Field Notes

<--2010-04-06 11:00:00 | 2010-04-13 07:30:00-->
Other sites visited today: Twitchell Rice

Sherman Island: 2010-04-08 10:00:00 (DOY 98)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Jaclyn

Summary: Pepper weed outside fence 20-30cm, Plant cam only had one photo.

Sherman
4/8/2010

Arrived about 10am PDT with Jaclyn. I dropped Jaclyn on at the field and went to the levee. Clear, sunny, windy and cool warming rapidly. Wind is from the west only slightly north. Water in the ditch along the road seems high with water lines on the vegetation looking like it was higher recently. Field surface still dry. Pepper weed outside cow fence is 20 to 30cm high.

At the levee, I took the LGR out of the yellow, plastic mobile case. In side I found that the connector for the keyboard, mouse and serial output was loose from the board. Re-snugging it fixed both the keyboard problem and the serial output problem.

I installed a proper mount for the LI7500 head at the top of the tower.

I calibrated the LGR with 1.976ppm CH4 tank, 700psi, last cal was Mar 4, 2010

Precal
10:49, 20.99C, 137.83Torr, 18.352usec, 2.03 +- 0.0020ppm CH4

postcal
10:54, 21.14C, 137.85Torr, 18.377usec, 1.976 +- 0.0020ppm CH4

Ambient
10:55, 21.20C, 137.86Torr, 18.355usec, 1.9011ppm, 10316ppm, 411.15ppm, 1Hz

Tested spare keys for the trailer locks

Setup the generator and left it running – see generator notes.

Went back the Sherman pasture site about 12:00 PDT

I copied data and swapped the CR1000 card.

The Plant cam had rotated down to look at the ground in its mount. The card only had one photo from 3/18. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it. I removed it for testing in the lab and possible remount on the levee tower next week.

LGR
12:12, 24.87C, 123.31Torr, 11.038usec, 1.877ppm, 10Hz, 810.0hr

Collected data from soil CO2 23x with laptop – need to run serial line later.

Went to Twitchell about 1pm.

Returned about 2:30pm with pump from Frank. Picked Jaclyn up from pasture site.

Hooked up Franks KNF-N940 external diaphragm pump to the LGR. Loud pop when it first started to run, but everything seemed okay – maybe a stuck check valve.

Swapped card on CR1000 – all flux data coming in okay.

Shutdown generator and put it away. When I arrived the trailer battery meter said that the state of charge (SOC) on the batteries was 98%. This went to 100% soon after the generator was stated. The meter screen showed “Bulk Charging” with about 70A @24VDC at first. When I shutdown the generator the screen showed “Absorb Charging” still and about 70A. With the generator off the system was pulling about 10A at 25.2VDC

2 photos found

20100408SI_JaclynCheckingSoilCO2.jpg ( 2010-04-08 12:49:48 ) Full size: 2048x1536
view of field site