A partly cloudy day with temperatures reaching about 10C before a windy period cooled things down this afternoon.
Today we worked on the sounding site and got the radiosonde system working in time for the first sounding of the campaign around 4:25pm (2325 UTC). There were a few issues setting up the system, mainly to do with communicating with the ground check unit and configuration. Also the surface met isn't up yet, so this first sounding used its own measurement as the surface data, and the system isn't networked yet. The launch itself went well and data was received by the sounding system successfully.
At the sounding site we also set up a Ubiquiti data link back to the ISFS base trailer, however it seems to be unreliable so we will check the position and alignment of the antennas tomorrow. In addition we set up the CL61 polarization ceilometer however the date/time stamp on this initial data appears to be about two months off and since the network is flakey it is difficult to check and fix remotely.
Alexei launching the first radiosonde sounding of CFACT. The sounding trailer and CL ceilometer are visible in the background.
A relatively warm but overcast day, reaching almost 5C, with brief light drizzle.
The main activity was at the sounding site which is in a field near the ISFS Deer Creek supersite. The access road and field are snowy and slushy making access with the truck tricky. We set up most of the sounding system and ran power cables to the trailer, although haven't hooked up yet since we are still working on getting cables into the trailer.
At the profiler site, cleared off about 4 inches of wet snow from the east panel but curiously the north and south panels were mostly clear. Set the profiler into 100-meter mode only since that mode seems to have the best wind measurements.
At the lidar site moved the USB camera, it had been on the top railing of the wind lidar platform on top of the lidar trailer, however there was a concern that the camera housing was partially blocking the lidar beam so it was moved down to a lower railing. Also installed an All-Sky camera and an aerosol sampler on the lidar platform. These are IOT devices so do not go into the usual data manager stream but use their own cloud services. The devices and their data servers are
Allsky camera: BloomSky-1 camera: images available here
Aerosol sensor: PurpleAir PA-II-SD: data available here
Note there is also an identical PurpleAir sensor at the ISS1 site (installed in December) and the data from that is available here
The BloomSky all-sky camera (white dome device), USB camera (directed at the Deer Creek reservoir), and the PurpleAir aerosol sensor (device with QR code) next to the wind lidar on top of the lidar trailer at the Railway Service pad site.
A wet cold day, with temperatures in the 0 - 3C range. Snow had been forecast for most of the day with up to 5 inches of accumulation, however it appears that most of that fell as rain with occasional sleet mixed in.
The main news of the day was Dan clearing the road into the sounding site with a rented skid steer (tracked) snow plow. He did a great plowing job enabling the sounding trailer to be driven into the site this afternoon. His snow clearing also enabled the PIs to drive in equipment to the chemistry trailer and provided easier access to the DC supersite. Following his work, we delivered a couple of pick-up truck loads of equipment such as the CL61 ceilometer and sounding rack and computer. At the adjacent railway site other work included unpacking the CL61 and setting up an aerosol sensor on top of the lidar trailer.
At the ISS1 site, dug out some more snow and Dan plowed out the snow berm that had been blocking vehicle access to the site. I also ran some tests on the Modular Profiler adjusting the lowest ranges. By raising the lowest sampled gate (say from 200-300m to around 400-500m) then the lowest gate that actually gets good data lowers to around the 400m level (from around the 600m level previously). This suggests a problem in the partial decoding, perhaps due to non-linear behavior or saturation in the signals at the lowest gates. The rain/snow mix complicates interpretation of this analysis so I'll take another look at the lower range gate issue on a clear day.
Dan operating the skid steer snowplow and backing in the sounding trailer into the sounding site.
A warmer (0C - 4C) but overcast day with occasional snow flakes. Lou arrived last night.
At the profiler site, cleared the snow around the amplifier enclosure, opened it up and disconnected the pipe heater since the electronics seem to be keeping it warm enough (around 18 - 20C, whereas previously it had been just above freezing). The profiler is still running an alternating 100-meeter and 150-meter mode (both with 4-bit completmentary phase coding) to test which might be better for the project. The 100m mode appears to be providing winds down to about 500 - 600m, whereas the 150m mode only gets down to around 800m. The upper level is highly variable (today 3-4 km without the dry layer break we saw yesterday), although there does seem to be an extra 100 - 200 m coverage with the 150m mode. Today the 100m mode drew about 3.25A on the main 50V supply, and the 150m mode drew about 4.54A.
At the lidar site, more precisely leveled the lidar by making fine adjustments on the lidar itself as well as with the lidar trailer jacks. Now the pitch is approximately within 0.01 deg of perfect level and the roll about 0.015 deg.
We drove down to the Salt Lake City area to pick up a cargo trailer that we will use for the sounding system. Unfortunately the snow plower operator we hoped would clear the road into the site gave up half way through the job, so we can't yet get the trailer into position. Apparently he intends to retry tomorrow although with more snow in the forecast there is a concern about whether it will be possible to get it in there.
