SRP-2004: DAILY Messages: 34 Entries..

Profiler display screen was all fouled up. Eventually,after toggling alt-enter
a bunch of times, I was able to get the pop display showing. If I switched out
of it to windows, however, the mouse didn't work. Finally shut down pop,
and windows and mouse came back to life.

Then found that the CDrom in the profiler had filled up about 5 days ago. The
spc files on it had the following sizes:

day
102   61MB
103   57MB
104   64MB
105   58MB
106   60MB
107   60MB
108   60MB
109   60MB
110   60MB
111    5MB
112   60MB
113   30MB

I finalized the disk.

Started a new CD, copied files for days 111-118 to this CD, and finalized it.

Moved files for days 111-118 to the backed_up directory.

Started a new CD.

Took the two CDs (days 102-113, and days 111-118) to the MAPR trailer.

Shane and Greg Poulos stopped by at 22:30 GMT on 3 April to check status
of systems and give Greg a tour.  Today is a "down day" and tomorrow will
be also.  Next ops center meeting scheduled for 10 AM on Sunday.

Weather today is mostly to partly cloudy -- but there is more sun making 
it through than in previous days.  Temperature warmer and winds much lighter
than previous days.

All systems appear to be functioning normally.  Note: clock on profiler 
computer is still running 1 hour fast.  
  

Today we had IOP 10 "limited" starting 15 Z April 2 and will be ending
at 12 Z on April 3.  This report being typed 2:30 Z on April 3.
NCAR Staff present were Bill, Shane, Bruce and Kyle.  Vanda's last
day today and Jim Doyle starts replacing her today as the on-site project PI.

The weather today was mostly cloudy again with strong northerly flow near
the surface.  We launched one balloon at 18 Z from the MISS IND Airport site.
This was Shane's training sonde.

The sonde indicated strong easterly flow at mid-levels followed by northerly
flow at upper levels.  The IOP was to document easterly flow over the Inyo 
Range.  We did observe some range-parallel wave clouds on the eastern side of 
the valley as indicated in the earlier MAPR log.

Bill Brown leaves Saturday morning and Shane replaces him until April 14.

Today's weather was a big change from yesterday: colder, winds from north,
and substantial cloud cover. Flow was from the 
north (340-360 degrees) with wind speeds at the surface reaching 
18 m/s at the MAPR site at 21 Z.  Peak wind speeds at the IND 
Airport MISS site reaching 15 m/s.  
Skies were mostly cloudy with some sun in the AM and late PM.  In fact, 
the clouds were quite dark and threatening looking, especially over the 
mountains today with virga quite often visible.  Occasionally we saw 
raindrops on the windows of the MAPR seatainer.  The air temperature 
peaked at about 17C this morning at 20 Z and fell to around 12C during 
the afternoon between 22-2230 Z.  MAPR showed precip starting at about 
21:30 which is the same time we changed the mode.  MISS profiler
showed precip from 23:15-00:30 but not reaching the ground.

Today was spent with Bill showing Shane and Bruce how to run the MAPR set up.
This included one power cycle at the MAPR site.  

IOP #10 tomorrow.

Sunny day, high around 23C, a little high cloud in afternoon.

Winds southerlies last night, became light and variable early morning, then brisk southerlies picked up again during the day.  Peaked around 21UT at 12-14 m/s. 

MISS shutdown at Onion Valley 5 site last night, moved to Independence Airport an restarted at the end of the day.

MAPR saw mainly southerlies.  Some strong vertical motion around noon as the southerlies developed.

Lots of dust from Owens Lake, esp. on eastern side of valley.

Shane has arrived and is discussing what a lidar would have seen.

IOP #9

Main daily report at MAPR, see that log.

MISS was running during the IOP only March 30 18Z to March 31 6Z.

Alex saw fracto-cumulus cloud possibly a rotor cloud (with no lenticular) directly south of MISS site.  He also lenticular cloud over the Inyo mountains.

Dust reached MISS site about 1Z.  Some vertical motion also seen be the MISS profiler.


The moths are deadly, Kyle saw a rattle-snake.

