RenoBasin-2002: DAILY Messages: 26 Entries..

Trademark:
All platforms up 
Overcast with light mix of rain and snow.
Soundings being made.
Clouds starting to break up getting warmer and appearing to dry out a bit  18z 

All platforms up 
IOP day 5 -7 launches
Clouds breaking up through the day ,getting warmer , rh dropping
a couple of showers during the night none of the forecasted rain during the day.Light winds with short periods of stronger gusts.
Running prof in rain mode will most likely change back tomorrow morning at both sites.

Trademark:
Changed from rno_i to rno_r2 at approx 19:10z
Windy 11ms gusts warm 16c dry 13%rh pressure dropping
 Broken cloud cover slowly thickening


Note recabled glass rack so I can use some of the sondes Ned sent.

Washoe:
Partly cloudy winds picking up pressure dropping
Changed to rain par file at approx 1810z

Washoe 
generator serviced Ups's acted fine carried load.
No rass at 1800z con.
All platforms working

Trademark:
All platforms working

Weather at both sites  pretty much the same: high cloud light winds and warm.

Did not change to rain mode par file no precip. 

Trademark
Noon local weather: clear and sunny
870mb 13c 20%rh .8ms 349drgrees
All platforms working

Washoe
Noon local weather
little high thin cloud sunny
10c 33%rh 1.5ms 148 degrees
Aspirator fan replaced at 19:30z

Weather at both sites clear and sunny very light winds

Trademark: Changed to inversion mode par file [ rno_i ] at approx 17:10z


Washoe: Changed to inversion par file [ rno_c } at approx 19:10z
        asprator fan still down rep[lacement should arrive tomorrow   

Some light snow flurries no reall acumalation
Broken cloud cover most of the day 

All platforms at both sites working
Aspirator fan at Washoe still out
As always winds higher at Washoe then at trademark
At Trademark watched the 18z data transmission appeared to work , Will check with Gary. Washoe appeared to have gotten a little more snow yesterday then trademark did.

Soundings : Both soundings today had very poor recovery of gps sats. Both launches were smooth releases in under 5ms winds with at least 6 sats before launch.  The only thing different that I could see was the various pockets of snow       flurries in the area This is the worst I've seen during this project.           All sondes have been from the same shipment.Neither sonde had solid lock below  600mb. Some outside interfrence has got to be effecting the gps here this system was used in Improve with no problems and I can't believe everything was        affected in transit .

Early morning broken cloud cover building in the late morning with snow flurries between approx 18 and 19 z at both sites. Became windy in the early afternoon with both winds and clouds breaking up in the late afternoon.

All platforms at both sites working
RH/T aspirator at washoe down
ldi stopped at trademark still collecting moments data.

Two sounding were done 12 hours apart first at 1715z 031602 and the second at 5:15z 031702

All platforms working.
This morning fine , clouds increasing this afternoon snow flurries arond 4 to 5 pm local time

Washoe
Changed par file from inversion mode to rain mode at 031602 01:10z.
Asperator fan on rh/t xarm working in morning was found not to be working at approx 5pm local . To late to get anyone in Boulder to ship new one Approx 7pm Boulder time.

Trademark:
Changed to rain mode at approx 031602 02:10z
Will make one sounding this evening.

Yesterday afternoon unforecasted snowfall in the afternoon appears more snow at the trademark drive site then at washoe. Approx 2 inches at trademark.At both site the profiler data discs were changed and backups made . Also the cell phones were changed at each site 
Weather cleared up during the day. 

Two soundings were made the first at 6:15am local.very windy at launch. Above 350mb wind speeds of 75 to 60 m/s were reported. Again lost sounding early at approx 250 mb this was due to wind slowing ascent rate and wind direction taking sounding behind mountains.
The second sounding was tracked to 50mb no problems as upper air winds had died down from earlier flight.

