Itkillik 2011-05 Field Stuff

Bill/Bob/Nathan
Spring Stream Gauging Field Supplies

In Toolik

Round 1 sling:

• Cataraft frame
• Cataraft Paddles
• 15 horse
• 5 horse
• station & field supply actionpacker
• sleeping bag actionpacker

Day 1 activities

• GPS Master 1 Survey
• Sort gear
• set up flight lines
• Sling some gear out
• Line out station stuff @ camp
• snow survey

Day 2 activities

Toolik DOT 2011-05-15

Stuff

• Leaving Friday 5/13/2011
• Ken has a barometric Pressure Sensor for us
• 3 Hobos are in Emily's office as of 5/9
• Get spare laptop from Emily (for lab use)

Pretrip Notes

Email 1: Station Maintenance for Itkillik River Crew 5/9/2011 @ 5:14 PM

Itkillik River:
I have a case w/ 3 HOBO PTs for the Itkillik River for upstream and
downstream slope.  Two of them are set to record 15 minute intervals
starting 5/13/11 at 5:00pm.  One is a spare and has not been launched,
and can be used if all else fails.  There is also the correct
launch/reader in the case this time.

You will also have to install 2 SDI12 PTs because the current ones are
locked in ice.  1 should be 15psig (older unit) and 1 should be a new
5 psig sensor.

You will also have to replace the station barometric pressure ASAP
when you get to the site, because I couldn't make anything of the old
data, it seems to be bad.  Barometric pressure is needed for
correction with the HOBO sensors.

Please download camera images and any historic camera images saved to
the camera.


Other station maintenance includes:
Upper May Creek: Tipping bucket / windshield repair, download camera images
Itikmalakpak:  Tipping bucket / windshield repair, download camera images

And as always, if the fence needs repair, please try and fix it up.

Email 2: to do: PTs 5/9/2011 @ 5:05 PM

Gather 2 PTs from downstairs in 106 to go to Itkillik River.  Get 2
with the shortest cable lengths because the station is close to the
river and so we shouldn't need the 250 ft cable length (unless that is
all that is available than that is all we have).  Ask Rob which one
you can take and then obtain the calibration information from Rob for
that particular serial number.  Make sure they are labeled at the
wiring end and have a dessicant pack.    Make sure you obtain a
working sensor because apparently 1-2 were not working.

Then, in my office there is a box from instruments northwest, Inc.
Open the box.  Put a label on at the wiring end that says the Serial
Number, 5 PSIG (verify from calibration sheet), the cable length (all
should be 250 ft), and the SDI12 Address which is located on the
calibration sheet.  Include one of the new 5 PSIG in the Itkillik
River package.

We will have 3 PTs for the Itkillik River, 1 5-PSIG, 1 15-PSIG, and 1
15 PSIG backup.

Then we will have to make sure all the PTs have conduit for
protection, so if the old ones don't come see me.  We will have grab
some conduit / pipe / reducers etc. for the new 5 psi PT.

Email 3: Fwd: survey check out equipment 5/9/2011 @ 12:14PM

You can pick up your optical level, survey rod, and tripod from
Horacio for the Itkillik River group.

Emily 4: Leaving for Toolik May 7, 2011 at 12:24 PM

I agree w/ Bill that the Toolik group could use an extra day or so for
field prep in Fairbanks.  However, if you do get there ahead of
breakup you could get the station repairs (closest to Toolik) finished
early (instead of at the end).  There are a few things that must get
done on this trip, about 3 stations close to Toolik (via helicopter)
need some repairs that could take about a day or two of work.    So
far the temps have been cool right now, but some stations to the south
are warming up to about freezing (temps don't stay above freezing at
night though).  You can look at the station data here & webcams:
http://ine.uaf.edu/werc/projects/umiat_corridor/stations.html   I
think Upper May Creek is our furthest south station and will tell you
what the air temperatures are like in the upper Itkillik basin.  It
would be great if Bob B. sets up the monitoring webpage so we can look
at AT and Windspeed and camera images again.

Emily 5: Ice descriptions Apr 29, 2011 at 12:22 PM

A few of you asked about ice descriptions in a meeting awhile back.
This is a handy little document that I came across at a presentation a
few years ago:

Pilots Guide to River Ice by the National Weather Service.

http://aprfc.arh.noaa.gov/resources/rivwatch/rwp_handbook.pdf

It has photos of the ice features and definitions you may find helpful.

Useful terms to describe the ice size are sheets, pans, chunks.  Other
features are ice runs (continuous length of moving ice) & ice jams
(note page 5 describing ice jams).

GPS coordinates and a description in your field book would be helpful.
 Measurements of ice dimensions w/ a tape measure would also be
helpful.  Other things to note  are anchor or bottom fast ice and
shore ice.  When does it all disappear from the channel, particularly
at the gauging reach?

Doug Email: Report Mar 30, 2011 at 9:09 AM

Emily, I am working on the report and will finish it today.  I'll be
back on Friday.  One thing we definitely need to do this breakup is to
take pictures at the proposed bridge crossings.  The strategy would be
to take pictures both upstream and downstream each day, hopefully from
approximately from the same position (horizontally and vertically).
Maybe a couple from same horizontal position, but at different
elevations.  Doug