Sunny day, high around 26C, high cloud in afternoon.

Winds light southerly last night, a period of light northerlies this morning, then switched back to southerlies.  Profiler showing southerlies the whole day, some southeasterlies aloft.

MISS moved to West Valley for IOP#9 tomorrow (see separate entry).

Sunny day with high cloud in the afternoon, high around 24C.
Winds northerly last night increasing to 9 m/s in the morning with the profiler showing northwesterlies aloft, then became light and variable.

Generator at MAPR down for unknown reason, oil looks okay. Service tomorrow.  
Last reported data around 2am.

Sunny day with light northerlies, high around 23C.

Students did a sounding at 12Z to observe strong north-westerly flow over mountains (not an offical IOP).  There were wave clouds Friday afternoon and evening and the profilers indicate the strong vertical motions and strong NW aloft, esp. before midnight.

NCAR network down so may be delay in some plots.

Cloudy and breezy day.  High around 22C. Mainly northerlies and occasional westerlies.

End of IOP #8.  The wave event continued to the end of the main IOP period (12Z) and appeared to produce rotors along the eastern side of the valley.  Another unpredicted wave occurred during the afternoon.

A final post-IOP sonde was launched at MAPR at 18Z.  All together 12 sondes were launched in the valley (the 11 scheduled sondes, and one extra), and 10 sondes were launched from Fresno (9 plus one extra).

The MISS profiler appeared to be biased by clutter echoes during the stronger wind periods; NIMA processing should partially recover some of this data.  The MAPR profiler seemed to be less affected, however winds were weaker there, and there are fewer clutter targets in that area.

Some very strong up and down drafts were observed (for example 12 - 15 Z on MAPR) and several sondes were pulled downwards at times (especially Marh 25 2355 UT from MAPR).

Yesterdays daily report is on the MAPR tklog and includes more comments on IOP#8.

Carried out maintainence at MISS, including replacing the surface met freewave (see seperate entries).

J. Kutner visited the sites with Vanda this afternoon.

Sunny day, warm but slightly cooler than recently with a high of 25C. Some high cloud in afternoon.

Last evenings light southerly switched to variable winds then southerly again from late morning.  At MISS westerly 8 - 10 m/s from late afternoon which isn't being seen at MAPR yet.  MAPR is showing strong updrafts at the end of the day whcih may indicate the beginning of a wave.

MISS surface met lost some data again in the morning (see separate entry).

Launched a sounding at MAPR at 4pm (0Z March 25) for the beginning of IOP #8 which is expected to be a major event.

Very warm sunny day, high around 26C.  Some light cloud during mroning.

Light northerlies, turning to southerlies (around 4 m/s) around midday.


IOP beginning at 6Z March 24.

Very warm sunny day, high around 28C.  Some high cloud..

Winds light and variable northwest during night, turning to southerlies (around 6 m/s) around midday.

MISS surface met lost some data in the morning (see separate entry).

IOP beginning at 0Z March 23.

Very warm sunny day, high around 28C.  Some high cirrus.

Winds light and variable northwest to northerlies, turned to light southeast / southerlies around midday.

MISS moved back to Independence Airport, observations started around 23Z.

Next IOP planned for Monday night from 6Z, with sounding at 12Z.

Very warm sunny day, high around 28C.

Winds light and variable overnight, shifting to light southerlies during the day.

Both systems continuing to operate normally in the intercomparison mode.  MAPR did have a 2 & 1/2 outage from 22:30UT due to an overheating problem which was fixed by adding additional cooling.

The wind measurements made by the two systems appear to agree well, however the MISS system is giving better coverage, especially at night.  Post-processing is expected to improve MAPR coverage.

Warm sunny day, high around 27C.

IOP #5 (see yesterdays report) finished at 4am (12Z).  Winds weakened and turned to light northerlies by the end of the IOP.  MISS was turned off at the end of the IOP.

At MAPR winds were initially southerly during most of the IOP, although they weakened and turned to light variable westerlies around midnight, then to light northerlies during the morning. During the afternoon southerlies strengthened to about 6 m/s.