All systems at both sites working fine. Winds died down during the day. Clouds increased. 
Late in the afternoon snow bands moved into the area for a couple of hours. These were not forecasted by the news station and as such both systems were still in the inversion mode. As thye did not last for long did not change to rain par file. Approx 2 inches of snow fell.
More helium was ordered should be delivered tomorrow. 

Washoe:
Everything running
Generator serviced put a clary ups on the front end of the best ups and systems stayed up while work on the generator was done. I think Steve's problem was that it was one of the advantage ups on the front which I've come to the decision are junk
Changed to rno_c [inversion mode]par file at approx 18z

Trademark:
Everything up.
Changed to inversion mode at approx 21z
Will be making 2 soundings tonight one at 02:15z and another at 05:15z

Weather:
Bothsites were much the same partly cloudy in the morning getting heavy late morning into early afternoon then starting to break up
high temps 8 to 10 rh early 60 decreaseing to about mid 30's
presure dropping to around 847
very windy at both site 8 up m/s


Wind data appears much better since change to inversion par file.

Washoe: Sun appears to have gone down shortly after I left  yesterday missing surface met from approx 19z of the 10 to 17z of the 11 all profile data on sun so it appears it went down and restarted pretty much right away but did not resart injesting surface met.
Hazy with some high cloud temps light winds
Tested large ups today voltage out still high when on wall power132v when unpluged ran a radio , light and rass amp for 2 hours with no problem putting out about 125v. Going to do some more testing tomorrow when generator is going to be serviced

Called trailer transit and order trucks for Sat the 30th.


Trademark
All platforms appear to be working fine
prof 69%
need to get autorun in startup menu.
temp from -3 to 15 rh 37%$
light winds 1 ms from 179
hazy with some high cloud.

Both systems still running in rain mode par file

Made a sounding at approx 1700z . good sounding

Trademark:
windy 9ms , heavy clouds in the morning starting to break up during afternoon
 Temp around 5 c rh 71%

Note rain guage showing tips I believe these were caused by the wind will try to stake post down. Also top of guage was missing in morning found it in the weeds

Platforms all appear to be working well
Prof disc 63%


Washoe:
Windy up to 18ms gusts
light blowing rain
presure 848 - 846
temp 5c
cloudy breaking up in the after noon
again rain guage showing tips believe it to be wind shaking pole

Trademark: Partly cloudy winds started picking up at approx 20 45z
3 morning soundings made to look at inversion.
Changed profiler par file from rno_i to rno_2 at 21:10z
Winds went from below 1ms to gusts of over 9 ms 


Washoe:winds picked up at 3z
       temperture climbed 5c very quickly at approx 20z     

Overall: A clear sunny day. No IOP but tomorrow morning we will go after
the inversion breakup (IOP #4) and tomorrow night into Sunday may be a
melting layer event as IOP #5. 

TRADEMARK SITE:
  Minimum temperature -9; maximum +4C, dew point -12 to -2. Winds were as high
as 8 m/s yesterday evening but less than 2 m/s most of today. Sunny and
cloudless, RASS datat to 700-1200 m. Profiler winds look quite good today.

WASHOE SITE:
  Missing data overnight because of generator shutdown. Maximum temperature
today was +4C and the dew point ranged from -7 to 0C. Wind speed decreased
from 10 m/s early to less than 2 m/s later in the day. A few early clouds, but
mostly sunny. Rass to 700 m. Profiler winds light in the afternoon.

SOUNDINGS:
  No launches today.

OTHER NOTES:

  Washoe Lake generator ran low on fuel last night. The hand pump would not
  work. United could not respond until the morning so I shut down the site
  from 0715Z (1115 pm) through fixed at 1640Z (9:40am). So:
  NO DATA FROM WASHOE LAKE 0715-1640Z.

  Lou arrived today. So the site is his beginning Saturday.

  Note that we changed from Rain mode (RNO_R2) to inversion mode
  (RNO_I at Trademark and RNO_C at Washoe Lake) between 00:30 and 01:30
  this afternoon (Mar 9).
 

