Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: West Pond | East End | Bouldin Alfalfa

Bouldin Corn: 2023-06-28 11:45:00 (DOY 179)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Robert

Summary: Moved soil sensors into the field, CR1000 program update - add other stats for modified Bowen ratio, corn about 1m tall, crop duster flying nearby

2023-06-28
Bouldin Corn

Robert and I arrived at 11:45 PDT. It was breezy, sunny, and warm. The construction crew and water truck are still here, driving back and forth. There was a cropduster criss-crossing the fields north of the highway. It was directly north of us when we arrived and flew east. The weeds on our field look recently sprayed and are halfway to crispy. The field has furrows and spud ditches, and the corn is almost a meter tall.

Since the farmers are done with their tractor work until harvest, Robert moved the soil sensors from where they were installed under the tower back into the field. The Campbell soil moisture probes are installed vertically, with the top of the sensor 10cm below the ground surface. The soil heat flux plates are installed at their usual -2cm depth. One of the thermocouples came loose and was repaired with electrical tape.

I downloaded the zcam data and then added desiccant to the upward looking picams (zcams) because last summer one Rasberry Pi board corroded when the field was irrigated. Charlotte had placed them in the field for us last week but they were on the edge of the field, so I wanted to move them further into the field to avoid edge effects; now one camera is in line with row 5 and the other cameras is between row 5 and 6. I checked the zcams after the move and there was no photo preview from Zcam2. I checked it and it had a loose camera cable that must have come off when I opened the case today to put in the desiccant. All seemed well after reattaching the cable.

I downloaded most of the rest of the usual data, met, USB GHG, PA and IRT. After we got to BA I realized I forgot to swap the camera card. After downloading data, I updated the CR1000 code to include the qsat and q equations for the modified Bowen ratio calculations. The program is now saving average and standard deviation of q.

Robert took veg height measurements and cleaned flux and rad sensors. The wash reservoir was 80% full and we refilled it.

The 7500 read: 370ppm CO2, 845mmol/m3, 24.4C, 101.1kPa, 92SS – 98 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 1.97ppm CH4, 38RSSI – 77 after cleaning

We left at 12:45 PDT to service BA.

We stopped back briefly at 13:50 PDT to swap the camera card. I also moved the Theta soil moisture probe from underneath the tower into the field. It has a short cable so it’s buried just beyond the first corn row. The sensor installed vertically with the top of its white palstic body buried just below the soil surface.

Veg Height (cm): Tape measure from ground to top of plant
97, 91, 82, 106, 78, 102, 99, 92, 87, 101, avg = 93.5, stdev = 9.13

0 photos found

6 sets found

17 BC_met graphs found