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
Cleared off solar panels. Brushed off lightly pyranometer- pyrgeomter clear. 6 inches of snow on ground. Access to site now a long carry unless someone brings a shovel and clears snow berm far back in cemetery.
12/30/10 17:00: John Horel found the West Valley station running. He recycled power and I (TWH) was able to ping the station successfully.
John also cleaned snow off the solar panels. The radiometers were still snow-free.
17:40: Vdsm = 11.8 V
Vmote.rad = 12.5 V
Vmote.soil = 12.8 V
Status evaluated from 36 hour plots on Dec 29 11:00-13:00
On site: no ISFS staff
Weather: no personal observations
Summary: no Tsoil at W Slope main
anomolous P excursion at Playa
* Playa TRH down since 14:00 Dec 28
Riverton sonic spiking heavily (wet?)
radiation mote not reporting at Riverton, but recording
kh2o at Riverton wet(?);
* Playa kh2o has low V since 12/19 06:20
ABC Qsoil went walkabout 08:00 12/28 to 08:00 12/29
Vdsm: ok, 12-14.5 V, batteries appear to be fully charged yesterday
Vmote.rad: 12.5-18 V, Riverton not reporting
Vmote.soil(aux): ok, 12.3-14.5 V, Playa and W Valley spiking to 18.5 V
Current Conditions:
P: 820 to 850 mb, falling; anomolous 2 mb, 4 hour excursion at
Playa this morning
Tbaro: ok, 2 to 7 degC
T: 0 to 2 degC; Playa down since 14:00 Dec 28
RH: 60 to 100%; Playa down
Q: 4 to 5 gm/kg; Playa down
Rainr (3,4,6): ok, 3 to 15 mm/hr showers past 36 hours
Spd (1,6): ok, 12 m/s
Dir (1,6): ok, SSE
csat diag: large spiking at Riverton since 06:00 this morning
samples.sonic: losing samples at some sites since 17:00 Dec 28
spd: ok, 5 to 10 m/s
dir: ok, SSE to SSW
u'u': ok, 2 to 4 m^2/s^2
v'v': ok, 2 to 5 m^2/s^2
w'w': ok, 0.5 to 2 m^2/s^2
u*: ok, 0.4 to 1 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok, ~1.3 at 1,2,5; 1.5 at 3,4; > 2 at 5
tc: ok, 0 to 5 degC
tc'tc': generally < 0.03 degC^2; E Slope high and variable
w'tc': ok, -0.03 to 0.01 m/s degC
kh2oV: 0.6 to 0.9 V at 2-6; 1 and 7 at a few mV
kh2o'kh2o': ok at 2-6; E Slope high and variable
w'kh2o': 0 to 0.03 m/s gm/m^3 at 2-6; 7 questionable
No radiation data transmission at Riverton
Rsw.in: ok, ~50 W/m^2 at 1-5; 100 W/m^2 at 6
Rsw.out: ok, < 10 W/m^2 at 1-4; 27 at 5; 72 at 6
albedo: ok, ~0.1 at 1-4; 0.5-0.7 at 5&6
Rsw.dfs (1,7): 40 W/m^2 at Playa
Rsw.global (1,7): 50 W/m^2 at Playa
Rlw.in: ok, ~320 W/m^2
Rpile.in: ok, -10 W/m2^
Tcase.in: ok, 0-3 degC
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok, 2-3 degC
Rlw.out: ok, 315-330 W/m^2
Rpile.out: ok, -10 to 0 W/m^2
Tcase.out: ok, 0-3 degC
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok, 2-3 degC
soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok, -1 to 2 degC, coldest at surface, except ABC today
Gsoil: ok, -10 (abc) to 15 W/m^2 (playa)
Qsoil: 16 (Eslope) to 35 (Hiland) %vol,
ABC went walkabout 08:00 12/28 to 08:00 12/29
Cvsoil: ok, 7e5 (Wvalley, Eslope) to 3e6 (abc) J/(m^3 degK)
Upon arrival at trailer this morning, pam and flux computers in the trailer were in the state that they were put into on 23 December when an error appears to have caused a failure in numerous parts of the data system.
pam, which is used for s-plus realtime analysis was operating, but flux had become unresponsive. The /usr/local mount on pam did not contain any updated netcdf files from the isfs sites, so realtime analysis was not working. It was advised to restart both pam and flux, starting with pam, and then flux.
This was done, and pam restarted fine, but when remounting, the files did not appear. Then flux was restarted (using the power button due to unresponsiveness) which came back and I was able to start up cockpit and observe that data was flowing properly.
However, when flux was restarted, pam crashed, and became unresponsive. It is apparent that pam mounts flux, and when flux dissapears, pam does not work. The result was a need to restart using the power button. This operation resulted in pam not remounting flux on startup, and therefore does not have access to netcdf data or s-plus.
For future situations where flux is down, it is advised to shut down pam using the computer controls, then reboot flux, and then restart pam, so that it proceeds in mounting, as well as allows flux to reboot.
pam will need to be addressed in the near future, as it is not particularly useful at this time.
Restarting flux has allowed Tom Horst to have access to base computers again, and netcdfs have resumed coming into the computer. Realtime analysis can be done on flux for now, and cockpit is working just fine. It is reported that Tom can no longer access flux. This will be addressed in the morning of the 28th.
An update to the status of spare batteries:
There are 6 batteries in the mountain met building. as of 27/12/2010 5:30pm
1 is charged to 12.77 volts, another is charging overnight. The others will be charged tomorrow and wednesday.