Arrived back out at CFACT to complete setup and restart equipment for operations.
The weather today was sunny with fog to the south and very cold this morning, -15C, slowing warming to -5C this afternoon with increasing cloud. There was about 6 - 8 inches of snow on the field around the site, although it had drifted to 1 - 2 feet in the profiler enclosure. Overall the ISS1 site seems okay, although we'll need to get a snowplow in to drive into the site (Dan is arranging this for tomorrow), and the portapotty got blown over and pushed across the field - apparently in high winds on Dec 26 when winds gusted to 56 mph at the nearby Heber airport. There didn't appear to be any other damage apart from a missing piece of plywood that had been covering one of the RASS dishes.
Dug out much of the profiler and other areas around the site this morning. Cleared snow from the north and east panels, although not yet from the south panel.
Inside the ISS1 trailer was cold (around -3C). The main heater/ac unit is only working intermittently and makes a loud rattling noise so turned it off. There might be some ice built up on the fan. Fortunately we also have a couple of oil panel heaters and they warmed up the trailer nicely by the afternoon.
Warmed up the profiler and gradually turned on sections of the electronics with John and Liz's remote guidance solving a couple of power supply glitches. Operational from about 22:50 UT with the main power supply drawing 3.46A at 50V in 100 meter mode, and 4.87A in 150 meter mode. Getting winds from about 600m up to around 4km AGL with gap in the 2-3km zone, presumably due to a dry layer.
Checked on the wind lidar this afternoon. The lidar laptop had a glitch and required a hard reboot, but the lidar itself seems to be running okay with status indicators all green, although I looked at the data in detail yet.
ISS1 site on 3 Jan 2022. Note the blown-over port-a-potty to the left.
Cloud clearing and gradually becoming warmer. This was the last day for the initial setup crew (Bill, John, Liz & Lou), although Gary will remain to work on the software side and assist the ISFS crew.
Today we started at the profiler site where Liz drew a site plan (see separate entry), John did an inventory of sensors, Lou worked on tidying up the site, Bill installed a WiFi camera to monitor the site and a Purple Air sensor to measure aerosols concentrations. At the Railway site, we installed the GPS Water Vapor sensor, added the wiper fluid container to the wind lidar, a WiFi camera to monitor the lidar, set up the Data Manager computer in the ISFS base trailer, and met with PI Eric Pardyjak.
Installing the GPS Water Vapor sensor and working on the Wind Lidar
Most of the hardware side of the ISS setup is complete except for the sounding site adjacent to the DC Supersite. Unfortunately, this site still doesn't have power due to delays with the electrical contractor. The ISS components there will be the MW41 sounding system, a 3m surface met tower with Lufft WS800 and PTB200, and a CL61 ceilometer. These items will be installed by Bill, Lou, and Isabel in January.
The ISS1 trailer and sensors at the North Pivot site
A very cold and partly cloudy day with temperatures in the single digits this morning, and only rising to the mid-20s (F) during the afternoon. As can be seen below there was an inch or more of ice built up on the sensors this morning.
We mainly worked at the profiler site, doing more checks on the profiler, preparing covers for the RASS (to cover them while we are away or when there's a heavy snow storm), working on software issues, and working on power distribution. The main UPS is reporting battery errors, and we attempted to repair it but it appears to failing and needs replacing.
John and Liz working on a UPS, and Lou working on covers for the RASS
Frost and rime ice build up on the surface met tower and sensors
Cold, partly cloudy this morning gradually clearing, snow leftover from yesterday's storm (around 3 or 4 inches).
Mainly worked in the pivot field trailer after clearing the snow off the Modular Profiler antenna and out of the RASS dishes around 1630 UT. The snow on these (1 - 2 inches) was a lot lighter and fluffier than yesterday's wet snow. We did a series of range calibration tests for the Modular Profiler using the delay line, experimenting with a variety of parameter settings. The profiler is getting winds up to around 2 - 3 km, however the lowest range gate is around 500 meters. RASS is seeing up to around 1 km. Gary was at the site working on getting the surface sensors ingested by the DSM, networking and other software tasks.
Dennis Gunn, the manager of the Heber Valley Special Service District (on whose land we're leasing) visited the site to get a tour and sign UCAR vendor form.
The Modular Profiler on a snowy day
Cold and snowy all day. Approximately 4 inches accumulation by evening. Some heavy riming this morning.
The weather conditions precluded much outdoor activity so the main focus was tidying up in the trailer, testing the Modular Profiler, checking data, and writing up notes. As expected there appears to be quite a bit of radio interference. The signal return from snow is very strong (also as expected) during which time the interference disappears, however it will be interesting to see how the data looks in clear cold conditions. We turned on RASS and that was working better than expected, despite the volume being low and there being lots of snow.
We wiped snow off the profiler antennas a couple of times, removing an inch or two of wet snow around 1830 UT and 2130 UT. The SNR seemed to improve a couple of dB each time. We also cleared out the RASS dishes around 2130. More snow fell later so there will probably be some further attenuation from that.
