Field Notes

Bouldin Corn: 2024-12-04 11:15:00 (DOY 339)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Carlos

Summary: Smoggy day, 2 black widows on the boardwalk, flooding may start soon

2024-12-04
Bouldin Corn/Sorghum

Carlos and I arrived at 11:15 PST. It was cool and sunny with a thick layer of smog near the horizon when looking eat toward the Central Valley. I checked our PurpleAir real-time AQI = 129. We could hear a lot of waterfowl about. Some of the fields south of Hwy 12 are starting to have surface water, but I didn’t see any flooding on our field yet.

We started to replace the upper boardwalk on the tower that was removed for storm prep last time. There were two black widows on the boardwalk that were fighting a bit. I used a long stalk of stover to move off into the brush on the side of the road, far from Charlotte’s stuff. We carefully inspected all crevices of the boardwalk for more spiders before moving it back up on the tower. The upper and lower boardwalk here both could be swapped for fresh wood.

The reservoir was 1/2 full; Carlos refilled it. I downloaded met, cam, USB GHG, and PA data. Carlos cleaned flux and rad sensors and confirmed that the precip bucket funnel looked clear. At the last data download, I only saw max 0.1mm of rain per 30min, even though other sites showed more rain. Today I checked the last two weeks of data and the rain pattern seemed more reasonable, so I didn’t test the precip bucket further.

I checked the phenocam clock as part of its routine quarterly check and changed it +1min from 11:32 to 11:33 PST to match the laptop clock. The clock doesn’t drift much (assuming no power outages), so maybe I just need to do a routine check every 6 months instead of every 3 months. But I should remember to check it after power outages.

The lithium battery has 2 of 4 LEDs on. I could bring in a freshly charged one next time, or Joe suggested increasing the voltage at the AC-DC converter in the power enclosure to improve its 24V charging.

7500 read: 526ppm CO2, 485mmol/m3 H2O, 13.5C, 102.3kPa, 98SS--100 after cleaning
7700 read: 2.92ppm CH4, 54RSSI – 78 after cleaning

We left at 11:45 PST.

0 photos found

6 sets found

17 BC_met graphs found