2021 NGEE Nome June Trip

Pre-Trip Electronics Checking

• Sat phone call to cell phone
• Check operation of the inReach
• laptop batteries topped off
• camera batteries topped off
• Trimble GPS batteries

Rough plan

Saturday

• UAF Storage
• Rental Car
• Organize gear
• Buy battery for Teller SW

Sunday

• Council
  • Check on Grid Site / download data
  • If time allows, could drop by Teller site and take stock get a jump on Teller Day 1

Monday

• Teller Day 1
  • Teller SW Rebuild
  • Discharge Measurements
  • Teller Bottom Download
  • If time allows, start on day 2 tasks

Tuesday

• Teller Day 2
  • Teller Top
  • Teller m47

Wednesday

• NGEE Kougarok
  • Download, see about anemometer replacement?
  • Going to punt on anemometer replacement for this trip because I don't think I have a propeller... Oh.. Chinese supply... So, maybe I guess.
• UAF Kougarok
  • Radio network data download

Thursday

• Ship if needed and fly home

PRs

• XX Battery
• XX Shipping
• tracker & restart plan.
• XX UAF NW Campus conex annual fee

People

• Alert Chad & Crystal
  • Need lock key

Stuff to Pre-Ship

• Any gear
• Personal Gear

NGEE Container

• Salt packets:
  • They should be in Box 6 (long black box with green handles). the grain scale should be adequate for this though. I would bring a few, just in case...

UAF NW Campus

• Grab Trimble batteries to recharge from NGEE storage closet
• Radio setup
• anti corrosion goo
• ladder for NGEE Koug

To Do

• Find a picture of Teller SW and see what the charge controller looks like... Sunsaver 4.5

To Pack yet

• Measure salt packets for salt diffusion measurement
• Coffee maker
• check for more flies and reel

Organized for Packing

• Trimble
  • Trimble Charger

• Teller Bottom & SW
  • Desiccant for Teller SW and Radiometer
  • Conductivity Meter
  • --->>> Salt packets
  • CR800
  • Solar Panel
  • Charge Controller
  • ----> TBD: Crimp Connectors...
  • Serial Cable (could re-use)
  • ----> Red & Black wire
• wading rod / flow tracker combo
• Tape Measure
• Resistor for multiplexer

• Teller Top
  • HMP155
  • Dessicant for radiometer
  • Resistor for multiplexer

• Teller 47
  • @ UAF Storage 2pcs temperature probes
  • Pipe / unistrut for better holding the radiometer

• Council Grid Site
  • TBD

• NGEE Kougarok
  • @ UAF Storage ladder
  • @ UAF Storage 2pcs 1/2 channel unistrut
  • @ UAF Storage 1" aluminum top pipe
  • compass
  • 6 pcs square ubolts
• UAF Kougarok
  • @ UAF Storage Radio, antenna, coax

• UAF Anvil Mountain
  • Replace the SC932A

• General
  • Fieldbook
  • Voltmeter
  • Toolbags

@ UAF Storage

• Ladder (For NGEE Kougarok)
• Radio set up (For UAF Kougarok)
• Compass (For NGEE Kougarok)
• Tape measure (for NGEE Kougarok)
• Cloth Tape (for Teller SW)

Broken Things to Look at

Trimble batteries

• Grab the batteries from the warm storage to charge

General

• Replace all CNR4 desiccant
  • 2pcs Phillips screw driver
  • small blue channel lock
  • bubble level
• level all precip buckets
  • torpedo level
• make a video at each site of current state
  • camera
• download data
  • computer
  • 2pcs serial cable
  • SC32A / MD485
  • MicroUSB cable for Teller 47

Teller m47

• ---> Grab from UAF storage the two spare AT/RH to swap in.

• For later:
  • Second data logger with air temp & tipping bucket
    • red & black wire
    • crimp ring connectors
    • enclosure?
  • Ship from Fairbanks a cross arm bracket and more pipe to better level the Radiometer which is off kilter.... or unistrut clamps actually plus a local purchase.

