Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Hill Slough | Bouldin Corn | Bouldin Alfalfa | Gilbert Tract
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Rush Ranch: 2025-04-17 09:30:00 (DOY 107)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others:

Summary: Standard data collection, polished annex tower, still need HMP solar shield, water level recording, changed stardot active period, measured conductivity.

Rush Ranch
2025-04-17

I arrived at about 10:30 PDT. Here it is cool with a low overcast but there was drizzle on the coast this morning. The pastures are green but relatively dry and the wetland is beginning to green up. Tide is low - no water out to the annex tower.

The new fence around the tower looks good. I collected the met, flux, camera data and annex data - the radio link worked fine.
The 7500 read: 450.8ppm CO2, 305.5mmol/m3 H2O, 14.8C, 101.3kPa, 90.4SS
After cleaning the 7500 read: 429.5ppm CO2, 469.1mmol/m3 H2O and 97SS
The 7700 read: 2.05ppm CH4, 2.2RSSI - 78.4 after cleaning
The wash reservoir was only about a quarter low - refilled.

I ended up making about five trips out to the Annex tower and back forgetting things. Cows had also been out to the tower to inspect Patty's work. They found the well installation lacking and removed the water level sensor from the well. And they stepped on one of the soil sensors sets. I don’t think anything was broken. I touched up the ground sensor installations getting the TC profiles the correct depth and the CS655 vertically with the tops of the plastic base just below the soil surface. I think the soils are too salty for the TDR to work properly but the CS655's might give us EC data - the CS616 is just giving nan's though.

I wired the GW-400 to the data logger with a 250ohm resistor made from 100 and 150 Ohm resistors in series. I downloaded the data and uploaded a new program to read the well sensor. It seemed to be giving a reasonable number and responded to different levels of water. I tried to do a more careful job of tying its cable down so cows don't chew on it more. I did not measure its location in the well but near the bottom. The current reading was more than 3V and it might be over its 3ft range at king tides.

The HMP was also loose. I forgot to bring a solar shield for it so I stuffed it back under the box again. I just added it to the todo list. The lithium power pack had full status lights - the solar panel seems to be keeping up so far.

I changed the StarDot camera cron tab from 4-22 to 5-20 to avoid so many night time photos.

I measured conductivity in the well and in the little ditch between the pasture and wetland
Ditch, 13.77mS, 14.3C
Well, 5.15mS, 14.5C

I washed the solar panels.

I left at 11:47 PDT.

0 photos found

3 sets found

1 RR_cam graphs found