MISS was relocated to the MAPR site for an intercomparison study (see separate entry).

The next IOP will probably be not until Monday night at the earliest.

Warm sunny day, high around 27C.

IOP #5  Mar 18 21Z (13PST)  to  Mar 19 12Z (4PST).

MISS was sited 2 miles east of Big Pine (see yesterday's entry).  MISS was powered up at 20Z.  There was a very brief (about 5 minute) interruption to the MISS surface met around 2Z, fixed by resetting the freewave at the Campbell.

MAPR operating normally, apart from a power down for an hour from 21Z, necessitated by repairs of a serious oil leak in the generator.

Soundings from MISS and MGLASS at 0Z (4PST).  At MISS, the first RS80 package had a faulty RH sensor so a second package was used and successfully launched at 00:19UT.   MGLASS launched a second sonde about 1Z after power problems left data gaps from their first sonde.  The air force sonde was also delayed to 1Z.

Light northerly winds last night, turned southerly this morning.  By the time the IOP started (21Z) the southerlies strengthened to around 7 - 8 m/s and stayed constant until about 1Z when they weakened and became more variable.

Strong westerlies at mountain top produced nice clouds (particularly from about Independence north to Big Pine) during the afternoon.  However there didn't appear to be any mixing to lower levels.

The MISS profiler saw southerly winds to about 2km, signals below about 500 m and above about 3km were affected by clutter.

MAPR also saw southerlies to 2km and detected some westerlies at 3km.

Warm sunny day, high 24C at MAPR.  Record highs forecast again.

Northwesteries overnight, peaking around 10 m/s soon after midnight.  Profilers both saw northerlies to 2km. 

Relocated MISS to a site about 2 miles east of Big Pine 23UT.
Lat 37.16388 N, Lon 118.26009 W, Alt 1205 m.

Surface met working okay, ran 2330 UT - 0UT.
Profiler also working okay running 2330 UT - 1 UT.
Clutter in lowest 500m, probably from nearby power lines and trees.

Training sonde launched at MAPR around 17Z.

MAPR Profiler down 6 UT to 17 UT.  Problem with auto-restart, which Charlie fixed.  Generator servicing at MAPR 17 - 18 UT.

Comms lost to MAPR around 20Z, investigating.

Warm sunny day, high 24C at MAPR.  Record highs forecast again.

Northwesteries overnight, peaking around 10 m/s soon after midnight.  Profilers both saw strong winds (20 m/s) to 1km.  Winds weakened then turned more northerly during day and peaking around 10 m/s (both surface and profiler) about midday.

Training sonde launched at MISS at 1940Z.  Northerly near surface, westerly aloft. Dry layer around 3 km.


Surface met and radiation at MISS now repaired and working normally from mid-afternoon.

Profiler seeing some weak signal around 4km, but this appears to be clutter.

Warm sunny day, high 24C at MAPR.
Northerlies most of the day, strengthening to around 10 m/s around midday, otherwise light.  MAPR saw these northerlies, however the MISS profiler saw light westerlies (the surface met at MISS wasn't working unfortunately).


IOP #4 targeted north-westerlies, with a sonde at MAPR at 12Z.  This saw northerlies to about 2km, and north-westerlies above.  However the aloft winds did not mix down as much as expected.

Surface met and radiation at MISS not working.  The problem seems to involve communications, however may be either a power supply or software problem.

Another warm, sunny day.
Interesting MISS profiler winds last night. Relatively strong
northerlies, calm, then relatively strong southerlies. Early this evening
the winds aloft appear to strengthen.
Surface winds light through the day.

Note: Surface Met failure at 00:30Z (4:30 pm). Diagnosis/prognosis not yet
set as of now (4Z).

IOP Scheduled for 10 pm tonight through 10 am Monday morning 6Z-18Z March 15,
with a sounding from MAPR at 12Z. This is to observe some moderately strong
NW winds.

Tasty deserts delivered by PI in advance of overnight IOP. Thanks!

Breezy this morning. No IOP today.

