Day 8 of the Perdigao IOP. The weather warm and sunny. Very little surface wind. Upper level winds are getting stronger and the system struggles to receive the data to burst due to the hills to the east.
Four sondes launched at 00UT, 06UT, 12UT & 18UT without issues.
The PTB330 pressure sensor as part of the surface met station has stopped working. for the 00UT launch there was some oscillation, which by 12UT was extreme and no meaningful reading could be taken.
About 35 students from the University of Porto stopped by for the noon time launch. I did a short show-and-tell presentation after the launch.
Day 7 of the Perdigao IOP. The weather has warmed up and become mostly clear. Upper level winds have calmed down and the sondes could be received to their burst point.
Four sondes launched yesterday and today at 00UT, 06UT, 12UT & 18UT. All systems are working.
Lou disconnected the grounding wire on the water vapor DIAL following Scott's instruction. No report of further issues.
Lou installed a few concrete bricks as steps to the trailer.
Today the local community club organized a lunch for the community and campaign participants. 7 of us participated.
Day 5 of the Perdigao IOP. With the passage of a cold front the weather cooled significantly and it became rainy and much colder than yesterday.
Four sondes launched at 00UT, 06UT, 12UT & 18UT.
The 06UT and 12 UT sondes were launched in rain. Used about 43 bar of helium for the noon sounding to account for the extra weight of water on the balloon.
Restarted the Ubiquity antenna link on the water vapor DIAL after Scott Spuler alerted us that he lost communication to the DIAL. When we opened the DIAL, the system appeared completely functional with the exception of the lost network access. Unplugging and reconnecting the Ubiquity solved the problem.
Bill left in the afternoon.
Day 4 of the Perdigao IOP. Weather fine and very warm, with thick cirrus layer and generally light winds.
Four sondes launched at 00UT, 06UT, 12UT & 18UT.
We are beginning to loose telemetry signal earlier, due to the sonde disappearing behind the ridge to our east. We use about 40 bar of helium per sounding.
Checked the 1290 profiler site. The air conditioning in the shed works and keeps the max temperature below 32°C or so.
Set up the surface met tower at the sounding site.
Day 3 of the Perdigao IOP. Weather fine and very warm, with scattered thin cirrus and light winds.
3 Soundings launched today, 0UT, 6UT, and 18UT - the 12UT sounding was skipped due to the change over from the van to the office trailer - which finally arrived around noon. We had to dismantle the van setup to make room for the trailer,. The truck turned out to be too large to get to our prefered location at the sounding site. Instead the trailer was loaded to a point close to the main valley road where the crane truck could reach, up the hill from the Helium and sounding antenna. (The second trailer, destined for the Notre Dame site, was returned to the supplier since their site is too remote for delivery by such a large truck). Power was run to the trailer and sounding equipment was set up in time for the 18 UTC sounding. The DM computer, surface met and network are not yet installed and we are aiming to start on those tomorrow.
Holger arrived in time for the 18 UTC sounding.
Day 2 of IOP. Weather fine and sunny with just widely scattered cirrus, almost no wind.
Four soundings launch today (0Z, 6Z, 12Z & 18Z). The office trailer for the sounding site was supposed to arrive today however was delayed again - this time apparently due to a truck breakdown. They are now saying it will arrive tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we have no surface met or DM computer at the sounding site, and so no sounding data is being transferred.
The profiler site was shutdown for several hours while the power company installed an extra line to enable DLR to operate their radiometer at the site. We also installed an air conditioning unit in the shed, since the temperatures inside have been over 40C many days and occasionally reaching over 45C.
The Perdigao IOP has begun and we launched the first soundings today. The weather was clear and warm with almost no wind.
We completed setup of the sounding system in it's temporary shelter in the van. Steve Semmer assisted Lou & I setting up a 10 meter PAM tower we're using to lift the radiosonde receiver antenna to get a better reception as the balloons drift out of the valley. Ed Creegan rewired our circuit in the power box and our power is more stable now. The first sounding was a launched at 12:20 pm local (12 UTC nominal time) and a second was launched at 6:15pm (18 UTC). The midnight sounding was canceled because the OU, CU, and other systems aren't in place and there weren't assistants available to help launch. The next sounding is scheduled for 6am tomorrow morning.