Overall: Winds slowing today, but still alot of snow aloft, and sometimes
reaching the ground. No soundings today. Snow drifted by aloft and the
locations of it reaching the ground was very variable.  

TRADEMARK SITE:
  Minimum T of +2, max of +8. Dew point -3 to +2. Winds are about 10 m/s
  until 03Z and then light from 03-16Z (up to 10 m/s again after). Cloudy
  with a few sporadic periods of snow. RASS coverage 700-100 m. Profiler
  still in RNO_R2 mode.

WASHOE SITE:
  Minimum T of 0C, and a high today of +5C. The dew point was between -4
  and +2C. Moderate winds today, 4-7 m/s with some periods of 15 m/s from
  the SW. Mostly cloudy all day with periods of snow reaching the surface.
  Rain gauge showed alot. Can the wind vibration be tipping it? I recall
  this problem at CASES99?. RASS coverate 400-700 m. Profiler has periods
  of missing winds (no consensus) but alot of structure in winds measured.

SOUNDINGS:
  No launches today.

OTHER NOTES:

  Washoe Lake site power problem late this evening. See note fo 08 March.

Overall: IOP #3 is intended to study the melting layer as the first of two
short waves traveling down the trough bring some rain/snow to the
Sierra. Soundings are scheduled for 06Z, 15Z, 18Z, 20Z, and 03Z tomorrow
relying on the NWS for 12Z and 0Z soundings. Also a good day to train teams
of students to do launches.

TRADEMARK SITE:
  Minimum T of +6, max of +12. Dew point -5 to +3. Winds are about 10 m/s
  from the S (SE to SW) most of the day. Cloudy, some rain. Precip showing
  on the gauge 13-14Z. RASS generally 500-700 m today and alot of profiler
  winds missing (lack of consensus, so see if NIMA does better).

WASHOE SITE:
  Minimum T of +4, and a high today of +9C. The dew point was between -3
  and +4C. Very windy most of the day, 6-12 m/s from the SW. Cloudy with
  some rain, recorded as beginning at 03Z. Rass coverage 300-900 m. The
  profiler nicely captures the stronge SW winds aloft.

SOUNDINGS:
  A learning experience for all.
  
  06Z (0522): trained Prof. Hallett.
  15Z (1454): trained Mark and Pete. The first sonde tried, system could not
    download coefficients to the rack. Tried another sonde. This one had bad
    GPS (you could hear the problem from the sound). Third sonde was successful.
  18Z (1740): trained Dorothea and Lupita.
  21Z (2054): (final training Dorothea and Lupita. On this release, a downdraft
      blew the radiosonde into the power lines. It broke free but fell in the
      field to the north. Future launched with south winds will require that
      we walk into that field and release on the north side of the lines.
      Put up a second sonde which lost GPS in the first minutes and did not
      recover, so no winds aloft.
  03Z (0216 March 7): final training fro Mark and Pete. Interesting feature in
      this sounding. The sonde vertical velocity went negative several times
      in the stratosphere, suggesting it was going through a large amplitude
      vertically propagating gravity wave.

Overall we went through three extra/failed sondes. But did get good data for
all scheduled times and did train two teams for future launches.  

OTHER NOTES:

  Profiler still in RNO_R2 (rain) mode at both sites.

  I think the profiler caught a few periods of melting layer structure,
  mostly around 9 pm LT (5Z, and after the last 03Z sounding). Next expected
  IOP will be Saturday night or Sunday.  

Overall: Clouds building a little today. We replaced the anemometer
at Washoe Lake and also got communications working there with a cell
connection rather than the Freewave to the Park HQ. First launch of IOP3
will happen later tonight at 6Z (0515 launch) on March 06.
 