Strong northerlies aloft overnight. These look real. Need to check each
night's winds for bird contamination. Perhaps NIMA will check more easily.
NE surface winds overnight 8 m/s, falling to 4 m/s and rising again to 9 m/s.
Stayed warm and windy overnight, low last night of 9C.

Yet another warm, sunny, dry day. Steady decrease in wind speed from 10am
through the afternoon (7 m/s down to 1 m/s).
All data looks fine (as of 23Z)

IOP#3 scheduled 15Z-21Z (7am=1pm) with a sonde from MAPR at 18Z (10am),
but ended at 19Z (11am) as the weak NW event had ended.

15:42 profiler echoes very weak. Not surprising in the cool, dry morning.
Surface winds were light overnight, about 1-2 m/s from the W to NW. Lowest
T was about +3 C, with a dew point of -3 C.

Overnight the profiler showed weak winds below 1 km, variable direction; with
weak westerlies at 2 km (at 12Z 4am). Towards morning these winds aloft may
have become nearly still, or signal became too weak. Note that in weak
reflectivity clutter may overwhelm the atmospheric signal. Postprocessing
with NIMA may help. In any case, winds were light through the IOP.

Sonde at 18Z showed weak winds to 4 km MSL, with stronger westerlies above.
There was not a good crosswind at mountaintops to generate waves.

Surface winds light (0-5 m/s) from the NNW. Another warm, sunny day.

Very warm and very dry again today, and not a cloud in sight.

Today we moved MISS back to the Independence airport site, from the east
valley site. Data collection began at 23:30 with a couple of interruptions
as the profiler was tuned up.

The profiler is running CLR_60, so a 60 m resolution with a 10 m/s Nyquist.
RASS quite time set as before.

MISS will run overnight, with IOP#3 tomorrow from 15Z-21Z (7am-1pm) and
a sonde expected from MAPR at 18Z (10am).

IOP#2 today

Problems starting profiler. Replacing keyboard fixed.
Started profiler at 19:12Z. Any earlier profiler data prior may have bad
angles and from just a few dwells. 60m mode up. 10m/s Nyquist. No RASS

Launched sonde at 19:30
Surface met up at 19:43
Second sonde at 21:30

Today's IOP was originally scheduled for 21Z to 15Z tomorrow morning. The
forecast has a short wave bringing Easterly winds, with a possible wave
event. The IOP was changed to begin earlier (forecast changed).

The observed winds from sounding were northeasterly above the mountains.
Vertical motions in the profiler data but not clear wave motion.(Deserves 
a closer look). Surface winds decreased slowly from about 10 m/s at 20Z to
about 5.5 m/s at 00Z. Direction steady from 340. T was about 24C
Profiler seeing NWerlies up to 1500 m or so, rotating to more northerly
above.

Once underway, all systems operated will. Profiler had severe clutter in lowest
500 m and again at 2.5 km and up from mountains to east.

IOP#2 will end at 02Z (6pm) so expect data to stop then.

Sunny and warm again today. We are shutting down at 22:50Z to move to the
East valley MISS site. Will not restart until tomorrow mid-morning. IOP#2 is
scheduled for 1pm Wednesday through 7 am Thursday, with one sonde launch
anticipated at MISS and one at MAPR.

Profiler winds were light, sometimes northerly today. Surface T high (25C)
and dry. Looking good at this site.

Even sunnier and warmer today.
The profiler operated well today. There were some 7 m/s winds aloft last
night and again late morning. But mostly light winds 3m/s or less.
The surface station data (Campbell#1 PTH, not rad) failed last night
and restared by itself. Lou tested, and suspects the freewave is drawing
more current than the charger can supply. He tried a temporary fix and will
see how it works tonight.So there are gaps in the surface data from the
outage and from the tests.

We explored the area for possible MISS sites within the DRI network and
found some options. No RFI was seen with the spectrum analyzer, but it is not
as sensitive as a profiler. No operations tomorrow, but we may move MISS
to one site to test for interference, or if operations are planned for Wednesday
we may move to an operational site. The possible event Wendesday is a short wave
which could bring easterlies again.

