Another beautiful bluebird day today. Weather remained calm with clear skies and warmed up to about 40F.
Started off doing a couple of checks on the Lidar. There is still plenty of wiper fluid to last the rest of the project. I inspected the lens and found the inside of it has frosted over. I had noticed a couple droplets of water on the inside at the start of the project and with the cold weather they must've formed this frost. Bill has contacted Vaisala to figure out what to do. It's strange to have this liquid since the dessicant is supposed to help. All the dessicant is still orange (good) and yesterday's RH inside of the Lidar was 16%.
Matt and I did soil samples at 4 sites today. The sounding went off with no issues.
I turned one of the AC units in the enclosure since temps inside are reaching 35C.
John came in and his train was only 20 minutes late, not bad considering it could run much later than that.
Plots of 05- and 30-minute consensus winds for ISS1 are available in the TimeHeightPlot tool:
- http://datavis.eol.ucar.edu/time-height-plot/CFACT/iss1-prof449/05-minute-consensus
- http://datavis.eol.ucar.edu/time-height-plot/CFACT/iss1-prof449/30-minute-consensus
Data that is available in TimeHeightPlot is:
- Based on the profiler NetCDF files
- Updated with the latest data every half hour as profiler files are synced to Foothills
- Go back to January 3, 2022
Plots of ISS2 LIDAR data are intended to be available as corresponding LIDAR NetCDF files become available.
The weather was about the same as yesterday, calm and clear skies. We started off with the temperature around 15F and it reached about 35F this afternoon.
Nothing too exciting to report for ISS. Matt and I visited a few other sites to take Leica measurements and soil samples. I tried to do a little investigating as to why the batteries at DC keep draining overnight all of a sudden and could not find a clear reason as to why yet. I also helped troubleshoot a Tsoil (4 prong temperature soil sensor) at DCS, but it seems its just bad.
Profiler observations: @1000 150m rass: 50V 3.9A, 31V 1.888A
@1005 100m: 50V 4.66A, 31V 1.837A
The whole day was clear and calm. When we left the hotel it was about 13F and stayed fairly cold until the afternoon when it warmed up to the mid 30s. Apparently it's been some of the cleanest air the valley has had in awhile.
Since the PIs decided to have a mostly down day and everything was operational this morning Matt and I did a little cross country skiing.
This afternoon after getting back Isabel had informed me that the ubiquity link between the sounding trailer and base was down. After coming up with a troubleshooting plan with her and Bill during our meeting it had came back online.
Matt and I joined in watching the tether sonde which had its maiden flight today. During today sounding we also trained 3 more students on the radio sondes (Miles, Zac and Zach). After our sounding they finally got the large balloon in the air.
After that we took a trip back to DC since the batteries we changed yesterday died quickly. We were hoping the power would be restored since it was supposed to be finished today, however that was not the case.
The day started out with clear skies with temperatures just below 20F. The day remained pretty cool reaching low 30s in the afternoon, with a slight breeze.
Today I mostly spent doing some troubleshooting for ISFS after my morning checks of ISS equipment. The first part of the day I helped the electrician narrow down the power issue at Daniels Canyon. Found that the wiring was shorted between the barn and an outside outlet.
The afternoon Matt and I troubleshot the 32m thermocouple at DCS. Turned out the 'good' thermocouple we installed was actually bad. When I talked with Steve yesterday we agreed that reading the resistance of the thermocouples would be a good step to add when we replace them to avoid this. Also Isabel had to reconfig the rohn DSM so that the dashboard came up which will also help to be sure a newly installed thermocouple is operating. Yesterday the dashboard was not working and with the sounding approaching we had raised the tower before the DSM was reconfiged.
Todays sounding went off with no issues. Tomorrow people from the university will be testing their tether sonde in the afternoon.
profiler observations: @1655 100m mode: 50V 4.17A, 31V 1.823A
@1700 150m rass mode: 50V 3.5A, 31V 1.874A
Today was a little colder than it has been, and started off calm with clear skies with some clouds that moved in by the afternoon.
Nothing exciting happened as far as ISS instrumentation. The profiler remains running well after yesterdays fix. Most of the day I assisted Matt in lowering both towers to replace some of the thermocouples. There is one that I will need to troubleshoot a little more tomorrow as a replacement did not fix the issue.