TRADEMARK SITE:
  Minimum T of -4, max of +16. Dew point -12 to -5. Winds pretty calm,
  increasing to 10 m/s from the SW after 20Z. Some clouds, thicker
  cirrus and some wave clouds. RASS to 800 m with an inversion last night,
  Profiler winds good to 1500-2000 m.

WASHOE SITE:
  Minimum T of +6 (warm overnight!), and a high today of 14C. The dew point
  varied from -13 to -4C. Winds calm for much of the day but some windy
  periods. Wave clouds (less cloud cover than at Trademark this morning)
  and a lot of high clouds. RASS to 300-500 m, Many missing profiler
  winds (did not find a consensus?).  

OTHER NOTES:

  PROFILER MODE CHANGE: Changed Washoe Lake profiler to RNO_R2 mode at 2320 Z
               Changed Trademark Drive profiler to RNO_R2 at 0000 Z (6 Mar).
     Par file RNO_R2 is a rain mode whthout ICRA so I can sample with
     60 m resolution to 5 km. Wide Nyquist, 50% vertical beams. 60 min cns. 

  Profiler PC crashed (related to using impact drill?) losing SPC file
  so no SPC data from 00-0730Z (March 5, DAY 056). There should still
  be SOAP moments available.

  Replaced wind head at Washoe Lake at 2230 Z (a lot of help from Greg
  McCurdy). The wind directions problem has not recurred today.

  Worked with Gary to start data transmission through the cell phone
  modem . This too is now working and seems to be solid since we
  started up at 2100Z. I transferred to hast 2 days of data back to
  Boulder.

  The differences in wind and temperature overnight between Trademark and
  Washoe Lake could  be interesting to study.

Overall: Today we set up the DRI met tower. This is not an ISS system but
should provide interesting data. Winds were set up at 3 levels, temperature
at three levels (not the same) and there is one level with a humidity sensor.
Thicker cirrus this morning.

Weather:
Clear again today with thicker cirrus, especially in the morning. Winds were
generally light, with a few short "bursts" seen at the Washoe Lake site.

Trademark: min temperature last night was -8, and max today was +15C.
           Dew point was between -9 and -12C. Winds were light, less than
           4 m/s through the day. RASS measurements to 700-900 m and
           profiler winds sometimes to 1500 m and to over 2000 m for a few
           hours.

Washoe: minimum temperature of -5C; maximum of _13C and dew point between
        -13 and -7C. Surface winds were light, but bursts at 1430-1730 and
        from 2100 to 2400. RASS to 500-1000m parts of the day and profiler
        winds sometimes to 1500 m

OTHER NOTES:

   Moved flagging to protect DRI met tower.

GENERAL: We finished IOP #2 with an overnight sounding. Then it became
a day for equipment repairs and failures. Clear and sunny with another
pretty good inversion.

Launches at 0Z, 12Z (March 3) yesterday evening and overnight.

WASHOE SITE SPECIFIC:
  The generator was shut down for service at 17Z. At that time the UPS
did not keep power to the CPU's. When the generator was restarted the UPS
alarmed. So the CPU power strip was plugged into wall power (until this
afternoon, see note further in this entry). The CPU's are in wall circuit #3
and the monitors were moved to circuit #7. In the afternoon at 0130Z I shut
down all systems and routed the CPU's through the small UPS (IPM?) to be
used just for power conditioning.

Because of hard shut down at 17Z we lost the profiler SPC file. Should
still have SOAP moments.

TRADEMARK DRIVE WEATHER: minimum temperature -10C last night; maximum +12 and
the dew point was around -12. Surface winds were up to 6 m/s yesterday
afternoon but were below 3 m/s for all of today. Profiler winds to 1300 m
and RASS to 600-800 m.

WASHOE LAKE WEATHER: min temperature was -6C, max was +10, dew point about
-13 today. Surface wind speeds reached 6 m/s part of the day. No clouds all
day. Rass measurements to 600 m, and profiler winds to about 1 km. 

OTHER NOTES:
  Lost profiler SPC file 0000-1730 Z as noted above.