Today is another sunny, cloudless, warm, sometimes breezy day.
The MISS surface met_1 stopped working yesterday evening. It has done this
before, usually just when starting up, and the immediate fix has been to
disconnect/reconnect the 9-pin connector inside the box which controls the
RF data transfer. However, that didn't fix the problem this morning, and
we noticed the battery voltage was low. [You can use Zeb to plot this].
This battery was swapped with the one in the KVH Campbell. Seems to work.
Some conenctors were also replaced. Down time approx 01Z-22Z.
Radiation, running off the second Campbell, was not affected.

MISS profiler showed fairly strong winds overnight, and a few birds. The spectra
look real and the winds are probably fine. [Note the Zeb winds on the NCAR
web page are in kts.]. The "jet" starts out appearing to be a nice depiction
of down valley (nocturnal) flow for Owens Valley. Peak northerly winds around
14 kts a few hundred meters up, and decreasing above (7 kts aroudn 1.5km, and
light and variable above that). But these winds persist through the day,
so they are not a valley wind system. Probably driven by the synoptic pressure
gradient.

Not an exciting day at MISS (spent working on MAPR). Daily notes may be added
later.

Warm and sunny. Diffuse cirrus.

Profiler was down most of the day, because of the filled PC disk and a delay
before it could be reset. Data begins again at 20:30Z. Showing fairly light
winds. Changed to 100 m mode at 21:35

Surface met also had gaps. All restarted at 20:30.

About the only consistent data today was the surface radiation from the
second campbell station.

Clear, warm, sunny, windy at times. But see the MAPR surface station for
better coverage of winds and temperature.

Much of the surface met is missing - db9 connector pronlem again? And
later maybe problem of disk filling on the display manager computer.

Profiler data only available for a few hours in the afternoon from after
the coherent integrator cable and cards were change, until the display
PC disk filled.

IOP from 16Z to 21Z (8am-1pm LT)

NOTE: ISS parameter file's site name and lat/lon were not adjusted while
at Mine site.

ISS was started at the Old Mine site (Mazurka Canyon) at 16Z
Windy at the surface,about 9 m/s from 315 deg at 16Z.
Profiler is running 6 beam mode TURB_105. Some clutter to 1km but
not bad. NIMA should clean it up later.
Clear, sunny, and chilly this morning.

Gary took a photo panorama of this site.

Surface: Winds were steady at 9 m/s from 16-18Z, then a continuous drop
to only 2 m/s from 18-21Z.Wind direction from about 310 for the entire time.
T rising slowly this morning from 6C to 12Z. Tdew steady at -2C.

Profiler: We learned that the TURB mode may have a wider Nyquist than we
need, but save it in case there is a strong strong event. Next time use
CLR_105 or CLR_60 modes. POP winds light (biased by cluter?). Highest speeds
around 7 m/s at 1.5 km 16-17Z. Winds below 700 m were generally from the NW
while above were more Northerly.Some winds at 2.5km and above but these are
all from clutter. RASS ok to 500 m more or less.
Pressure was falling slowly during the IOP, from 885 to 882 mb.Solar radiation
shows the cloudless day.
Profiler SOAP 30-m winds are similar to POP. 10-min consensus has more outliers.
Nothing too noticable in the radial velocity contour plots, but it may be worth
a closer look later.
Sounding at 18Z had NNW winds for the lowest ~2km and NE above. Dry layer
800-600 mb (actually prety dry everywhere) T'pause around 225 mb or so.

Today we will move MISS from the Independence airport to the East valley mining site. PI's have scheduled an IOP tomorrow from 8am to 1 pm (16Z-21Z) with a
sonde launch (one from MISS and one from MAPR) at 18Z or 10 am.

Forecast is for EASTERLIES at mountaintop height, with speeds 35-45 kts. This
could generate mountain waves. Not clear if these waves will be strong enough to
generate rotors.

Today surface winds increased 17-19Z from 3 m/s to 9 m/s (may increase more;
this note written at 22Z). Profiler shows northerlies from the surface up to
about 1.5 km, with an easterly component above. Speeds 10-15 m/s.

First day of Sierra Rotors official data collection. MISS set up at the
Independence, CA airport site.