Field Notes
<--2010-11-17 08:30:00 | 2010-12-09 13:00:00-->Other sites visited today: Twitchell Rice | Sherman Island
Mayberry: 2010-12-02 10:00:00 (DOY 336)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Cristina
Summary: Bird poop everywhere, Solar power failing - shutdown LI7700, auto camera worked but knocked over (by wind?) and pointing at sky. Water much higher.
| Mayberry
12/2/2010 I arrived with Cristina about 10am. It was cold and overcast with a light wind from the north east. Not much in the way of ducks, but a lot of coots and some wading birds. Seems a flock of starlings have taken over our tower site. There were a few on our solar panels when we arrived, but there guano is everywhere. All over the ground, the solar panels, the tower, everywhere. The water level is much higher than before – maybe 30cm higher. Cristina said the foam float for the water thermocouples was 9” below the surface of the water. No power when we arrived. The batteries said 12.1V and only 1.7Amps from the solar. I reset the charge controller and power began to flow but the batteries immediately dropped to about 11.5V and the system was pulling 2.5Amps. I don’t think the bird poop all over the panels is major cause. I think we need some more panels and batteries for the winter. The auto camera was working, but had been blown over so far that the spring in the mount was not able to right it. So we got a lot of photos of clouds. I swapped cards and set it to record more photos. I probably need to come up with a stronger pole for the camera. The lower mirror of the LI7700 was completely blocked by bird poop. The RSSI was 3. After cleaning the mirrors the RSSI was 79. The density and temperature seemed bad. The fine wire TC may be broken again, but the density was railed too. I suppose it’s possible that the concentration was above 5ppm. The rest of the system seemed okay, except for the power problems. The sonic was not running on the low voltage. I copied the data from the CR10X and swapped cards on the CR1000. I then unplugged the LI7700 head and interface box to help conserve power. The power usage went from 2.5Amp to 0.8Amp. I connected the CR10X to the DC terminal strip and added the proper connecter to the CR10X panel. I had been wired from the CR1000 12V out to the CR10X 12Vout, because I was missing the power connector. We need some bird deterrents: spikes, plastic owl, windmill. And we need some more solar panels and batteries. We also need some kind of pressure washer to get the bird poop off everything. |
8 photos found
20101202MB_LatestAutoCam.jpg ( 2010-12-02 10:15:02 ) Full size: 3648x2736
Site visit.
20101202MB_Instruments.jpg ( 2010-12-02 09:56:45 ) Full size: 2560x1920
Bird droppings on flux sensors.
20101202MB_LI7700Mirrir.jpg ( 2010-12-02 09:56:12 ) Full size: 2560x1920
Bird droppings on lower LI7700 mirror.
20101202MB_SiteGuano.jpg ( 2010-12-02 09:43:58 ) Full size: 2560x1920
Bird dropings at site.
20101202MB_SonicOrientation.jpg ( 2010-12-02 10:45:31 ) Full size: 2560x1920
Compass showing sonic heading.
20101202MB_WaterLevel.jpg ( 2010-12-02 10:44:07 ) Full size: 2560x1920
view of field site
20101202MB_Birds.jpg ( 2010-12-02 15:15:02 ) Full size: 3648x2736
Starlings on tower.
20101203MB_Coots.jpg ( 2010-12-03 09:15:02 ) Full size: 3648x2736
Coots near the tower.
11 sets found
7 MB_flux graphs found
5 MB_met graphs found
No data found for MB_tule.
Can't check MBWPEESWGT_mixed
1 MB_cam graphs found
Can't check MBEEWPSWEPGT_cam
Can't check SIMBTWEE_met
No data found for MB_minidot.
Can't check MBSWEEWPBCBA
1 MB_processed graphs found
Can't check MB_fd
1 MB_fd graphs found