Todays sounding went fairly well. I did have to reboot the computer as the preparation screen never brought up the ground check countdown and the software seemed stuck at the frequency. This helped and there were no other issues. Also the tether sonde was setup today and I think in the next couple days they plan to have a test flight.
This morning started with temps already in the 30s. There were low clouds which mostly cleared today along with a breeze.
This morning went to profiler site and heard crackling in the speakers again but this lasted a very short time and was not as noticeable as last time.
Matt and I listened to the PI's daily meeting as we are finding they talk a little more about IOP conditions and when they may or may not have them, so its been nice to get the little extra information.
This afternoon I took Matt to a few satellite sites (UP, PC, and SH) and he did some Leica measurements for the sonics.
When we had gotten back I checked on the profiler plots and notice there was very low signal to noise and no wind data which meant that the profiler was possibly not working. I went to ISS1 and saw that there was no current draw on the 50V power supply other than the normal fan current. The software was running but somehow no RF power was getting to the HPA's. The first thing I checked was that RF power was coming out of the RIM box, and I was reading the correct amount of power (~12.5dBm with 12dB attenuation). Then I suspected that the Delta Sigma driver amps were not getting the on/off signal, so I looked at the signal coming from J7 on the PCIe card, after comparing with what John saw on Parker in the lab and looking at the signal with the RF pulse I determined this was good. I also ensured that this signal was getting to amps, which it was. Next I went to go read RF power coming into the enclosure. There is a weather proof junction box outside of the enclosure where I have two different cables connected and I went to measure the power there and found that the connection was undone (picture below). Not sure how this happened. I then reconnected the two cables and turned the profiler back on and everything worked. I put tape around the connection to prevent this from happening again. The profiler is now back up and running as usual.
profiler observations: @1753 100m mode: 50V 5.48A, 31V 1.841A
@1600 150m rass mode: 50V 4.46A, 31V 1.895A
How I found the connection. The BNC somehow loosened and it was barley on the adapter.
Today was another beautiful day in Heber Valley. The temps started off cool but with mostly clear skies and the sun shinning it warmed up to the 30s.
Started the day off showing Matt where ISS1 was located and listening to the RASS speakers. This morning, and during checks throughout the day, I did not hear any abnormalities.
Profiler observations: @ 0934 150m Rass mode 50V 3.56A, 31V 1.909A
@ 0936 100m mode 50V 4.24, 31V 1.857A
I have been making observations of the power draw at different times of the day and the current drops in the afternoon when the enclosure is at its warmest (been around 32C the past few days). Today the current dropped almost 1A which probably means the RF output of the HPA's is drooping as well. Tomorrow I am going to start running one of the AC's during the day to see if this helps out.
This afternoon around 1230 I paused the profiler to squeegee water off the antennas. I had noticed yesterday that enough frost was forming and melting each day to start forming pools of water at the edges of the antenna which were then freezing. I wanted to clear this off when it had melted again.
Matt also reminded me of cleaning the NR01's as well so we did that today too at ISS1.
Since Matt and Isabel did not get a very long overlap I had reminded him on how to do some of the ISFS checks. Everything was working well today so the rest of the day was pretty quiet. We did listen in on the CFACT daily meeting and it sounds like the chance for fog this week is very low and that another IOP probably will not happen again until next week. For now they have just called for no IOP's the next 24 hrs though as forecasts can change. They may be taking a hard down day Friday, but also Sebastian wants to find a calm day to test the tether sonde.
At one point I had noticed a 30 minute gap in profiler data on the plots, but after some investigation I could not find a reason why this occurred.
Todays sounding went off with no issues.
Last thing we did was go to the storage unit since Dan is looking for PPE numbers on the instruments for a property audit and there were some there to check.
Today was a clear calm day that started off a bit colder than it has, but once warmed up was a nice day. A bit of haze did form toward Deer Creek Reservoir area this afternoon.
This morning I started off with troubleshooting RASS speakers, which I went into more depth in a post I created specific for this issue for better tracking. As I checked on RASS throughout the day I did not hear any other abnormalities.
I went to DCS with Isabel to troubleshoot a Tsoil not reporting. The rest of the day Isabel refreshed me on how to do daily checks on ISFS instruments since her and Matt did not get a day of overlap.
The PI's have installed another instrument at the sounding site which is a microwave radiometer. They also placed their sounding computer in the sounding trailer for the tether sonde, which should be showing up this week now that they have approval.
