Field Notes

Bouldin Corn: 2021-08-04 08:50:00 (DOY 216)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Carlos

Summary: Regular data collection/cleaning, ash on boardwalk, ashy and dusty inside corn canopy, smoke plume seen in PurpleAir data

2021-08-04
Bouldin Corn

Carlos and I arrived at 8:50 PDT. Some of the mowed fields north of Hwy 12 were starting to flood. Joe thinks probably winter wheat fields on Brannan Island. It was much calmer here than at Hill Slough and was an overall mild and sunny day. There was ash on the lower boardwalk and corn leaves, but not much on the upper boardwalk or on the sensors, probably from the fire on Bradford Island that started in the early morning of Aug 2nd. There were also many bird feathers scattered under the tower and in the open area between the tower and the road. The feathers ranged from large, stiff feathers 10cm+ long to shorter downy feathers. We looked for but didnâ€™t see any bird bodies.

The corn cobs have dark brown silks and there was ash and corn tassel detritus on the corn leaves.

I downloaded met, camera, and USB GHG data. The met sensors on the mux and the dfPAR data all looked ok after we fixed the recent data spikes. I downloaded FD data and cleared its memory. I downloaded PA data, power cycled the sensor, and checked that the LED lights on the card slot were blinking promisingly after startup.

I downloaded the undercanopy picams and cleared their memories. I can probably remove these cameras next time now that the canopy has fully developed.

I changed the eddy clock from 8:15 to 8:17 to match the laptop time, reset the 7550, and checked that the clock still looked good afterwards. I changed the phenocam clock from 8:18 to 8:20 to match the laptop time, and I made sure to plug the camera ethernet cable back into the datalogger this time.

I downloaded the IRT data as TOB1 files and deleted the source files. I converted the 30min data to T0A5 format and checked that the numbers looked reasonable.

Carlos cleaned flux and rad sensors, topped off the wash reservoir, and took veg height measurements.

LI-7500 readings:
CO2 410ppm
H2O 600ppm
T 23.9C
P 101.2kPa
SS 102-->102 after cleaning
LI7700 readings:
CH4 1.97
RSSI 57-->73 after cleaning

We left around 9:30 PDT. There were 2 trucks parked outside of the red gate by the overpass, so I decided to go the inside route to the alfalfa site.

Looking at the data back in the lab, the PA data show a clear response to smoke plumes from the Bradford Island fire on Aug 2, and then dispersed smoke on Aug 2-3.

Veg Height (cm): Tape measure from ground to top of plant
262, 273, 253, 280, 255, 281, 283, 275, 265, 273, 269, 244, avg = 267.8, stdev = 12.26

1 photos found

20210804BC_Feathers.jpg ( 2021-08-04 08:53:18 ) Full size: 1440x1920
Feathers aplenty under the Bouldin Corn tower