ok, +/- 6 deg
w: ok, +/- 5 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.27 deg
w'w': ok, +/- 0.01 m^2/s^2  (30 min avg for second moments)
u*: ok,  +/- 4 cm/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.02 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.1 degC^2

Upper (hts=4):
-------------
upwind2 stopped 9:10-11:30, July 6; missing sonics 7t-11t

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 17 cm/s
dir: ok, +/- 5 deg; 6t is about 6.5 degrees off from profile sonic
w: ok, +/- 6 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.2 deg
w'w': ok, +/- 0.01 m^2/s^2  (30 min avg for second moments)
u*: ok,  +/- 4 cm/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.02 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.05 degC ^2

Yesterday, July 6, in the afternoon we installed the pressure1 system, with the altered interface cards, and mounted the Paroscientific units on the masts.  Data from pressure1 appears at 15:30 PDT.  All frequency counts look good.  The units serviced by pressure1 are 3b,4b,5b,5t,6b,6t and 7t.

Daily status, July 6

AHATS daily status 7/06/08

Staff: Maclean, Horst, Khoung, McIntyre

Summary: Gordon has demonstrated that the passive filter circuit produces
solid period measurements of both the temperature and pressure signals
from the Paroscientific barometers.  We are in the process of replicating
the new circuit for all 14 barometers.  We have deployed adam pressure-1
serving locations 3b-6b and 5t-7t and plan to deploy adam pressure-2,
serving locations 7b-9b and 8t-9t before we leave for the day.
This will give us two sets of five pressure sensors (5-9) at two heights.
We will complete pressure-2 with locations 10b and 11b tomorrow
after we purchase additional resistors.

For more details, see the ahats logbook at https://wiki.ucar.edu/display/ahatslogbook

Good wind direction: For the period 7/1 13:00 through 7/6 13:00, we have
71.67 hours of data periods of length 20 minutes or longer with
wind directions from 295-355 degrees.  This includes 59.17 hours of periods
longer than one hour and equates to good wind direction periods 60%
of the time.  Sorted by stability, there are 33.75 hours of stable
stratification (<w'tc'> < 0) and 37.58 hours of unstable stratification.

Note that the normal to the array is 325 degrees.  If the array orientation
were 315 degrees (NW: 285-345 degrees) as for HATS/SGS, then the division
is 36.58 hours stable and only 24.67 hours unstable.

Since 6/25, we have had 46% good wind directions, with a symmetric stability
distribution in the range  -1 < z/L < 1 and some periods with -2 < z/L < -1
or 1 < z/L < 5.