The sounding went well and the last sonde that had an RH issue cleared.
Today was Isabel's last day of CFACT Ops and Matt safely made it to Heber City this evening to take things over for ISFS.
Daily Profiler Power Observations:
@1015 100m mode: 50V 4.22A 31V 1.853A
@1030 150m RASS mode: 50V 3.32A 31V 1.902A
This morning while arriving at ISS1 site to check on the systems, RASS was running but I automatically noticed that it did not sound "normal." I walked around the enclosure to get a better listen to the speakers and I feel that I heard at least 2 of them have a crunchy static noise. The speakers I thought I heard doing this (if going clockwise starting at the surround closest to the gate) was the 2nd and 4th speakers. At around 0910 I turned off the system and set the software config to only run RASS. I then unplugged all but one speaker to start troubleshooting this sound. The speaker I started with was #2. When I turned it on it sounded pretty normal, even though I thought this was possibly a bad one. Next I tried speaker #3. It seemed that I was hearing a noise caused by vibration. I did notice the speaker was moving around a bit when messing with the plug and that a nut had come off of one of the rods, and I had placed the bucket on the ground next to the surround. I tightened up everything and moved the bucket away, and the noise I was hearing seemed to not be noticeable anymore. When I went to try the speaker #4 instantly I heard the crunchy static noise and it went on for a little while but then seemed to fade. I had planned to change this speaker, after checking the last one. Speaker #1 did the same but the static cleared pretty quick. I restarted the software and then the static did not come back. I retested speaker #3 to see if the speaker was for sure bad and the static was not there. This static seems to be intermittent, or maybe went away after re-seating all the plugs. I decided to plug in all the speakers and take another listen and it sounded normal again and no static was present. I held off on replacing any speakers since this is intermittent at the moment. Either re-seating the plugs helped or it is a little colder this morning, and possibly that could be affecting the speakers? If we do end up having two bad speakers we do have two spares in the trailer. I will keep monitoring the speakers a little more closely due to this. I reconfigured the software to how it was before and restarted the system at 1015.
Bill let me know if you are seeing anything in the data that would constitute changing any speakers sooner.
Today started off with low cloud cover and by the afternoon it was sunny with clear skies.
This morning Daniel's Canyon satellite site was down so Isabel went to see what was going on. Found that there was no power. I first checked everything inside the job box where they had the batteries and 24V power supply. Saw no lights on the Victron and read out the batteries and they were dead. Next found the power drop and determined that there was no power coming form the outlet. We found someone that worked at the barn (thanks to a very friendly kitty) and he told us that the circuit breaker had kept tripping since last week but recently would no reset at all. With our end disconnected the CB still tripped instantly. Dan is going to get ahold of the electrician to have them troubleshoot and find out what's going on (moisture or short). Isabel and I switched out batteries and the site is back up. For now Daniels Canyon will require a battery swap every few days.
Friend we made that lead us to where the barn workers stay.
Isabel and I visited the rest of the satellite sites I had not been to and we finished taking HRLX measurements. We also fixed the soil core that got jammed the other day.
During todays sounding I used another one of the previously bad sondes with the RH limit warning, and it too cleared after going through a full ground check. Sebastian was around for the sounding as well. We did have a balloon burst on us for some unknown reason right as we put in 20 cubic feet, so we had to use a second one.
449 Profiler observations: @1255 in 100m mode 50V supply 3.81A 31V supply 1.854 A @1300 in 150m rass mode 50V supply 3.2A 31V supply 1.907A
This morning woke up to a light dusting of snow, maybe around 1 cm is what I would guess. There were very low clouds and some fog around soldier hallow but everything cleared and it became sunny with some wind later in the day.
At around 0936 I turned off the profiler to clear off the antennas and rass speakers, and it was only off for about 10 mins. Profiler is still running well. Took DC power observations this afternoon. In 100m mode @ 1355 50V supply was drawing 4.04A and @ 1400 in 150m rass mode 50V supply was drawing 3.39A.
Since everything was in working order and the PI's have called no IOP's for the next 72 hours, Isabell and I spent a couple hours XC skiing at soldier hallow. We claim it was training for the SOS project that is possibly coming up later in the year.