We don't have a surface met system up yet so surface data were transferred from the sonde. We also don't have the DM computer or network up yet, so data is just being stored locally. The office trailer is due to arrive tomorrow and we will setup the remainder of the system when that is in place. We are using a borrowed Helium regulator however it is very slow to fill the balloons so we plan to switch over to an alternate regulator tomorrow. We have to share this regulator with other groups, so have ordered more regulators which are due to arrive in about a week.
Emily also made some last minute updates to the NCAS profiler before leaving this afternoon - thanks Emily!
IOP setup continued. Cold with rain and gusty winds this morning, gradually clearing.
Continued set up of sounding site. Attempted to connect power to our allocated circuit breaker with a pig-tail hard wired in, however even with a UPS and power conditioner the voltage on this circuit was unstable. When we even just powered up a computer monitor, the monitor would buzz and keep resetting. Switched to an alternate outlet circuit and the power was more stable, however we can't close the power cabinet with a power cord to this circuit. Unplugged and will inspect wiring with Ed Creegan tomorrow. We also began setup of the pam tripod that will be used for the sonde reception antenna, and tested other components of the system.
Tidying up at NCAS profiler site. Did some training on how to maintain the profiler with Emily. She rearranged power and added a UPS to the trailer computer - power seems to be stable for now, although some problems are expected as it gets warmer and ACs start up. Emily is returning to the UK tomorrow - many thanks to her and Geraint for bringing the profiler to Perdigao.
IOP phase setup continued. Scattered showers in the morning, cloudy most of the day.
Completed construction of the clutter fence for the NCAS profiler at the operations center. The fence is large structure about 8m long by 3.5m high and is composed of 6 A-frames made of 8x8cm timber with 2x5cm rails to which rabbit mesh is attached. Emily reports that it is very effective and the profiler is now getting reliable from about 150m up to the 2-3 km range. Many thanks to Kurt, Steve and Brigitte for helping with the construction.
Sounding site: sounding rack, computer and other components set up inside the van, however power is not yet hooked up and outside components not started yet.
Perdigao all hands meeting held at the operations center during the afternoon.
Continued IOP phase setup for the ISS at Perdigao. A busy couple of days.
Power: There have been a number of power issues around the whole valley as all the instruments from the many groups have been installed. This has affected all four ISS sites. At the west profiler site, DLR are installing a microwave radiometer and we are installing an AC which is expected to push the limits of the current circuit there. At the sodar site, power has been off in the early morning for the past three nights in a row (typically around 4am - 7am, +/- a few hours) - it may be radiometer heaters starting up to dry off morning dew. At the NCAS profiler at the operations center, we have only one reliable circuit which has been tripping the circuit breaker in the trailer and the operations center itself is short of power. At the sounding site, there are 4 lidars instead of the expected 2 drawing more power there than expected. On Thursday morning a meeting on power was held with INEGI and extra breakers are being installed but it'll take a few days. Friday morning an extra breaker was installed at the sounding site for us, and an extra phase line will be installed at the west profiler site on Tuesday.
Sounding site: Unfortunately the office trailer for this site this is delayed until Tuesday. In the meantime we hunted around for a van, and eventually rented one at Avis and have positioned that at the site. We plan to begin installation of the sounding equipment Saturday. A sounding operator schedule is being worked on, thanks to Alison for creating the spreadsheet.
NCAS profiler: There have been AC problems leading to overheating of the equipment enclosure and it was discovered that the two ACs had lost most of their coolant. Fortunately INEGI was able to find a local AC company who were able to repair the specialist AC units on the system Friday. Thanks very much to Geraint who left Friday afternoon, Emily continues until Monday. A clutter fence is being constructed - many thanks to Kurt, Steve Semmer and Brigitte for working on this.
