Another fine day in Santa Barbara. The final IOP of the campaign ended this morning with the last sounding of SWEX launched at Rancho Alegre ISS2 by Marion and Gert-Jan. Apparently it was an interesting Sundowner with a more eastern focus than previous IOPs.
We started off at the ISS1 site checking on systems, then David and I went off to Montecito Fire Station number 2 (a very nice mission style building) to pick up Helium and equipment for the UCSB folks (they had did soundings there for last nights IOP), then took that equipment back to the University. Lou went to Sedgwick to do some checks and attempted to inflate a flat tire on the trailer.
As mentioned previously, the wind lidar seems to be having problems with data transfer, so after the IOP I adjusted the scans to slow down the data rate. It is the same scanning strategy, (vertical stare, PPI scan for VAD winds, and RHIs in the north-south and east west planes), but at lower resolution and a slower sampling rate. The cycle is now 15 minutes (previously it was 10), and now we're collecting about 7-8 MB per hour instead of around 32 MB per hour. Hopefully this will allow the data transfer to catch up before we shut down on Monday.
Terry visited ISS1 in the afternoon for a tour and discussions, briefly interrupted by a roadrunner passing by the site.
David moving Helium in Montecito and Terry touring the ISS1 site