The rest of the afternoon I started looking into a new full set of cabling for the 449 since it seems like previous snow drifts are now just built up ice walls all around and in the middle of the antenna frame which may be difficult to get to all the cabling during tear down if there is little defrosting. The ground in the enclosure is basically just ice at the moment too.
Today for the sounding I did a full reboot of the system, including reseating the usb for the ground check unit, to beginning retrying the faulty radio sondes. I think I may have figured out the solution to these ones with the RH level limit issues. When they go back on the ground check unit they instantly flash red, but it seems it saves the last data telling the sonde it is bad, which I didn't realize. When it ran through an entire ground check again the RH issue cleared and the sonde checked good. I even got surface measurements on the software today instead of having to obtain them through the DSM dashboard. The next couple days I will try the same with the other two sondes that had this issue.
Today started off with low cloud cover. As the day progressed the clouds mostly cleared but it remained hazy.
IOP 03 ended today at noon and the rest of the soundings went well for the students.
The new tires for the F350 came in the other day and I was able to get the truck in for them to be replaced. I actually think the truck drives a bit better with them.
The rest of the day I went along with Isabel and she showed me where some of the satellite sites are located. We visited Upper Provo, Midway, Pine Creek, Soldier Hollow, and Memorial Hill. Along with these visits we measured the heights of the HRLX's (snow depth sensors). Otherwise everything else was quiet.
Had another bad sonde today that also gave the RH reading out of limits warning. It would give over 10,000,000% difference. S/N: T3321961. Tomorrow I plan to do a complete reboot of the system when I go for the sounding and retry one of the bad sondes and cycle through them the next few days to really make sure they are bad.
There is some snow expected tonight and after talking with Sebastian he made it sound like tomorrow is a down day for them and to not expect any IOPs between now and Sunday, but we will see...
Today at noon started IOP 3 which will go until noon tomorrow. We had been notified of a possible one yesterday but the go ahead came after noon today. Hopefully the rest of the IOPs are not short notice like this and luckily everything was working.
Today started out with clear skies and got fairly warm but in the afternoon it quickly became cloudy and cool and there was some wind.
Profiler perameters observed:
100m mode: 0925 50V @ 3.92A and 31V @ 1.845A
150m Rass mode: 0930 50V @ 3.49A and 31V @ 1.909A
Enclosure is still staying around 32C at the warmest time of the day
Today Isabel and I installed the large Ubiquiti dish and were able to recieve signal from the school so the wifi is a little better at the base trailer now.
The 1430 sounding today was a little rough. We ended up with 2 sondes that failed, both for RH above limits. With the first we initially restarted the software since it had failed for restarting during ground checks. When we tried the sonde again it failed for RH values over limit and the light would not stop blinking red. We tried a second sonde and it also got the same failure. This time we rebooted the entire system. We tried this sonde again and same failure occured. On the 3rd sonde it made it through all the ground checks but then as Isabel took it off to set it outside, the sonde turned off. She redid the ground check and then it was fine and we sucessfully launched it. The 1615 sounding went smoothly and we gave a training to Alexei, who is a postdoc working on the project. During the 2nd sounding we retried one of the failed sondes but it immediately flashed red when it went on the ground test unit. The two bad ones are turned off and set off to side with notes on them.
Today's weather was calm with high scattered clouds, and was warmer than the past couple days.
Everything was fairly quite between ISS and ISFS. Only one issue arose this afternoon. I had made a trip back to ISS1 this afternoon to do a quick check on everything one last time, and noticed on the profiler software that it was continuously restarting. After talking with Bill he saw the hard disk was full preventing the data from the software to be written. He was able to fix the issue remotely. There is about 50 mins of missing data, however but now everything is working great.
The 1615 sounding went off successfully today. They are planning for IOP3 to start tomorrow at noon but will give the go/no-go in the morning.
Today I had also noticed a warning message on the ISS truck saying "Exhaust overloaded, drive to clean." I goggled what this meant and what to do. This means the DPF (diesel particle filter) is blocked and needs cleaning by driving. It was suggested in the blogs I read to drive at speeds above 55mph for about 30 minutes for the filter to be cleaned. I took the truck for a drive and had gotten a "cleaning filter message" which meant the truck was doing its thing to clean the filter. After taking it down the highway the messages all cleared. Since we are doing a lot in town driving and short trips in cold weather this will likely happen again, as all of these factors cause the dpf to clog up.