A hot day with light winds and occasional dust devils (including one that almost went directly. over the site, see below), and light variable winds. Clear during the morning, scattered clouds later. The ground at the site was damp this morning, and some of the heavy storms that hit the town last night did pass over the site, and showed up clearly in both radar wind profiler data.
Examining the MISS profiler data from last night, indicates that the antenna beams of the profiler are mostly okay. During clear-air periods, there does seem to be a lot of ground clutter so we decided to attempt a simple screen made from chicken wire. So far the fence just covers the east and west sides, and does appear to improve the data, although so far we have only had light winds, it will be interesting to see how the data looks with stronger winds.
We also ran a check on the CS125 visibility sensor using a calibrated filter. We didn't have access to Campbell's software for the test, but just put the filter into the CCS125 beam for several hours. Visibility values of 940 to 970 meters were recorded during that period, which agrees well with the filter's calibrated value of TMOR 997 meters. We also set up 100-meter winds and RASS modes for the Modular Profiler, worked on a camera to monitor the lidars, and tested a backup generator.
Buildding a clutter screen for the MISS 915 MHz wind profiler (left) and checking the calibration of the CS125 visibility sensor (right)
A dust devil went directly over the ISS site about 21:20 UTC (2:20 pm local) and may be visible in Modular Profiler and lidar data.