Field Notes

<--2010-10-28 10:00:00 | 2010-11-12 10:00:00-->
Other sites visited today: Twitchell Rice | Vaira | Tonzi | Tonzi
Phenocam link: Searching...

Tonzi: 2010-11-12 09:40:00 (DOY 316)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Siyan

Summary: Reset time on z-cams, new CO2 profile pump.

Tonzi
11/12/2010

I arrived at Tonzi with Siyan about 9:40am. It was clear, sunny and warm with little to no wind. The grass is growing well and is already about 5cm tall in some places. The trees have lost most of their leaves, but some trees are still holding on to quite a few leaves. I found a bunch of mushroom near the floor tower. The ground is damp with some puddles on the road in the low spot.

I checked on the zenith cameras and swapped their cards. Z-cam three near the floor tower had not taken any images. The problem was that the card’s lock switch was in the wrong (unlocked) position. I checked the time on the cameras which required removing them from their mounts.

Cam 1 I reset the time from 9:47am to 9:42am PST. Cam 2 I reset the time from 9:49am to 9:47am PST. The clock of the CR10X that controls the cam 1 and 2 was further off than the cameras. I reset the CR10X clock from 10:44am to 10:55am PST. I also adjusted the program with a key pad to start taking photos and hour earlier: start time was reset from 960min to 900min into the day (4pm to 3pm PST) and end time was reset from 1141min to 1021min into the day (7pm to 5pm PST).

For z-cam 3 I think I reset the camera’s time and like the other cameras it was not far off, but I don’t have notes on the exact times. I reset the clock of the CR200 that controls this camera from 11:28am to 11:14am PST. I did not have the program for this camera, so to make it take photos earlier in the day I moved the CR200’s clock ahead by two hours from 11:20am to 1:20pm PST. File dates on the camera’s photos will still be correct.

The CO2 profile pump had quit again. I swapped is with the new brushless pump I got from Parker-Hargraves. The new pump is part number C134D-12 and serial number M0006971. It seems to be running well. I calibrated the CO2 profile system with the new pump and it didn’t seem far off. I replaced a squashed filter in the inlet second from the bottom.

After replacing the CO2 profile pump I checked the tower power. The batteries were at 14.1V and the load was 4.2Amps. This seems low as I think with the old CO2 profile pumps the load was closer to 6Amps. I could smell sulfur from the batteries – perhaps outgassing while charging.

The tower computer restarted when I reconnected the USB hub after down loading data to a USB drive.

The battery for the cow fence around the soil CO2 system is corroded and needs cleaning.

The tram is running, but the motors are getting noisy. I should probably order replacements. The tram power base was reporting 27.8V and 0.8 solar amps at 10am.

Fans on all HMP45s were okay. The tipping bucket and the radiometers were clean.

I swapped the battery on the IRT sensor data logger.

Long views from the top of the tower.
View from the tower to Rancho Seco is about 10 miles.
View from the tower to Mt Diablo is about 64 miles.
View from the tower to Crystal Mountains south of Tahoe is about 52 miles

Field Data

No tank data

Well Depth