metcrax-iss3: DAILY Messages: 29 Entries..

Everything looks good.
AAn IOP is called for to day.IOP7
Hazy warm and windy.Up to 10 meters per second could be fun.
Keyboard on Dispaly Manager seems to have a sticky keyboard.

IOP6 ended to today.
All systems working well
Low level clouds over site. Winds picking up
Generators filled.

IOP 6 today
All systems appear to be working well.
High clouds moved in in the afternoon
Cows were all around the profiler this evening so went down and drove them off before they did any damage.

Everything is up and running.
Generators were refueled this morning.
Clear sky,warm temps and very light winds.
An IOP has been called for tomorrow night.

Between 16:50 and 18:30 z the ISS and Sodar/RASS systems were shutdown for varying lenghts of time while the generators were serviced.
Mostly clear and breezy.

All systems up and running.With the higher humidity etc the profiler is looking very good.
Generators refueled.
Partly cloudy, strong winds 10-12 mps most of the day.

All systems up and running
Overcast with a forecast of possible showers and thunderstroms this afternoon into the evening.

IOP 5 ended this morning with a 9am [local time] sounding.Some high thin cloud moving into the area.This may mean no IOP's until maybe Thursday.
Both generators were refueled. 
Clouds have increased during the afternoon.
Noticed a time differrence between prof pc and Display Manager this afternoon ofapprox 2 minutes and 45 seconds with prof pc being fast. I intend to reboot profiler pc at approx 22:35z
Computers are time sync'ed again.
Also all systems are very dusty must be blown out upon return to Boulder.

My final night (weather is great for IOP5) clear, 2mps winds SW

wind blowing S at 5mps. Clear and slightly warm.  This morning Sharon notified me of a helium leak. It appears as though the filter element on the hose has failed. The spare regulator is being used to connect to the bottle and then to the flow meter. 

Conditions very favorable for IOP4.  Clear skies, slight wind out of the north east, expected to diminish by evening. 

IOP today. Light wind gusts, but expected to die down towards the evening.  

Strong winds today. Partly cloudy with rain in surrounding areas

Clear, cool, and windy today with windspeeds close to 12mps. No IOPs scheduled.

Kate arrived and is taking over for Bill, he leaves for home tomorrow.  Bill did a data back up this afternoon of the sodar and wind profiler to a portable USB.  A test launch was performed.  There is the possibility of an IOP tomorrow night. Conditions today were windy and partly cloudy.


Actually did backups to DVDs on data manager (and just sodar to usb drive), Bill.

DAILY REPORT Sunday October 8.

IOP 1 ended with the last sounding at 9am (16UT) this morning.
7 sondes were launched and there were some problems with the software
not recognising GPS lock and with transferring the data (see separate
tklog entry).  Ultimately the soundings were okay, although the data
will have to be reprocessed for some soundings.  Manually transferred the
data files.

Also did some work at the sodar site (tieing down the trailer since it moved
a little in the storm) and on the drain at the road to make access easier
if it rains again.  The ground there is finally dry enough to drive into
the site.

The weather today was mainly fine, with a little rain early in the afternoon
as a squall line or front went through. 

Filled the generators. 
Also stowed and restarted the MotoSat as the performance of the internet
link had been very poor - afterwards it was much improved.

Kate is due to arrive tonight.

DAILY REPORT Saturday October 7

First IOP started at 3pm (22UT) this afternoon.
Plan is to launch every 3 hours with the last sounding at 9am tomorrow
(Sunday) morning.  Plan to use 600g balloon at 9pm.
Helpers are Sharon and Wen.

The weather has cleared and winds gradually declining during the afternoon
and evening.  Lots of Cu this morning, clearing during afternoon.

All systems now working normally.  Sodar was repaired this afternoon
(see separate log entry).

Had a little trouble with the second sounding of the IOP.
Initally didn't get GPS lock, however by 750mb is was okay.

DAILY REPORT Friday October 6.

A series of storms passed through the area last night.
Peak sustained winds at the ISS site were 18 m/s yesterday evening
and the profiler indicated winds near the ground around 25 m/s.
The rain gauge indicates around 5mm of rain, however rain was observed 
to be blown over the top of the gauge so this is probably underestimated.
There was lots of surface water causing a few access problems on the dirt
roads (such as to the sodar site).

There may have been a nearby lightning strike.  Some surface group
equipment was affected, as was some of Dave Whiteman's hobo T sensors.
The sodar appears to have lost an acoustic amp and perhaps a speaker and
is currently not operating (see separate tklog entry).

Apart from the sodar, all other systems are operating normally.
Raised the profiler height range and Doppler velocity range to catch
last night's storms.  Returned to previous settings 1UT this evening (Oct 7).

The generators had a service check this morning (during a rain storm).

Our Motosat satellite internet connection is very slow, perhaps connected
with weather although still slow this evening.

Weather: Storms with blowing rain this morning, clearing during the afternoon.
Winds mainly southerly.  There are a few scattered small squalls to the south
so we might get a little more rain this evening.

The forecast for tomoorw is better and Dave says there's a possible IOP 
tomorrow (Sat) night.

DAILY REPORT Thursday October 5

All systems operating normally.
Profiler winds to around 4 km, RASS to around 600m.

Sodar 10-minute average data now being uploaded to Boulder.