Impending precipitation events and cloudiness mean the ISFS stations will be likely under cloudy conditions from midday tomorrow for up to 84 hours, or more. Spare batteries are being charged to be available for replacement.
The charger that was bought by the Semmer/Stumpy crew indicated that the first battery charged was 'bad' and it is holding a charge of 12.77 volts, so hopefully the charger is incorrect.
12/27/2010 4:10pm MST
Mote power cycling from yesterday did not result in rad mote at river7 functioning.
river7 site was visited to test the sensors/mote and replace the mote if necessary.
Sensors were tested and the mote was found to not be operating. The problem was tentatively identified as a cracked solder on the oscillator for the real-time clock/calendar chip. This results in the 1 second green 'heartbeat' led not lighting. The mote in question is mote 17.
Thus the spare mote: 08 (Channel: B) was connected to the battery/sensors, and turned on, and its LEDs indicated that it was working normally. Mote 8 has been installed, and is locally collecting the data on it's microSD card. It is possible that we can transfer the xbee radio from mote 17 to mote 8, allowing it to communicate with the tower and transmit it's data. But for now, the station radio would have to be reprogramed to receive data from mote 8. Thus it is working in local storage mode only. The transfer of radios may take place tomorrow, and requires disassembly of both motes 17 and 8.
John Militzer has also indicated that he can send a new mote and pre-programed radio from Boulder so that the radiation stand can be communicated with. This is another option.
It has been discussed that the priority is collecting the rad data, and it is not vital that this data be immediately available to project scientists. Though in the interest of ensuring data quality, it makes sense to have the data accessible.
Status evaluated from 36 hour plots on Dec 27 15:30 - 17:00 MST
On site: no ISFS staff
Weather: precip, likely snow (T < 0 degC), yesterday afternoon and last night
partly cloudy today (Rsw.global > Rsw.dfs)
Summary: no Tsoil at W Slope main
radiation mote down at Riverton
kh2o at Playa, Highland still wet
Vdsm: ok, 13.5-14.5 V
Vmote.rad: 13-13.5 V, Riverton down
Vmote.soil: ok, 12.7-13.7 V
Current Conditions:
P: ok, 848 to 877 mb, rising
Tbaro: ok, 5 to 7 degC
T: ok, 1 to 3 degC; below freezing last night; playa spiking
RH: ok, 73 to 90%; playa spiking last night and this morning
Q: ok, 3.5 to 4.5 gm/kg; playa spiking
Rainr (3,4,6): ok, 3 to 12 mm/hr; 13:30 MST 12/26 to 04:30 12/27
Spd (1,6): ok, W Slope calm, Playa 2 m/s
Dir (1,6): ok,
csat diag: ok, high spiking at Playa until 10 am today
spd: ok, up to 3 m/s, Riverton high
dir: ok, W-NW at most sites, S at Riverton, ABC, E at W Slope
u'u': ok, up to 1.5 m^2/s^2
v'v': ok, up to 1.5 m^2/s^2
w'w': ok, up to 0.6 m^2/s^2
u*: ok, up to 0.5 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok, ~1.5
tc: ok, -5 to 5 degC
tc'tc': generally < 0.5 degC^2
w'tc': ok, up to +/- 0.05 m/s degC
kh2oV: 2,4,5,6,7 > 0.5V; 1,3 ~ 0.5 mV
kh2o'kh2o': questionable
w'kh2o': less than 0.01 m/s g/m^3, some questionable
Rsw.in: ok, up to 650 W/m^2 on 12/27, no radiation data at Riverton
Rsw.out: ok, up to 300 W/m^2 on 12/27
albedo: ok, 0.1 to 0.8; E Slope & Highland highest
Rsw.dfs (1,7): ok, up to 300 W/m^2 at Playa
Rsw.global (1,7): ok, up to 600 W/m^2 at Playa
Rlw.in: ok, ~290 W/m^2
Rpile.in: ok, -45 W/m2^
Tcase.in: ok, -8 to 9 deg C
Tdome.in (1,2,5): ok, appears to be some gradients at Playa
Rlw.out: ok, ~320 W/m^2
Rpile.out: ok, -10 W/m^2
Tcase.out: ok, -8 to 10 deg C
Tdome.out (1,2,5): ok, appears to be some gradients at Playa
soil.aux at E & W Slope (5,6)
Tsoil: ok, 0 to 8 C, coldest at surface, mostly above 0 deg C
Qsoil: 14 to 35 %vol, E Slope driest
Gsoil: -20 to 30 W/m^2, mostly > 0
Cvsoil: 6e5 to 2e6 J/(m^3 degK); Playa, ABC, W Slope high, W Valley low
26 Dec 2010 6:36-6:45pm MST
Visited Riverton 7 radiation mote after it failed to return values several days ago. Data resumed flowing on 26 Dec between 9Z and 20Z, without any manual input.
Upon opening the mote, there were no status lights blinking. I power cycled the mote with the on/off switch, and the status lights indicated that it was restarting itself:
all 3 lights flashing rapidly, then off.
Following restarting the yellow GPS light remained on constantly. I tried recycling again, and clearing off all snow and ice from the GPS antenna, but the result was the same.
The reset button was pressed, and the same outcome.
Rad battery level was measured at 12.84V, so this does not appear to be a low battery issue.
The station has been left in this status, with radiation data not reporting. This will be addressed in greater detail during daylight on Monday the 27th.