  Installed replacement JAZ on profiler PC. Works fine, but AutoRun not working.

  Noticed wind direction intermittant failure. See log entry on Surface Met,

  At 17Z, people are flying a remote controlled glider near the
ISS. I did not see any extra clutter in the profiler though.

Overall:

IOP #2 merges with IOP #1. Soundings continue (last of IOP #1 was yesterday
afternoon at 0Z Mar 02), with launches at 12Z last night, 0Z (Mar 3) this
afternoon at a final sonde will be overnight at 12Z (Mar 3).

Weather:
Clear again today with a few cirrus in the early afternoon. Winds were
nearly calm overnight, abd about 2 m/s during much of the day. 

Trademark: min temperature last night was -10, and max today was +12C.
           Dew point was typically -15C. Winds were light overnight
           and increased to about 2 m/s during the day. Very weak
           profiler signal today, with just a few winds aloft in the afternoon.
           Maybe NIMA will recover more winds.
Washoe: min -7C max +6; dew point around -14 (so much colder than Trademark).
        light winds at the surface all day, no clouds. RASS measured to
        about 500-700 m; profiler winds to 600-1200m. 

OTHER NOTES:

   Replaced surface met aspirator fan this afternoon (00:30 Z Mar 3).
   Also see log entry describing GLASS GPS loss of winds on some flights.

Overall:

IOP today with 5 sonde launches (0Z, 6Z, 12Z, 18Z, 0Z). The IOP caught
the end of yesterday's dust storm (PV max), and the subsequent 24 hours.
If there was much of an inversion it would be completely fresh after the
strong winds. 

Weather:
Clear today with some cirrus in the afternoon. Winds decreased last evening
and were light overnight. Picked up again during the day.

Trademark: min temperature last night was -9, and max today was +10C.
           Dew point was -8C early, and dried further to -17 (very dry).
           Profiler winds (a lot of clutter) showed a turn fron Easterky
           to Southerly early this morning.

Washoe:    min T was -8; max T was +4; dew point of -10 before 16Z and falling
           steadily to -20 by 24Z. The peak of the wind storm was yesterday
           afternoon around 03 Z with surface winds greater than 10 m/s, later
           winds were less than 3 m/s. Radiation shows very clear with just 
           a little afternoon cirrus. Profiler winds were weak and easterly
           with coverage to 1 km (weak signal). RASS to 500 m. 

OTHER NOTES:

Rebooted the SUN twice at Trademark around 1950 to get comms working. Needed
the second kick to get Campbell data. Comms worked for a short time and then
stopped again. Did not ingest profiler moments again until 0015Z

Also rebooted twice at Washoe. This did not fix comms problem. I need to 
swap the old, slow modem back in later.

Overall:

The winds were calm overnight but increased steadily during the day. A
short wave (potential vorticity maxima) came in from the north bringing
the wind and a dust storm. Six car accident on 395 this evening (early
on Mar 01 UT) blamed on visibility.

Began IOP with sonde launches at 3:15 pm local. Described in tomorrow's
log entry. 

Weather:
Clear today. Winds increased beginning at 17Z to a maximum of about 10 m/s
late afternoon (2Z). Minimum temperature last night was -7C and todays high
was +14C. JH says there was a shallow inversion seen from DRI this morning.
I saw diffuse haze without a defined top at 18Z.  

Trademark: min temperature last night was -7, and max today was +14C.
           Dew point was -8C early, and dried further to -13 as the
           wind from the north swept in. Winds were light overnight
           and increased to about 10 m/s by afternoon.
           Many profiler winds were bad - no signal in the dry air. With
           sporadic good winds.
Washoe: min T -5C, max T +13, dew point between -7 and -10 today. Surface winds
        were less than 2 m/s early, rising steadily to 10 m/s between 18 Z and
        24Z. No cirrus today. RASS coverage to 700 m.

