Field Notes

<--2013-01-16 09:00:00 | 2013-01-24 00:00:00-->
Other sites visited today: Vaira | Tonzi
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Tonzi: 2013-01-16 10:15:00 (DOY 16)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Siyan

Summary: Fixed CO2 profile system - cal way off, fixed LED sensors wiring - SE offset possible, Fixed tower cow fence, service z-cams, reset tram, fixed soil CO2 power probelm

Tonzi
2013-01-16

I arrived about 10:15 with Siyan. It was clear, sunny and cool with little to now wind from the south. The road was very muddy and almost impassable in our rented sedan. It looked like it had seen heavy traffic recently, possibly Sonia’s crew on the 14th. There was heavy dew (melted frost) on the shaded grass.

I troubleshot the CO2 profile system. It seemed to be running but wouldn’t download any data. I was able to get Loggernet to download data but it was all garbage. I tried to upload a new OS but the connection failed part way through. I got another 10X (sn 12213 wp 5064 2MB) from the non-functional east sap flow station and had similar problems uploading an OS. I finally figured out it was a cable problem with the USB to RS232 converter. By holding the USB connector into the side of the net book I was able to successfully upload an OS to the co2 profile 10X (sn 20138 wp 10203). After uploading the OS and program the system seemed to run okay. I was able to calibrate the Li800. Its zero was off about +132ppm and span was similarly off leading to almost reasonable looking ambient readings of about 390ppm. I left screen shots on the computer.

I cleaned the radiometers on the tower top.

I checked the LED sensor. The bad values I was seeing in the data were due to some mis-wiring. I had wired the eight single ended data channels in consecutive spots not skipping the ground slots like I should have. This means there were a couple of data lines connected to the ground. Any other SE measurements on the data logger were probably off by a hundred mV or so. I might be able to determine any error from the data collected.

Cows had gotten into the floor site and the tower site. Siyan had fixed the floor fence on Jan 1 and there seemed to be no cow inflicted damage there. The tower site fence was still down in a couple of areas and the cows had bumped the OSU solar panel and chewed the wire to z-cam one. I straightened the solar panel and spliced the z-cam wire. Then I did a complete overhaul of the fence. I moved one fence post and added another is spots where the distance between posts was too long. I replaced broken insulator clips and ran all the wires to make sure they were tight and unbroken.

I serviced the z-cams. The windows were dirty but all were functional. The z-cam CR10X at the tower had unglued itself and fallen to the bottom of the box. I propped it up.

The tram was not running but just needed a power cycle to get it out of its wait for help loop.

I worked on the soil CO2 system. The rewiring I did last time seems to have messed up the power network. I bypassed the relays and uploaded a new program to continuously power and measure the Vaisala sensors. I also added a voltage divider to monitor the 24V power. I need to plan out the wiring for that system instead trying to patch it together with what’s already in the field.

Field Data

No tank data

Well Depth

Date	Location	Depth (feet)
2013-01-16	TZ_floor	27
2013-01-16	TZ_road	35.3
2013-01-16	TZ_tower	32

No TZ Moisture Point data found

No VR Moisture Point data found

No TZ grass heigth found

No VR grass heigth found

Tree DBH

Date	Tag#	Reading (mm)
2013-01-16	1	24
2013-01-16	102	17
2013-01-16	2	18.5
2013-01-16	245	12.4
2013-01-16	3	20.9
2013-01-16	4	3.5
2013-01-16	5	24
2013-01-16	7	17.6
2013-01-16	72	14.3
2013-01-16	79	14.6
2013-01-16	8	9.1