Field Notes

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East End: 2024-11-05 10:25:00 (DOY 310)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Joe

Summary: Maintenance day, rebuilding solar power scaffolding and making it taller, rewiring and moving datalogger and mux to different enclosure, reinstalled miniDOT

2024-11-05
East End

Joe and I arrived at 10:25 PST. It's election day and the first field trip since falling back to standard time. It was clear, sunny and cool with a gusty wind. The wetland is yellowing and the sun angles are long - feels like fall. The water level is a bit lower.

Today is a maintenance day.

Joe worked on rebuilding the solar power scaffolding. He put in concrete piers lined up with the existing scaffolding just one step to the north. The ground is a bit uneven with the northeast being the highest and the southwest the lowest. He did his best to level the frames with the water surface by digging in the piers to the east and adding a scaffolding peg to the bottom of the frame on the southwest corner.

Overall the new scaffolding seemed level and square. Joe moved the solar panels to the new scaffolding. And transferred the battery box, temporarily using the upper boardwalk from the main tower. The boardwalk under the battery box wasn't in bad shape. The solar controller box was full of wasps - puttied the openings but it needs more work. He pounded in two T-posts on the north side of the new scaffolding and added chain and turnbuckle tie downs. He was able to get the old west lower frame out, but the old east lower frame is stuck and needs work. There is also a fence post with a ground wire that needs moving.

I downloaded the usual data: met, cam, and USB GHG. I changed the 7700 heater to winter hours; from 20:00-06:00 to 18:00-08:00. I checked the rain bucket, it was clear. I cleaned flux and rad sensors. The 7500 lower window was dirty, as though the recent rain had washed all the dust from the spars onto the window. The reservoir was 1/2 full, we refilled it.

PARin has had some nighttime spikes recently, but we'll see if it's better after today's rewiring.

The staff gauge read 48cm. I measured the surface water conductivity.
Surface, 451.8uS, 9.9C

I worked on rewiring most of the met sensors from the lower enclosure to the middle enclosure. The middle enclosure has an updated power strip and is a less claustrophobic place to work.

I moved the CR1000 and the AM16/32 mux to the middle enclosure along with the HMP, barometer, radiometers, and dfPAR. I didn’t have many small wood screws so they’re held temporarily with a mishmash of too-large screws. The barometer is just laying on the bottom of the enclosure.

All of the power wires from the eddy sensors are now wired to the power strip in the middle enclosure. The 7700 power wire is taut; I think it got cut in the past b/c it had bare blue/brown/black/white wires. We should have a spare yellow power wire in the lab.

I moved the Campbell water level sensor and the Campbell conductivity sensor from the northeast corner of the scaffolding to the southwest corner, closer to the middle enclosure. They’re both wired to the CR1000. The Campbell water level sensor cable is cracked along 90% of its length. The water under the middle enclosure is shallow because of all the submerged litter. Next time when we replace the water level sensors we could stomp it down.

I installed miniDOT sn 1219 in its usual northeast corner by the staff gauge. It has a freshly reset clock, fresh desiccant, and new batteries. I changed the water level desiccant.

Remaining in the lower enclosure is the AM25T with all of the thermocouples along with the two soil heat flux plates. I ran several extension wires to connect the soil heat flux plates to the mux and the AM25T to the CR1000.

The lower and middle enclosure had some wasps, which became more active as the day warmed up. I got stung when one landed on the back of my pant leg and I squatted down and started squishing it.

Met and flux data looked reasonable after the rewiring. Joe tested the precip bucket at the end because this site had not recorded any rain in the last 2 weeks. 5 tips resulted in a 0.5mm reading in my real-time data, so all should be ok.

The 7500 read: 378ppm CO2, 1102mmol/m3 H2O, 18.6C, 101.9kPa, 86SS
7500 clean: 426ppm CO2, 407mmol/m3 H2O, 18.3C, 101.8kPa, 96SS
7500 after rewiring: 418ppm CO2, 216mmol/m3 H2O, 19.7C, 101.5kPa, 95.6SS
The 7700 read: 2.15ppm CH4, 36RSSI - 76 after cleaning
7700 after rewiring: 2.07ppm CH4, 68RSSI

I stuffed the enclosure holes with steel wool. Maybe that will be more effective than putty at keeping wasps out.

We left the upper boardwalk down on the ground. High winds are expected tonight and tomorrow.

Joe chased about a dozen wasps out of the car before we left at 16:00 PST.

To-do:
-New solar controller box
-Add breakers
-Longer wires - need security bolt drivers as junction boxes are blocked by mounts.
-Lower the solar panels using crossover fitting on the front posts.
-Lost a 9/16th crescent wrench in the wetland
-Broke the small straight slot driver bit from the rolled driver kit.
-Remove old frame and ground fence post - shovel? Pry bar?
-11 small wood screws for middle enclosure
-New power wire for 7700
-Replacement water level sensor and stomp down litter
-Remove old well
-Add adjustable wrench and allen wrenches to the toolbox.

4 photos found

20241105EE_EddyView.jpg ( 2024-11-05 15:39:00 ) Full size: 1920x1440
View on the eddy sensors and upwind wetland from the tower top

20241105EE_NewSolarScaffold.jpg ( 2024-11-05 15:57:35 ) Full size: 1440x1920
View of the new solar power scaffolding from the tower

20241105EE_NewMetBox.jpg ( 2024-11-05 15:58:22 ) Full size: 1440x1920
view of field site

20241105EE_OldMetBox.jpg ( 2024-11-05 15:57:39 ) Full size: 1440x1920
Enclosure on the bottom layer of scaffolding. Previously had the CR1000 and AM16/32 mux as well, which were moved to the new enclosure on the second layer of scaffolding. Two SHF plates are wired to the new enclosure through the white screw terminal. The AM25T has a long wire connecting it to the CR1000 in the new enclosure. I left the old power strip there for extra parts.