ISPA-2002: Logbook Entries

ISPA-2002: Site Boulder Messages, 18 Entries..

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Entry Date Title Site Author #Graphics
143 Thu 21-Feb-200221 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
142 Wed 20-Feb-200220 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
141 Tue 19-Feb-200219 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
140 Mon 18-Feb-200218 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
139 Mon 18-Feb-200217 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
138 Mon 18-Feb-200216 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
137 Sat 16-Feb-2002soap adjustment to help commsBouldergranger
136 Fri 15-Feb-200215 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
130 Wed 06-Feb-200206 Feb 2002 (no run)Boulderpinto
129 Wed 06-Feb-200204 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
128 Wed 06-Feb-200203 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
127 Wed 06-Feb-200202 Feb 2002 RunBoulderpinto
126 Fri 01-Feb-2002no run todayBoulderpinto
125 Thu 31-Jan-200231 Jan 2002 RunBoulderpinto
124 Wed 30-Jan-200230 Jan 2002 RunBoulderpinto
123 Tue 29-Jan-2002output noteBoulderpinto
122 Tue 29-Jan-200229 Jan 2002 RunBoulderpinto
121 Wed 23-Jan-2002Boulder logbook createdBouldergranger


143: MM5, Site Boulder, Thu 21-Feb-2002 11:56:45 MST, 21 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 11:30 AM.




Not much going on precip wise next 24 hours through 12 Z tomorrow.

Some high clouds around this evening (00 UTC, Feb 22).

The water vapor profile is quite interesting though. With a
very dry layer around 2 km and a moist layer coming in
around 3 UTC, Feb 22 between 2 and 3 km.


Low level winds shift from the north to SSE around 3 UTC. Strong
winds from the north aloft, with speeds of up to 32 m s-1 at 4 km.


142: MM5, Site Boulder, Wed 20-Feb-2002 10:57:50 MST, 20 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 10:30 AM.



Snow should be ending soon at NCAR site (snow stops reaching the surface
around 18 UTC, but continues to be around aloft until 3 UTC on Feb 21).
The snow is sublimating because the air below 2 km is drying out.
Lots of liquid cloud water around at mountain top until 21 UTC and light
snow continuing until 3 UTC, Feb 21 there.

Strong upward motions of almost 1 m s-1 at NCAR site 
below 2 km between 18 UTC and 7 UTC.

Winds at NCAR site are weak and variable at the surface and from the
West and NW aloft.




141: MM5, Site Boulder, Tue 19-Feb-2002 17:30:25 MST, 19 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 10:30 AM.



Two periods of snow are forecast today: one period of light snow 
from 12Z to 21 Z and a second period of heavier snow starting at 8 Z 
on the 20th. Both period are associated with liquid cloud with the 
first period having cloud tops of about 2 km. THe second liquid cloud 
is deeper with tops over 4 km.

Werner Mtn will experience periods of fog during both snow events. Heavy
riming is possible, particularly with the second event. Total accum for the
period 4-8 cm.

Vertical velocities are mostly upward below 2 km with values as large as 
0.8 m s-1.

Layer of southerly winds increasing in depth with time with westerly 
component above 1 km increasing with time.





140: MM5, Site Boulder, Mon 18-Feb-2002 11:11:31 MST, 18 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 10:30 AM.

Lots of cloud water and snow is forecasted for the next 24 hour period.
Heaviest snow beginning around 20 UTC with snow generating in
liquid cloud layer between 1.5 and 3 km. Lots of riming possible with
this snow event. Liquid cloud is forecasted at the surface of
Werner Mt Lab site for much of the next 24 hours. Storm totals of
10 cm at NCAR site to 25 cm on Mtn Werner with locally heavier 
amounts.

Vertical velocities are relatively weak over the NCAR site
except for a brief period between 06 and 09 UTC Feb 19.


Winds shift from NW to SW between 0.5 and 4 km around 23 UTC Feb18.






139: MM5, Site Boulder, Mon 18-Feb-2002 11:10:32 MST, 17 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 10:30 AM.



Lots of mid level cloud cover forecasted to be around today. Snow around too
beginning  around 18 UTC, but it sublimates before reaching the ground until
about 9 UTC Feb 18. At the same time, Mt Werner site starts to get
fogged in.

W is mainly upward in the lowest 1.5 km but less than 0.5 m s-1.


A period of strong SE winds forecasted below 1 km between 20 UTC
and 3 UTC on Feb 18. It would be interesting to see how deep this layer
turns out to be.  A sonde during the strong wind event might be useful if
MAPR does not see the top of  it.

An increase in qv, snow aloft  and moderate updrafts conicide with this 
hight wind event.

All is quite interesting.






138: MM5, Site Boulder, Mon 18-Feb-2002 11:08:30 MST, 16 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 10:30 AM.


Today's run shows lots of high cloud around with IWP of as much as 30 g 
m-2, but the snow is not forecasted to reach the surface.

Winds below 500 m are weak from the east. Winds aloft increasing with time
from the westnorthwest.

Water vapor shows some interesting vertical structure and temporal 
variations. Very dry aloft until 00 UTC Feb 17, followed by rapid
moistening and a layered appearance.

Might expect snow to begin sometime tomorrow morning as moistening 
continues to 12 UTC.

Again we see alternating layers of upward and downward vertical velocity 
with upward motion between 1 and 2.5 km. Below 1 km, there is mostly
downward motion.








