Blog from July, 2008

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:

These serial cards have bad ports

 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:

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.

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.

Started to measure the sonic azimuths with the datascope.  Set declination = 0.

 Array orientations

Sighting along the PAM masts, the orientation of the upwind array is 221 deg and the downwind array is 40 deg.  Adding 90 and 270 degrees and the declination (13.7 deg) gives 324.7 degrees true for the upwind array and 323.7 deg true for the downwind array, which are close to the design value of 325 deg.  

Note that the tripods for the second upwind array are already set up roughly N of the profile tower.  The data scope gives an angle of 156 deg magnetic from the leg of  the SW tripod to the profile sonics, so the profile winds from directions greater than 156+180 + 13.7 = 349.7 deg true should be used with caution.

The tables list three or more independent measurements of sonic azimuth.  I measured each row at different times, requiring independent estimates of proper alignment of the datascope relative to the sonic, which is the biggest source of uncertainty.  I found that the sun angle is much better for visibility of the sonics at 7 am than at 10 am, so I remeasured the azimuths done prior to 7/11/08.

The cal_file entries are the value used for the sonic azimuth in the cal_files in order to give winds in a coordinate system with the sonic u component normal to the array (positive for winds blowing into the array sonics) and v parallel to the array:    use + 13.7 - (325-180) = use - 131.7

 Upwind Array Sonics

Profile tower Sonics

Downwind Array, top sonics

Downwind Array, bottom sonics

Serial board stopped on downwind2 adam around 9:10 PDT.   Lost data on sonics 9b-13b, 7t-11t.  Restarted around 11:32 PDT.

Upwind adam serial board stopped around 01:10 PDT.  No data from sonics 5u-11u.  Restarted around 09:02.

The  serial board on downwind-2 adam stopped around 17:10, July 5.  Restarted around 17:40.

Sonic 6u appears to have an offset in the u component (from the mean of all 9 upwind sonics) of about +15 cm/s.  However the range of u and v offsets (from the mean) for all 9 sonics is about +/- 20 cm/s.  6u stands out because there is no other sonic with a  positive offset this large, while there are a couple of sonics with a u component offset near -20 cm/s.

AHATS daily status 7/05/08

Staff: Maclean, Horst, Khoung, McIntyre

Summary: Gordon is experimenting with replacing Semmer's active low-pass filter circuit with a passive filter circuit suggested by Paroscientific.

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 7/5 13:00, we have
63 hours of data periods of length 20 minutes or longer with
wind directions from 295-355 degrees.  This includes 52.5 hours of periods
longer than one hour and equates to good wind direction periods 66%
of the time.  Sorted by stability, there are 31 hours of stable
stratification (<w'tc'> < 0) and 31.92 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 33.83 hours stable and only 21.33 hours unstable.

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 3:10 - 07:40, July 4
missing all sonics 9:15 - 11:50, July 4

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 15 cm/s (6u has +15 cm/s offset in u)
dir: ok, +/- 3 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,  +/- 0.04 m/s
sigma_w/u*: ok (1.3 at night)
w'tc': ok, +/- 0.015 m/s degC
tc'tc': ok, +/- 0.06 degC^2

Lower (hts=3):
-------------

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 20 cm/s
dir: ok, +/- 5 deg
w: ok, +/- 5 cm/s
tc:  ok, +/- 0.25 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):
-------------

diag: ok
samples.sonic: ok
spd: ok, +/- 17 cm/s
dir: ok, +/- 4 deg; 6t is about 6.5 degrees off from profile sonic
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,  +/- 3 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

AHATS daily status 7/04/08

Staff: Maclean, Horst, Khoung, Brown, McIntyre

Summary: Gordon found that the noisy pressure signals are caused by
RF crosstalk between unshielded wire segments.  He and Khoung are wrapping
the signal wires with ground wires.

Some data outages yesterday afternoon (downwind-2) and this morning (upwind).
For more details, see the ahats logbook at https://wiki.ucar.edu/display/ahatslogbook

I have begun preparing the horizontal ASTER tower array for the upcoming
configurations by mounting yokes and vertical braces.

Good wind direction: For the period 7/1 13:00 through 7/4 13:00, we have
45.17 hours of data periods of length 20 minutes or longer with
wind directions from 195-355 degrees.  This includes 11 periods of length
greater than one hour and equates to good periods 63% of the time.
Sorted by stability, there are 23.75 hours of stable stratification
(<w'tc'> < 0) and 21.33 hours of unstable stratification.

Since June 26, we have had good wind directions 46% of the time;
stable data 26% of the time and unstable data 19% of the time.

The serial board on the upwind adam stopped around 03:10, July 4.  Gordon rebooted the adam around 07:40.  Lost data from sonics 5u-11u.

The transformer at the array blew a fuse in its surge protector around midnight, July 3.  The batteries for the upwind adam apparently went below a critical voltage at 09:15, July 4, and the adam shut down.  Power was restored around 11:50.  Changed the load on the two legs of the transformed by moving the sodar data power to the same leg as the ISFS data systems, leaving the  sodar air conditioner on the other  leg.