OTHER NOTES:
   Installed board to solidify first step in stairs to trailer at Trademark.
   Modified aspirator with GPS slot.

Overall:

Good inversion day, but spend working with Boulder on software issues.
No soundings today.

Weather:
Cirrus all day, but less after 23Z (3pm). Inversion this morning 16Z seen from
DRI was thicker than Rattlesnake peak by about 20%. Broke up later in the 
day (based on visuals of haze). Some construction activity this morning.
Bruce (site construction supervisor) stopped by for a tour of the site.

Trademark: min temperature last night was -6, and max today was +15C.
           winds were light, mostly less than 2 m/s. with variable direction.
           dew point around -5C. (all just like yesterday).
           Profiler winds light, with a lot of clutter overnight
           below 500 m. At night signal is very very weak and POP is picking
           up the spurs. NIMA should shine here. Direction at 1 km rotates
           from NW to NE to E to SE to E.
Washoe: min T was -3C, max +12C, dew point -4C overnight and drying to
        -10C for part of the day. Sfc wind about 1 m/s from the SW (variable)
        until 17Z, and then 3-5 m/s steady from the SW. Profiler winds
        at 1 km begin from the N and rotate from the E. RASS to around 800 m.
        Profiler shows circulation Northerly to Easterly shift (at 1 km).

Three students visited for a short time this afternoon. They will be back to
demo the first launch tomorrow afternoon.

OTHER NOTES:
  Added flags to many tie-downs at Trademark. Still need to bring reflectors
  from Washoe.

  Replaced the modem at Washoe Park HQ. Comms there seem ok (still - apparently
  they started working correctly with the other modem, too).

   Fueled the generator at 20Z, it was down to 1/4 of the main tank. United
   visited to fix the hand pump. Appt to shut down/service generator at
   9am Sunday.

  Comms at Trademark are now suspect. They work well sometimes but other times
  the link is broken mid-stream.
 

Overall:

1. I plan to use this TKLOG (at Trademark) for daily notes applicable to
   both sites.

2. Visual observation of inversions is by the depth of apparent pollution
   in the air against tall buildings (Hilton) or Rattlesnake Peak or
   the surrounding mountains.

3. NOTE: Profiler beam directions were not correct during Monday test
   sonde. Fixed later Monday morning.  

DAILY NOTES:

First day of operations. Both sites collecting data, but several problems
with plots and comms to work out.

Summary: Inversion day, no soundings, construction (pouring concrete) this
morning, but not too much activity.

Weather:
Cool overnight, cirrus this morning with an inversion seen at 7am which
appears to have been broken up at 11am observation. Cirrus all day, as seen
also in solar. Dip at 23:30 is when sun went behind a thin wave cloud.  

Trademark: min temperature last night was -6, and max today was +14C.
           winds were light, mostly less than 1 m/s. with variable direction.
           dew point around -5C.
           Profiler winds light below about 800 m, with clutter overnight
           below 500 m. Looks like spurs; maybe NIMA will clean it up. But
           why only at night. I need to come by late and check it out.

Washoe: min temperature -3C, max +11, dew point was 6C most of the day.
        Surface winds from the WNW (1-6 m/s), except from S at 4 m/s between
        6Z and 16Z. RASS measured to 700-800 m. Profiler winds light, seen
        to above 1 km. At 1km they shift: from E early, from W later in day.
        Max profiler wind about 7 m/s at 800 m at 20Z.

SODAR: Winds very light, measured up to 200-250 m.

NOTES:
First 2pm planning meeting today: Forecast is for high pressure and inversions
for the next many days, We plan soundings at 0Z, 6Z, 12Z, 18Z on Thursday night
and Friday (29 Feb). Students will be here for 0Z (Thursday afternoon).

List of things to work on:
  flagging cables
  wooden step
  web page
  plot_latest_sounding (Bill's GLASS plot)
  Washoe comms
  NIMA
  SOAP plots
  SODAR height coverage 
  Washoe JAZ