Field Notes

Bouldin Alfalfa: 2018-08-23 09:40:00 (DOY 235)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Daphne, Kuno

Summary: Very hazy sky, 7500 fouled (fowled?), swapped HMP, clip plots, camera misaligned, solar panels cleaned and cleared.

Bouldin Alfalfa
2018-08-23

I arrived at 9:40 with Daphne and Kuno. It was cool and windy with a super hazy, pale blue sky. There was not even a hint of Mt. Diablo on the horizon. The Alfalfa is tall and flowering â€“ probably due for a cut. The edges of a field to the west were cut. The roads are dry and very dusty.

Birds, probably starlings, have pooped all over the tower and tilted the camera up.
The 7500 read: 168ppm CO2, 949mmol/m3 H2O, 18.6C, 101.7kPa, 44SS - bird poop on top window
After cleaning: 393ppm CO2, 644mmol/m3 H2O, 98.4SS
The 7700 read: 2.00ppm CH4, 49.9RSSI â€“ 1.98ppm CH4, 81.2RSSI after cleaning
The 7700 seem unaffected by the birds. The wash reservoir only needed topping off. The spikes on its hat could be replaced.

The camera was pointing mostly at the sky with only a small strip of field in the bottom of the image. I realigned the camera and tightened its bolts.

Daphne did LAI 2200 and spectral measurements. Spectral files #16-27. Files before 16 on this date were dark measurements taken as â€œsampleâ€.

Both the Arable Mark and its solar panel were covered in bird poop. Kuno washed them off, but the Mark probably could still be polished with toothpaste.

Kuno took clip plots and did veg height. He also cleaned the radiometers and clipped around and cleaned the solar panels.

We swapped the HMP60 sn L1740398 for an older HMP45 sn T1250012. The HMP60 air temperature has been reading low like many of the other HMP60s. After the swap AirT = 17.3C and RH = 62.6%.

The next time the field is mowed, the area under and near the tower needs to be thoroughly clipped.

We left at 10:45

Next Mowing: 2018-09-13

Veg Height (cm): Tape measure from ground to top of plant - Alfalfa starting to flower, measured by Kuno
68, 57, 28, 53.2, 41, 56, 57.6, 63, 71, 59.5, 69, 51, 55.5, 64.6, 66.3, 57, 43.6, 53, 77.6, 63, avg = 57.7, stdev = 11.34

0 photos found

7 sets found

5 BA_flux graphs found