From the latest snow, 1m.d and 1m.ue (both actually 2m now) are both partially buried. 1m.uw (actually 2.5m) appears to be really close as well.
It looks like the Tsnow at 0.5m on the UW tower has gone awry.
I don't expect this one to come back. These are tiny thermistors that can easily break, and I am impressed that they have all lasted this long.
I also think the 0.4 UW has been reading incorrectly since about March 11, where is started slowly creeping up into the positive temperatures. Then starting March 13th the 0.5 UW also crept into positive territory, until March 16 where it starting reporting unreasonable results.
We went to the site bright and early this morning for Danny and Eli's last snow pit dig. We were breaking trail through about 8 to 12" of new snow. The conditions were much colder and windier than yesterday. The UW 2.5 meter sonic was still clear of snow, but the Downwind 2 meter sonic was starting to get covered. The next few days are forecast to be sunny, so the new snow should consolidate. While on site, the four Lidar USB drives were exchanged. I checked with Ethan to verify that all Lidar Pis were reporting to the new USB drives. I also removed the snow from the UW NR01, and attempted to clean it.
The site in early morning sun with wavy snow.
The NOAA radiation table is almost covered with snow.
This afternoon we received a welcome surprise. A snowcat groomed the entire road from the trailhead to RMBL.
This will help with the trip out on Friday morning. I don't know how long the road will stay this nice, since next week the area is forecast with another significant dump.
Sunset on Mt Crested Butte from the cabin:
Went to Kettle Ponds in the afternoon of 3/15/23 with Danny and Eli. We also had Ben (RMBL) and Alex Hager (KUNC reporter) join us.
The temperature was very close to 0 C, and it was snowing heavily at times.
All sensors where looking good, the Center SHT 1m still has the inlet in the snow. The movement of the WU sonics has helped keep them out of the snow. The D 2m sonic is just touching the bottom of the snow pack, and may be partially buried by the end of the storm. Below is a picture of the site as we arrive - lots f snow.
The D tower with the C tower in the background. Sonic is touching the snow pack.
Ben set to digging out the power panel to help keep the site humming along. While Danny and Eli dug their second to last snow pit.
Alex Hager is a reporter from KUNC (Ft Collins NPR station), and he reports almost exclusively on all matters concerning the Colorado River. He was notified about SOS by Julie Vano of Aspen Global Change Institute (one of the co-PIs), and he wants to do a story on SOS - so stay tuned.
Alex recording for his story as Danny and Eli are doing their snow pit work.
I retrieved the TRHs from the store room and will return those to Boulder.
Anyone making future SOS site visits that require a TRH swap will need to grab one from me before they leave Boulder!
On 3/16 I plan on swapping out the Lidar USB drives and make a final check of the site.
Skied in to Gothic and met with Danny and Eli today. The Avi danger was down to a 2 (moderate) and my Garmin Inreach was along for the ride. The road to Gothic had decent tracks, but had not been groomed since the recent dump that Crested Butte had received. It took a little over 1.5 hours from leaving the trailhead till reaching Gothic and Crystal Cabin.
In the afternoon All three of us (Danny, Eli, and myself) skied out to Kettle Ponds Site. The two lowest two sonics on WU were buried as seen in the full picture of the site
.
I cleaned the UW radiometer and wetness sensor. No climbing so the downwind radiometers will not be cleaned this trip
I decided to dig out the UW now 2m sonic (this was originally 1 meter, but moved up as the snow pack increased). Due to location of the EC100 box, and cables, there were few options. After some digging and cable repositioning, I was able to gain enough slack so that the 2 meter boom clamp could be moved to 2.5 meters.
Below shows the original location of the 2m boom - relative to the 3m boom (~1.02 meters below the 3m boom. measurements are from top of boom to top of boom)
Below shows the new location of now 2.5m boom - relative to the 3m boom (~0.52 meters below the 3m boom. Measurements are from top of boom to top of boom)
After adjustment, both of the lowest sonics are back out of the snowpack. On future trips, as the snow pack melts, this sonic boom and associated sonics can be put back to their original location.
While I was playing with Sonics, Danny and Eli were playing in the snow. They dug a snow pit and measured snow water content at various depths. The snow pits are now slightly over 1.6 meters deep.
As far as I know, these are the tasks for Chris and David's visit starting tomorrow:
- Swap USB sticks for Ethan's lidar
- Clean radiometers (climb for "d" sensor) with small alcohol wipes. Wipe off NR01 Wetness sensor when doing it.
- Decide on whether to dig out csat.2m.uw
- Decide on whether to dig out TRH.1m.c
- Bring back spare TRHs
- Retrieve 2(?) motes from Danny and Eli when they are done with them.
The snowpack is beautiful at the moment! Totally smooth, filling in all the holes.
As Danny sent yesterday, the 1m.uw sonic (on the right, actually mounted at 2m) is now completely buried. The sonic to the left is the disconnected sonic from 1m.c.
The TRH 1m.c also appears now to have its inlet in the snowpack.
As of 11:30 pm last night, the entire SOS network is unreachable. I'm looking into it, and I'll probably be contacting XstreamInternet for assistance.
As of early this morning, 03-06-2023 01:13:27, DSM uw is not responding to any network connections and not sending any data. The reason is unknown. It looks like it was working fine up until that time.
Matt and Gary visited the site in the morning, leaving Gothic around 9 and arriving at the site about 10. Matt swapped the USB sticks for the LIDAR Pis at tower d, Gary swapped them at ue. Matt brushed snow off the NR01 at uw. Matt also inspected the TRH at 1m on tower c and saw that the inlet was clear of the snow, so we didn't think anything needed to be done about that. Matt took a picture which he can post at some point.
The barrel is buried under several inches of snow, I had to probe around to find it, but we did not dig it out. No visible sign of slack in the guy lines. Did not browse or log into any DSMs, since everything had been operational when Matt checked the data from the hut before leaving.
We arrived back at Gothic around noon. Due to the strong winds forecast for the next day, we decided to ski back to the car that afternoon. We left Gothic around 2:15 and started driving home around 4:30.
Gary and I left Boulder around 8:30 this morning and arrived in Crested Butte around 2:00 this afternoon. The roads were all clear and the drive went well, save for a bit of snow as we approached CB. We hit the trail a little after 3:00 and made it to RMBL around 5:30. The path was pretty difficult for the two of us and it was snowing most of the way. Some sections had decent tracks, but many areas were filled in with either blowing snow or the new 1-2 inches that fell today.
In looking at the data this evening, things seem to be working well. I saw the odd T and RH readings at 1m.c and relatively lower values of Rsw.in at uw that Steve noted in an email to us. We will check both of these things out tomorrow morning and sweep off snow from the NR01, if needed.