Teller SW

This site is about 10 minutes off the road next to the Teller Bottom Site. Rubber Boots would be good for the hike. Hiking boots are fine, too. The wet spots mostly can be avoided with a bit of extra walking.

• Need a battery, solar panel, and CR800 w/ program to replace animal damaged hardware.
  • worst case could grab a battery from teller bottom...
  • Looking at a 2016 picture a sun saver charge controller is in there and replacement looks not difficult. Just rewiring the solar panel side... and given the battery voltage drop on logger I don't think the CC fried when the animal hit the solar panel.
• Make at least one discharge measurement & manually measure stage

Teller Bottom

• Heat Flux Plate... Loose Wires?
  • The one labeled upper is first on the multiplexer.
  • The one labeled lower is second on the multiplexer.
  • in the parameters csv file.
• Measure how far VATP is sticking out of the ground
• Grab the missing gap of data off logger.
• add a resistor to the thermistor multiplexer
• 10cm soil moisture was reading zero in 2020 so loose wire to possibly discover.
• level CNR4
• level rain gauge

Teller Top

• HMP155 needs replacing
• Level CNR4
• Level Rain Gage
• bring out resistors for multiplexer.
• Lump snow depth is sort of knocked over. (Ken picture fall 2020)
  • bring from Fairbanks another screw in anchor
  • More guy wire
  • anchor
• Program Changes:
  • log resistance of thermal conductivity probes instead of temperature.
    • Maybe for all thermistors...
    • Related, make sure there are fixed resistors being logged
  • Maybe change the file saving from filling the memory as is done at present.
  • Change output of snow temperature profile to go 10/5 to 6/5
  • Increase the mV range of the top soil heat flux plate to reduce occasional over-ranging in summer / early fall.
• Measure how far VATP is sticking out of the ground
• add a couple precision resistors to the thermistor multiplexer.
• Tools:
  • Computer
  • Serial cable
  • large channel lock for HMP155 replacement
  • electrical tape for HMP155 replacement
  • torpedo level
  • bubble level
  • large #2 phillips for CNR4 leveling
  • small #2 phillips for CNR4
  • grease for anticorrosion
  • 5/16" nut driver
  • Bring up a couple rocks to help level Rain Gage
    • I remember one end being bottomed out or something.

Kougarok m64

• LOTS of broken
• Temperature Profile destroyed?... Late March 2020.
• Anemometer...
  • 1/2 depth unistrut (re-review pictures but look to have in the uaf conex)
  • 4 pcs square ubolts
  • compass
  • ladder from uaf storage

Kougarok 10m tower

• Download Data over radio

Kougarok Burn Site

• Download Data over radio

Stretch Goals

If timing works out:

Check out Radio base station at NW Campus

• Same building as NGEE warm storage (I believe). base is in an IT closet.
• Optional... it's working great again... may have been network issue OIT corrected.

Drive up and check on first radio repeater atop Anvil Mountain

• 10-15 minute drive, 2 minute walk to a site on top of Anvil Mountain. Radio still works but radio to logger dongle died over winter.

Notes from Ken's Pictures

• Teller 47
  • CNR4 knocked off level.
    • Check supplies in nome conex. Otherwise, bring out Unistrut / pipe to make things sturdier.
• Teller SW
  • Solar panel gone & Battery dead.
  • Bring out a pack frame for battery retrieval.
  • and NRS Straps....

• Teller Top
  • Snow Temps tipped a little.
    • Measure and then can estimate current heights?
  • lump snow depth either bent over or pushed.... can solve with more guy wires I'm guessing.

• NGEE Kougarok
  • anemometer 1" pipe broken off at threads.....
    • could potentially fixed with ohhh. 2 1/2 channel unistruts & those square ubolts in my Fairbanks stock. plus one of those short 1" sections of pipe.
    • I think we need a new propeller here and who knows what else.
  • Ahh yes, pictures shows the soil temperature probe was chewed...

Post Trip To Do

• In the subsurface data processing add the thermister air temperature.

/var/site/uaf_sp/teller_bottom_soil/config/teller_bottom_subsurface_params-01_78.csv
same for all the soil moisture probes... here 5cm  to be added to the grouped output csv.

