Field Notes
2024-11-14 10:30:00-->Other sites visited today: Hill Slough | Bouldin Alfalfa
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Rush Ranch: 2024-10-24 08:15:00 (DOY 298)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Patty, Eddie, Arshdeep, Brandon, Daphne, Kyle
Summary: Taking stock of site, installed eddy sensors--no 7700 wash, added boardwalks to tower, removed old sensors from tower, removed annex water quality station from wetland
| Rush Ranch 2024-10-24 Patty, Eddie, Arshdeep and Brandon were at the Rush Ranch visitor center when Daphne, Kyle and I arrived at about 9:15 PDT. Patty had permission to drive to the tower site about 1km to the south. It's not allow to drive out on red flag warning days. It was a beautiful day, clear warm and sunny with a cool breeze from the north. The hilly grasslands to the east are all golden. Towards the end of our visit we met two guys that came to service the nearby weather tower. They are from the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). And their data is freely available online at: https://cdmo.baruch.sc.edu/ Today's visit was to take stock of the equipment at the site and install new eddy sensors if possible. At the main tower the load on the solar charge controller had been disconnected in the battery box under the solar panels. The batteries seemed to be fully charged. We added two boardwalks to the scaffolding tower to make it easier to work on. We decided to remove the remaining equipment on the tower for testing and calibration and general clean up. We removed: PAR_IN Licor sn Q40955 PAR_out Licor sn Q40954 Interface LI-7550 sn AIU-2023 LI-7500RS head sn 75H-1653 SmartFlux Licor sn SMART2-00480 Camera StarDot sn 0030F4D0A725 - with enclosure Sonic Gill WindMaster Pro sn 201906 3 HOBO water level loggers sn 20005770, sn 20005777, sn 20005768 (hanging in the air) There looked to be a soil moisture, two soil heat flux plates and some thermocouples still in the ground with the cables cut. We did not dig these out. Also missing were the CR23X and AM16/32 multiplexer that were collecting the met data. We removed the big empty enclosure they had been in. It has a lot of exposed fiber glass and needs painting to be used again. There was a 7700 wash box that seemed in working order with windshield washer fluid in it. We remounted this and filled it with DI but didn't have a spray head and tubing, so it is not running. The ethernet cable on the tower did not work but the power cable and 7500 head cable seemed okay. There was also a remote "Annex" tower about 115m at a heading of 242deg out in the wetland to the west-southwest. This wetland is much more diverse than many of our other wetlands and one of the dominant plants was a type of bulrush (Scirpus?). The Annex tower was a Campbell tripod that was nearly buried in the plants next to a small patch of Tules. Again here it was decided to remove everything for cleanup and testing in the lab. Likely we will put some sensors back out on a remote tower to get data from the wetland rather the upland grass where the main tower is located. We removed: Campbell tripod - left by main tower Water Level Global Water WL400-003 sn 1202000485 Thermocouple rod Two small enclosures - one that had a solar controller and SLA battery. That enclosure was repurposed for a power junction box on the main tower. CR23X sn 1751 SunSaver SS-6-12V sn 12440075 CNR1 sn 090268 PAR_IN Licor sn Q40956 PAR_OUT Licor sn Q40959 Two small solar panels Broken CS615 sn 13932-5 - no tines left Two REBs SHF plates sn H993102, sn H993105 - lost to the wetland At the main tower we put on a new eddy system mounted on a vertical post just above the top layer of scaffolding frames. The old eddy system had been about 2m lower on booms off to the southeast. The new equipment is: Sonic sn 120908, heading = 23 deg true N LI-7500A sn 0418 LI-7550 sn AIU-1570 LI-7700 sn TG1-0203 Height from ground to middle of sonic = 568cm We got it all mounted, wired and I restored the power. Eddie checked that the system was giving good data. At first the 7700 was not connected but after swapping the Ethernet cable all seemed well. I did not have the latest calibration file for 0418 so it is running on a calibration from 2024-06-17. The 7500 read: 421.7ppm CO2, 293.0mmol/m3 H2O, 20.8C, 101.5kPa, 96.3SS The 7700 read: 2.10ppm CH4, 74.1RSSI Patty cleaned the solar panels. Todo: 7700 tubing and spray head Reinstall phenocam Met system for main tower and Annex tower - maybe a radio link Fence post and tie downs for the scaffolding Replace broken cross brace - 8ft 3/4" metal conduit Grounding rod and wires Bird spikes for the sonic Update 0418 with latest calibration file Patty will send us a wishlist for a met system. She plans to come back in two weeks (week of Nov. 4) to download flux data and install guywires. We all left at about 12:00 PDT. |
2 photos found
20241024RR_Box.jpg ( 2024-10-24 11:41:23 ) Full size: 1440x1920
New enclosure set up for eddy power and data
20241024RR_NewEddy.jpg ( 2024-10-24 11:42:29 ) Full size: 1440x1920
Arshdeep and Eddie working at the tower. Fresh eddy sensors installed on the west side of the scaffolding. The solar panels in the background are temporarily propped up to access the batteries below the platform.
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