Weather: windy southerlies during day (southeast last night),
increasing in strength during the afternoon.
Cloudy with occasional showers and lightning in the distance 
(eg to west, east and south) during afternoon.
NWS forecast severe weather warnings around Sedona and Flagstaff.

Profiler indicates a little light precip last night, probably a little
rain reached the surface around 5Z and 10Z although not enough for the 
tipping bucket gauge to register.

More rain at site this evening.  Winds around 15 m/s and blowing rain over
the rain gauge and it may be missing some of it.
23:50 Widened Doppler range and height range since there's some velocity
aliasing and echoes are going up high.
Lightning nearby around 0UT.

DAILY REPORT Wednesday October 4

All systems operating normally.
Profiler seeing good winds to nearly 3 km, RASS to 600m.
Sodar seeing winds to 200m, RASS to 50 - 100m (better at night).

Weather: windy (southerly) with scattered high cloud, warm.
Not much prospect of an IOP until the weekend.

Fueled both generators and set up servicing for Friday morning.

DAILY REPORT TUESDAY OCTOBER 3

All systems are now operational.

RASS repaired today.  After much testing and replacing various cards,
it appears to have been as problem with the coherent integrator card.
(See the separate tklog entry for more details).
RASS working from about 0UT (Oct 4).

Wind profiler and RASS getting good coverage, winds to more than 3km,
and RASS to 500 - 800m this evening.  Sodar winds to about 200m,
and sodar-RASS to 50 - 100m due to the breezy conditions.

Briefly turned off Sodar-RASS transmitter 20:40 - 21:00 UT to test
whether it interferes with the ISFF data link to the south rim,
however there was no improvement to their link so it must be some other
problem.

Weather was breezy today, mainly southerlies last night switching to 
southwest this morning.  
Partly cloudy, with scattered Cu, clearing later.

Probably no IOP until at least Friday as winds too strong and possible
precip coming.

DAILY REPORT MONDAY OCT 2

Windy (south to south-west) and partly cloudy.
Too breezy for IOPs for today and tomorrow.

Wind profiler seeing a little clutter and spurs with the wind at lowest levels,
however NIMA processing is cleaning it up okay.

The sodar range is limited with the high winds
(winds getting to 100m this afternoon, 200m last night,
and rass to only 50m this afternoon, 100-200m last night).

Gary leaving for Denver tomorrow.

DAILY REPORT FOR SUNDAY OCTOBER 1

Fine, warm, and breezy (westerlies) with high cloud.

Still fairly dry (RH<20%) so wind profiler echoes fairly weak.
Some spectral spurs at low levels, however NIMA processing seems to
be cleaning up the data well.

Did training sounding this afternoon for the student operators.
Went okay, however did not get good GPS lock until 700mb.
Used 600g balloon.

Daily Report Saturday Sep 30

Setup is complete.  Everything is working apart from the wind profiler RASS,
for which we are waiting on replacement DSP & CI cards from Boulder.
Did some more tests on both the wind profiler and sodar so there are some
periods of missing data, otherwise are working okay.

Sodar comms is now running (linked to ISFF trailer).

Weather fine and warm, light winds and scattered high cloud.

Lou and Tom's last day.  Gary went down into the crater with the surface group.

Metcrax ISS3 set-up continued.

Everything is set up and running.

Did test sounding and that went well.

The one problem is wind profiler RASS which is not working correctly.
We suspect a problem with either the DSP or CI card and replacement
cards are coming from Boulder.

Winds data on the profiler looks good and agreed with the sounding.
Reduced lowest gate (down to 150m) since there seems to be very little
ground clutter.

Lou corrected the fan direction on the surface tower (to suck instead of blow),
at around 22UT.  There was a 3C drop in temperature and a few % rise in
relative humidity when he made the change.  Now correct.

Sodar running well.  Winds and RASS up to between 100 and 200 meters
depending on time of day.
Tried increasing TX freq from 1675Hz to 2000Hz from 23UT to match
T-REX settings. 

Weather warm, with light winds (mainly northerly).
Scattered high cloud.

Dave Whiteman dropped by and we discussed sounding schedules.

Set-up continued.

Surface station appears to be running okay.  
Tower slightly repositioned so that it's more level and improve guying.

Wind profiler up and running - collecting good winds data,
winds to 2 - 3 km during the day, although down to 1 km at night.
RASS is currently collecting very little data, and we are experimenting
with different settings to collect better data.

Sodar-RASS now also running and seems to be collecting good data,
winds and rass to about 120m this afternoon.

Weather warm, light northerlies and few clouds.

26 Sept 2006

Set-up of ISS3 at METCRAX experiment at Meteor Crater, AZ, Sept 24 - 29.

So far have profiler antenna and RASS set-up, 
although have not completed cabling.

Surface met tower up and running, along with rain guage and radiation stand.
Tipping bucket test at 22:30 UT.  Motosat up and tested.

Weather clear and warm with light NE winds switching to increasing SW breeze 
and increasing clouds.  
Widely scattered showers in the distance to west and south.

Set-up crew Bill, Lou, and Tom.

Doing some training - system up and down

ISS3 Tests in FL compound for Metcrax

Profiler directions (corrected 9/11/06 22UT - previously about 180 deg out)
x37 direction pointed verly close to north

IR sensor plots look a little more variable than they should be,
could be as a result of placement on front of container.