• Share out pictures
• Should maybe review the videos I made at each site
• Make a list of tools used

Post Trip Roundtable

Day 1 Kougarok:

• K1 burn not on radio network any more
  • (assume animal damage)
• K2 10m tower CR10X seems to have a bad memory chip. Not the full 1 million data points download that should happen with wrapped memory. Downloaded usual way then selected 'collect all' and got same amount of data
  • replace with another CR10X I guess, make sure the storage module is out there
• NGEE Koug CFM100 module still has problems. Not full record of data. Just 158 files.. should compare to what Ken got. Related: Misha says they have had the exact same problem at their spruce site with a number of units and Campbell has been just as uncaring... I kind of lean reconstitute Ross' data logger downloading program and leave a raspberry pi out there for data download / picture taking.
• Also @ NGEE Koug:
  • soil moisture was pulled out of the ground
  • VATP was indeed eaten
  • anemometer is dangling and will need full replacement (use CAS?)
  • tarp was chewed off battery box. NRS straps look ok still.
• General
  • maybe inquire about putting a base radio at the eddy system site.
  • mention the enhancements to the kougarok road trailhead: firebreak and outhouse

Something else I thought of:

• revisit the satellite webcams for snow campaign.

Day 2 Teller m47

• replaced at/rh sensors and they're working.
• re-did the CNR4 radiation arm and I think it will now stay level (it was tilted.... see pictures)
• need to look into CR6 USB driver so I don't get stuck going the MD485 route again.
  • would rather not go in via IP
  • should dig out the second station at UAF campus, power it up and get the driver installed in town.
• Rain bucket seems broken but didn't look into it
• dry soil pit was all animal chewed.
• should inquire on location of the hobos before next visit.
• review video...
• my proposal would be dump a CR800 there on second power supply / solar panel to get AT, wind, precip all of the time and then run all the rest on the CAS logger.

Day 3 Teller m27:

Teller Top

• • didn't send a replacement program yet
  • need a guy wire for peat lump snow to keep it upright.
  • one screw anchor plus guys
  • check out video.
  • jacking of rVATP was about 1 campbell screwdriver height.
  • precip leveled
  • net radiometer leveled
  • propped back up snow temperature and could definitely make it hardier at this point.
  • data downloaded fine
  • replaced HMP155
  • added a resistor to mux in position 1

Teller Bottom

• • precip bucket removed again
  • net radiometer off kilter
  • snow stand bent over and will need replacing with 3/4" diameter pipe I believe (to check...)
  • saw a resistor on multiplexer and photo'd its position
  • NDVI willows tipped over
  • snow temperatures tipped over.
  • some bad data files on CF card. Maybe bring out a replacement card to see if linux data recovery tools can get that data back.

Teller SW

• • replaced solar panel but it needs to go on stand still.
  • animal chewed up pressure transducer cable
  • didn't make a discharge measurement with station not running
  • replaced old CR10X with CR800 and did get it running but will need to run it with 2 PTs and that will be a program change I need to make yet.
  • bridge is borderline but upright.
  • been storing a cloth tape under the large actionpacker.
  • going to return with second PT and conduit.

Day 4 Teller m27

Teller SW

• reinstalled station at earlier, lower location
• need to bring out desiccant, there is an old school bottle I can just dump into.
• two PTs installed. Original seems broken
• need to secure solar panels next visit and think on getting it up off the ground... or take the 20W one to Teller m47
• creek was essentially too low for discharge measurement and forgot sensor end of electrical conductivity sensor.... did velocity anyway.
• cr800 program... check to see how long till the memory fills
  • 1619 days... checked from Anchorage with backup cr800
• think about weights on the PTs again.
• definitely put in the higher resolution PT if have the chance.

Day 4 Council

• Looks like LBNL temperature strings are one-wire read by arduino and then SDI12 back to the logger... conflicting info on that but I think that might be the deal. they called them thermistors. Maybe check closer next time.
• didn't visit grid site decided to put time into Teller instead.