Field Notes

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Hill Slough: 2024-09-11 08:55:00 (DOY 255)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Joe

Summary: Swapped out jack feet at solar panel scaffolding, replaced HMP fan, EXO consistently out of water at low tide--removed pH sensor

2024-09-11
Hill Slough

Joe and I arrived at 8:55 PST. It was clear and sunny with a steady, cool wind. The water level was middling, with some higher ground north of the solar panel still exposed. The staff gauge read 4.7ft at 9:06 PST.

Joe waded over to the solar panel enclosure and replaced all of the screw jack scaffolding feet with non-adjustable scaffolding feet he fabricated. He used the sheepherders jack to lift one side of the scaffolding at a time. The screw jacks were rusted into the scaffolding and a couple pulled their screws out of the platform wood. The solar panel scaffolding doesn’t really need adjustable feet, and we will be using at least 2 of them at Mayberry to replace the feet that have been underwater for 14 years. The new feet are bolted to the scaffolding frames and screwed into the platform wood making the tie downs unnecessary so Joe removed the tie downs. He also cleaned the solar panels.

At the tower, I downloaded met, cam, and USB GHG data. There was an error (slow LED blink) after I pressed the eject button for the 7550 USB, but all seems ok after a 7550 reset. I topped off the wash reservoir and cleaned bird poop out of the bucket. I cleaned flux and rad sensors; both SWin and LWin were muddy from bird feet. The HMP fan was not spinning so I swapped in a new fan and a new screw terminal.

The 7500 read: 416ppm CO2, 513mmol/m3 H2O, 20.6C, 101.2kPa, 102SS - 102 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 2.0ppm CH4, 60RSSI - 91 after cleaning

Joe added a locking washer to the radiation boom pivot to hopefully stop those nuts from loosening.

I measured the porewater and surface water salinity
Porewater, 7.13mS, 19.2C
Surface, 5.78mS, 16.3C

At the channel, I removed the pH sensor sn 22D102641 from the EXO. The pH sensor should be inundated (or kept humid) to keep the electrolyte solution inside the bulb from being depleted, but the EXO is above the water for multiple hours a day every day during low tide, so we are removing the pH sensor to extend the sensor lifetime. I placed the pH sensor inside its storage solution and brought it back to the lab for storage. I installed a plug in the EXO where the pH probe used to be. Lost one of our large rags to the wind. Maybe we’ll find it on the shoreline at the next low tide. Joe improved the horizontal mount for the EXO by moving the yellow chain from the plastic guard to a cable tie tied around the EXO body. The sonde was underwater so we'll have to check next time to that it's level.

We will try to install the EXO somewhere permanently inundated, probably closer to the power transmission towers.

We left at 10:30 PST.

0 photos found

4 sets found

20 HS_met graphs found