Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Bouldin Alfalfa
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Bouldin Corn: 2024-10-09 13:45:00 (DOY 283)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Daphne

Summary: Moved tower back about 3m for harvest, ground sensor installed under the tower, sorghum field to the northwest being harvested, pretty much all the corn is gone.

Bouldin Corn
2024-10-09

Daphne and I arrived at about 13:45 PST. This was a break from work at BA to let the tractors finish up. It was mostly overcast and mild with a steady breeze. The surrounding corn fields are all harvested to the ground. We saw sorghum being harvested north of the highway. Our fields are so weedy it was hard to identify them from the highway. Hopefully they will be harvested soon. There was a warning on the highway that the Rio Vista Bridge will be closed Oct 18-21.

We pulled the ground sensors. Two of the SHF plates were very near the surface if not exposed but that could have been from me pulling on the cables to find them. The soil moisture were vertical with the top of the plastic bodies at the surface. These were all reinstalled under the tower once we moved it.

We dug up all the tie downs and strapped the feet to the scaffolding with bungie cords. We used the 1x4 wood we used as skids at alfalfa here too. I think it really help to slide the tower back bit by bit. We moved the tower back about 3m to a post with a logger box on it. We had to pause and get the grounding rod out. I reinstalled the tie downs and the soil sensors at the same depths under the tower. I dug a new hole for the well, but I don't think it was as deep as the last one. The top of the pipe is 55cm above the ground and the sensor remained in place near the bottom - check previous measurements. I reinstalled the grounding rod but just pushed it in by hand.

While I did those things, Daphne did the standard data collection: Flux, met, camera and Purple Air.
The 7500 read: 415ppm cO2, 595mmol/m3 H2O, 29.0C, 101.2kPa, 94SS - 97 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 1.94ppm CH4, 34RSSI - 73 after cleaning
The eddy clock was adjusted from 14:26 to 14:27:15 and logging restarted.

The phenocam is 420cm agl - might be important in angle of view

Daphne swapped the lithium power pack (2/4 for 3/4 status lights) that we are trying to use to keep the met running when PG&E loses power. I think we need to up the voltage on the DC power supply so that the packs charge better.

We need to check the sonic heading and height too.

We left for BA at 15:05 PST

1 photos found

20241009BC_TowerMovedBack.jpg ( 2024-10-09 16:04:11 ) Full size: 1440x1920
The tower moved back from the sorghum for harvest