We also visited the ISFS trailer and connected up the Wind Lidar to the lidar laptop to check on its performance. There was moderate snow at the time, and the maximum range was less than 1 km (which was about the limit of visibility at the time).
Clearing snow from the Modular Profiler
Testing and writing up notes in a festive trailer(thanks Liz!)
Cool and partly cloudy this morning, followed by increasing clouds and winds with occasional light rain this afternoon. A winter storm warning has been issued for tomorrow and Friday with 4 - 10 inches of snow forecast in the valley.
In advance of the weather, today was a busy and productive day in a number of areas:
Internet Access: This morning Bill and Gary visited the local school district's technology managers at Wasatch High School to make arrangements for a high-speed internet link. A Ubiquiti wireless link will be set up between Midway Elementary school and the Railway service pad site for the ISFS base and the lidar trailers.
Wind Lidar: A crane arrived to lift the windcube lidar onto the top of the lidar container. The lidar was set up with power and network connections to the adjacent ISFS base trailer, and was switched on late this afternoon as the cold front came in. A web camera was also set up to observe fog development over the Deer Creek reservoir to the south.
Modular Wind Profiler: connectors were delivered this morning. Liz and John installed them this afternoon and after some work and diagnosing various minor issues, got the profiler running. There are still many adjustments to be made but it appears to be working well.
Helium: 17 K/200 size Helium cylinders were delivered this afternoon and taken to the sounding site.
The Windcube scanning lidar being lifted onto a trailer and being prepared for operation
A cool, partly cloudy day (without the snow/rain that was forecast a couple of days ago).
We mainly worked at the profiler site again today. Gary arrived and spent much of the afternoon on the computer side of things. The rest of us did more work on the clutter fence, getting it angled correctly and tieing it down. We tidied up cables, work on the cameras (testing and installing heating tape), set up the UPS and power distribution in the trailer and prepared for the lidar crane lift tomorrow. We are still waiting on delivery of connectors before we can start up the profiler. The University of Utah tethersonde trailer arrived at the DC Supersite and we visited that to check out how we might install the sounding system.
Tidying up cables and securing the clutter fence.
Colder and mostly cloudy day. We mainly worked at the profiler site.
John and Liz carried out testing of the new Modular Profiler distributed power amplifier, so far it seems to be performing well although it hasn't been run into the antennas yet since we are waiting on some connectors to be delivered. Further sorting of equipment and running of cables in the trailer. The ceilometer was hooked up and turned on. connected the ceilometer and turned on. The webcam was tested and adjusted to focus on Daniels Canyon. The chain-link clutter fence was delivered this morning and we set it up around tthe profiler this afternoon, although there is more work to do to position and secure it correctly. The RASS speakers were also tested.
John and Liz testing the Modular Profiler power amplifier and Bill working on the ceilometer
Sunny although a little cooler today in advance of a cold front.
More equipment unpacking and sorting. At the profiler site the RASS speaker surrounds were assembled, more cabling of the profiler, set up surface met tower and disdrometer, setting up of rack inside trailer, and installation of the CL51 ceilometer and a webcam. At the lidar trailer sorting and storing of boxes and containers.
Liz and John cabling the Modular Wind Profiler
Lou, Liz and John working on the surface met tower
Paraglider fly-by
Another sunny day although very chilly in the morning with lots of frost and fog to the south of the valley from the Deer Creek Reservoir.
At the profiler site, the new external power amplifier box was cabled up, cables from the profiler to the trailer were laid out, power was hooked to the trailer, the RASS dishes were assembled and equipment in the trailer was organized.
At the Railway service pad site, there was more unpacking and sorting of equipment in the lidar/storage trailer, the lidar platform was assembled and equipment was transported between sites.
Working on the Modular Profiler power amplifier and the lidar plaform.
ISS setup in the Heber valley has begun with the team of Lou Verstraete, John Sobtzak, Liz Bernhardt, and Bill Brown. The two trailers (ISS1 and Lidar/Storage trailers) arrived and were positioned in their respective locations.
ISS1 was placed at the North Pivot site on Heber Valley Special Service District (HVSSD) irrigated fields along S 1200 W St, just south of Heber City. The trailer was partially unpacked, stairs installed and assembly began on the Modular Wind Profiler antenna. The antenna frame was assembled, the antenna panels placed on top and electronics troughs mounted.
The electrical service was initially installed at the wrong location, but fortunately Dan was able to get it moved to the correct location in time for our arrival. John is adapting the power plug to match the outlet that was installed.
Liz, Lou and John assembling the 449 MHz wind profiler antenna at the ISS1 site.
The lidar trailer was placed at the Railway Service pad site at the corner of Tate Lane and S Central St (route 113 south of Midway) next to the ISFS base trailer. RASS dishes and other items were unpacked.