Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Vaira | Tonzi

Hill Slough: 2024-02-27 09:30:00 (DOY 58)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Joe

Summary: Low tide, met Kat and another USGS tech, raised channel water sensors ~10cm

2024-02-27
Hill Slough

Joe and I arrived at 9:30 PST. Shortly after we arrived, Kat and Tyler (another USGS tech) stopped by from Rush Ranch to pick up a new 7700 thermocouple that we had brought for them. Their thermocouple has not been working for a while so they can use this one while they order another replacement or fix their current one. USGS plans to service the sites monthly, but this is USGS's first visit to the site since September. The post-doc on the site, Ellen, has left the USGS and no one has been driving the project since then. I think Patty is analyzing the fluxes and her team visited at least once recently to service the tower.

This is a regular site visit that we tacked onto a Tonzi/Vaira day. It was sunny, cool, and clear, with a cold breeze picking up later in the morning. It was low tide so there were many different birds flying around and grazing in the wetland: grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and other near-shore birds with long bills.

The boardwalk on the solar scaffolding has half fallen off, probably from recent high winds. We left it as is for now. The lock on the tower gate was set to 0002.

I downloaded met, cam, and USB GHG data. Joe cleaned flux and rad sensors. The wash was 1/2 full; we refilled it. I edited the CR1000 met program to fix a mistake in the Bowen calculations: the equation for qsat uses esat now instead of ea. We forgot to bring the handheld YSI probe so no surface/pore water conductivity measurements.

At the channel, I downloaded the miniDOT and swapped its desiccant. Joe raised the EXO to clean the lenses: they weren't too dirty, and he didn't see any roe this time. We should have the auto-wiper ready to install next time; it was repaired at the factory and shipped back to us today. Joe noticed the EXO was sitting in a bit of mud, so we raised the EXO, CTD, eosGP, and miniDOT sensor all by about 10cm (5 links on the EXO chain). The EXO, miniDOT, and CTD sensor were moved about 1/2 m to the east since Joe thought the channel might be deeper there, but it end it was about the same as its original location.

The staff gauge read 3.65ft at 10:19 PST.

We left at 10:20 PST.

0 photos found

4 sets found

20 HS_met graphs found