The setup for the IOP phase continued. The NCAS folks spent most of the day testing and diagnosing the profiler with the assistance of the manufacturer (Degreane in France) via phone. All electronics signals up until the final transmitter amplifier seemed to be fine, but the amp wasn't transmitting. There is also some problem with an air conditioner on the profiler. Finally this evening the profiler started working again, although since the evening was cool, it is not yet clear if there's a temperature control problem.
Helium was delivered to the sounding site this afternoon. There was a long delay due to lengthy discussions with the driver about whether his oversized truck could get to the site and other access and logistical matters. In spite of Air Liquide assurances, the Helium fittings are not compatible with our fittings however IPMA has offered to lend us their regulators on Friday. Unfortunately the office trailer for the sounding site did not arrive and is now rescheduled for next Tuesday. We have arranged for a rental van to use as a sounding base in the meantime and we should be able to pick that up on Friday. There is also uncertainty about power at the site, since 4 lidars (NCAR water vapor DIAL, two Cornell wind lidars and a U. Notre Dame lidar) have been placed at the site (instead of the the two expected) so the power draw is close to the limits of the switch board there.
Setup for the IOP phase continues. Today Emily and Geraint got the NCAS profiler working around midday - however after about an hour operation a fault developed which is being diagnosed with the assistance of the manufacturer. It may be a temperature related issue since there may be a problem with AC on the system. The hour of measurements did reveal significant ground clutter, despite being surrounded by an embankment on two sides (east and north) and the Operations Centre building to the west. The south side is open to hills 1 - 2 km away and we appear to be getting significant clutter from those. We plan to build a clutter fence on this side over the weekend.
Tomorrow an office trailer is due to arrive at the sounding site, along with Helium.
The setup of the IOP Phase of the field campaign is underway with the arrival of Lou and Bill. Two additional sites will be setup, the NCAS Wind Profiler site and the sounding site.
NCAS 1290 Wind Profiler setup:
The NCAS wind profiler will be set up at the Operations Center in Alvaiade. The preferred sites to the northeast near the villages of Tojeirinha and Rodeios didn't work out for a variety of reasons related to availability, access and power. Emily Norton and Geraint Vaughan from NCAS arrived and after surveying alternatives with their help it was determined that the Operations Center was the only viable site available. We maneuvered the trailer into position and Emily and Geraint have begun to prepare the system. Power will be drawn from the Operations Center, although care will need to be taken not to overload circuits. A network cable will also be run to the system with computers being setup in an office trailer in the parking lot.
Sounding Site setup:
The office trailer for the sounding site is delayed and is expected to arrive Wednesday.
José Carlos told me yesterday morning that there would be a power outage at the profiler site to prepare for the arrival of the other instruments. He said it would happen Monday and take several minutes at the most. However, at the moment the profiler site gateway is not pinging, so maybe it's happening this morning, or maybe this is a different problem.
He has also heard from the caretakers of the cell tower that they have shut power down before, before realizing that they were cutting off all of our power too. However, since the site seemed to recover from that outage (I don't even know when it happened), I wasn't planning on any special preparation for this planned outage.
I visited the ISS site yesterday and today to work on the ubiquiti link. The inside of the shed was very warm, the fan on the data manager sounded like it was working hard, but everything was working.
Jose Carlos told me earlier yesterday, before my first visit, that he had stopped by the site in the morning to check on it, and when he noticed that the radar wasn't running he started it up with the POP desktop icon. So some time before that it stopped, but I don't think it could have been very long since I had not seen any alerts about it.
Internet access from the site now uses the ubiquiti network, the cellular wifi has been turned off. Details in this issue: https://jira.eol.ucar.edu/browse/ISS-559.
I don't any issues with anything else. Shed looks good, RASS still loud, shed fan is working, exterior cables look undisturbed. Guy lines, rass surrounds, rass speaker covers secure.
We just have one profiler PC with a tendency to restart itself.