137: Comms, Site Boulder, Sat 16-Feb-2002 21:42:40 MST, soap adjustment to help comms
I am suspicious that the load on the system from running IDL for SOAP is
part of the problem with dial-up communications, especially given the times
that comms failures have coincided with swap space exhaustion and excessive
numbers of IDL processes.  So on a hunch, on Friday while comms were up after
the latest reboot, I moved soap to run at 40 past the hour instead of on the
hour.  The hope is that soap runs will not interfere with dial-up and data
transfers, which happen at 5 past the hour.  Since that change the dial-up
has not failed, but that is hardly a record.  It could be a coincidence.

I asked Tian to remove the mini-tester from the serial link in case it was
too much load and causing some of the serial line signals to fail.  It did
not need to be there anyway.  The other tester does need to be there since it
is disconnecting the carrier detect between the two modems.  However, I doubt
this was really causing the current problems since in that case I doubt the
reboots would have fixed anything.

136: MM5, Site Boulder, Fri 15-Feb-2002 10:52:44 MST, 15 Feb 2002 Run
Run finished at 10 AM.


No snow or cloud is forecasted for the next 24 hours. Temperatures should
get above freezing today at NCAR site.

Winds are northeasterly aloft (above 500 m) gradually shifting to southwesterly
and weakening with time. Below 500 m, wids are mostly from the SE except
for a brief period around 21 - 23 UTC Feb 15 when winds are from the NE.

A layer of weak upward motion persists between 1-2 km, but 
reaching the surface at times.





130: MM5, Site Boulder, Wed 06-Feb-2002 11:35:57 MST, 06 Feb 2002 (no run)
Due to lack of interesting weather I decided not to run the
model last night as I am trying to catch up on recovering
disk space. Turns out I can only fit output from 3 runs on
a CD.

I saved the input data so we can run at a later time if 
needed.


129: MM5, Site Boulder, Wed 06-Feb-2002 11:33:12 MST, 04 Feb 2002 Run
clouds around today and some snow but the model
doesn't allow any to reach the ground at the NCAR site, while
a little does reach the ground up at the lab around 0 Z on the 5th.

looks like a deep front passes through this evening with winds shifting
from westerly to easterly over a deep layer around 04 Z feb 5. Wind
shift is preceeded briefly by a deep layer of upward motion.
128: MM5, Site Boulder, Wed 06-Feb-2002 11:32:08 MST, 03 Feb 2002 Run
No snow or cloud forecasted for the next 24 hours.

Winds shift from NW to SW between 0 and 3 km AGL
around 00 UTC on Feb 4. Easterly winds again show up below
700 m. Overall winds are light.

Vert. vel. are weak also, but an extended period of downward motion
is forecast below 700 m between 18 and 00 UTC.
127: MM5, Site Boulder, Wed 06-Feb-2002 11:29:06 MST, 02 Feb 2002 Run
Hi All, Todays run is on the web. I found a new more reliable source
for input data that is available earlier in the day thanks to help from the
folks from NCEP.

Today's run not too interesting with only some high cirrus passing over head
in the afternoon.

Vertical velocities are mostly downward below 1 km. Winds are rather light
from the east below 700 m and west aloft.
126: MM5, Site Boulder, Fri 01-Feb-2002 11:17:21 MST, no run today
The data files for MM5 run were unavailable last night 
and this morning so no runs have been made. Will
try again tonight.

Addendum: The input files were finally obtained this
afternoon and stored in realtime/20020201/eta* so a 
run can be made at a later time.
125: MM5, Site Boulder, Thu 31-Jan-2002 12:16:50 MST, 31 Jan 2002 Run
Late run again caused by late availability of model inputs.

Simulation shows a brief period of some light snow possible late this
afternoon (00Z feb 1).

Winds near surface below 300 m are light and variable with
periods when wind shifts from easterly to westerly. Above 1 km
winds shift from NE to WNW and then west by the end of the run.


Note: vectors only indicate wind direction. The variations in
length are meaningless as speed is color coded.
124: MM5, Site Boulder, Wed 30-Jan-2002 16:06:34 MST, 30 Jan 2002 Run
MM5 output now available for today. Late start due to late availability
of the model input data.

Forecasted winds are very interesting today with lots of directional and
speed shear. Vertical velocities are small  ( < 20 cm s-1) and mostly
positive until the end of the period when some stronger upward motion is 
forecast near the surface.

Clouds to dissipate and snow to end around 22 UTC at NCAR site. Liquid
water around during first 6 hours of the forecast period at the Lab.

123: MM5, Site Boulder, Tue 29-Jan-2002 13:16:01 MST, output note
New time-height plot now generated which plots wind field
with color coded vector arrows.


122: MM5, Site Boulder, Tue 29-Jan-2002 11:10:01 MST, 29 Jan 2002 Run
Model run completed at 11 AM MDT. It shows a good amount of snow
through the 24 hour period ending 12Z on Jan 30, with snow becoming
lighter after 06Z on the 30th. Not alot of cloud water around but
enough that there could be intermittent riming events. I 
wonder if they are observing much at the lab. 

Winds switch from northeasterly below 500 m AGL to southwesterly above
1 km and are fairly strong aloft. Vertical velocity over NCAR site is
upward at 10-30 cm s-1 through about 03Z, then subsidence begins
to take over.Predicted snowfall at the NCAR site from 00Z Jan 29 to
12 Z Jan 30 is 6 mm liq equiv (RTOT) or about 6-10 cm of snow. Locally
as much as 20 cm of snow are possible in preferred locations.


121: LOG, Site Boulder, Wed 23-Jan-2002 14:48:35 MST, Boulder logbook created
initial log file /net/www/docs/rtf/projects/ispa2002/iss/tklog/boulder/tklog.log created by USER granger