SCP

Overview

A summary experiment plan by the PI, Larry Mahrt (Northwest Research Associates) describes much of the planning material below.

Logbook

A Wiki Logbook shows activities related to this project.

Plots and Tables

48 hour time series plots and 4x6 hour data tables

Data Access

See High-rate ISFS Data for SCP and 5 Minute ISFS Data for SCP for detailed information about the following datasets:

• 5 minute, QC'd, geographic and tilt-corrected sonic winds
• 5 minute, QC'd, geographic but not tilt-corrected sonic winds
• 5 minute, no QC, sonic winds in instrument coordinates
• high-rate, geographic and tilt-corrected sonic winds
• high-rate, geographic but not tilt-corrected sonic winds

WWW Camera Images

Oregon State University deployed a WWW camera looking SE from the RIC dorm.  Images were archived every 5 minutes.  Since the camera had some response to the infrared, images were archived 24 hours a day.  Once-per-day "zipped" archives of the images are available here.

Schedule

Location

The site is in the USDA Central Plains Experimental Range accessed from the Colorado State University Shortgrass Steppe Research and Interpretive Center.  Driving directions from Mapquest are:

Generally, take Diagonal Highway (CO 119) to I-25 [18mi]; North to exit 278 (Wellington) [38mi]; Exit right, then turn left onto frontage road for 0.5 mile; Right on CR64 (that becomes CR100) [11mi]; Left on US 85 [7mi]; Right on CR114.  RIC is 0.7 miles on the right.

Measurement Sites

The current version of the layout of the site is shown below.  GoogleEarth users can download this KMZ file of these positions, based on GPS survey as built. Positions of the ISFS base trailer, the RIC dorm that we will stay in, and the various towers are shown.  The red line marks a possible line for inlets to Jielun Sun's Picarro H2O/CO2/CH4 analyzer.  A parallel line directly East of this line will be for Oregon State University fiber optic and other sensors.  Note that this is rotated with North to the left and that there is a scale on the bottom.

Station Photos

See Tom Horst's Wiki Entry for photos of all sites during operations.

Elevations of the stations are listed below.  These values are the mean of all GPS data, but still can have large errors.  This table also lists the approximate (to ~5cm) height of the GPS receiver.  Subtract these from the GPS measurements to obtain the elevation of the tower base.  Note that Jielun Sun and others did a much more accurate manual survey of relative tower elevations.

Instrumentation

Summary of deployed instrumentation:

Main Tower

[1]: All Handars are to be mounted upside down (lower sensors to get close to the surface, uppers all colocated with TRHs that point down anyway)

[2]: Sensor and height the same as on "A" stations.

[3]: Initial barometer was a Vaisala PTB220. Replaced on Nov 9 with a Paroscientific 6000.

Total: CSAT(8), TRH(8), PTB(3), KH2O(2), Li7500(2), Handar(3)

Data systems: 2.  Viper in white box with 2 Emerald serial expansion cards, and a Viper with 1 Emerald and interface panel.

Network: WIFI

C Tower

[2]: Sensor and height the same as on "A" stations.

Total: CSAT(2), TRH(4), PTB(1), Handar(1)

Data system: Viper with 1 Emerald serial card and interface panel

Network: WIFI

A Towers (9)

Sites #4, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

[1]: On Oct 4, stations 15 and 17 were moved to the fiber optic transect line. CSAT at 15 was raised to 2 meters, and the CSAT at 17 was lowered to 0.5m at that time.

Total: CSAT(9), TRH(18)

Data system: Titan

Network: Bluetooth

A Towers with 2D sonic (3)

Sites #1, 2, 6

Total: CSAT(4), TRH(8), Handar(4)

Data system: Viper with 1 Emerald and serial interface panel

Network: Bluetooth

A Towers with barometer (5)

Sites #8, 9, 10, 12, 14

Total: CSAT(5), TRH(10), PTB(5)

[1]: A PTB220 barometer at sites 8,9,12 and 14. At site 10, the PTB220 was replaced by a Paroscientific 6000 on Nov 9.

[2]: A Campbell Scientific EC150 with 3-D sonic and IR gas analyzer was added at site A8 on Nov 12.

Data system:  4 Vipers and 1 Titan, Emerald and serial interface panel not needed

Network: Bluetooth

A Towers with 2D sonic and barometer (2)

Site #3,#5

[1]: At site 3, a 1 Hz PTB220 barometer. At site 5, a Paroscientific 6000 was added on Nov 9.

Total: CSAT(1), TRH(2), barometer(1), Handar(1)

Data system: 1 Viper, 1 Titan, each with 1 Emerald and serial interface panel

Network: Bluetooth

Radiation and Soil

Soil sensors will be placed in two locations near the main tower, one in grass and one in cactus.

The radiation and soill data will be sent via bluetooth radio to the A11 station,

Data Systems

User-supplied sensors

Jielun Sun (NCAR/MMM) will deploy a Picarro H2O/CO2/CH4 analyzer with with 16 inlets to form a transect across the gully West of the main tower.  This has been deployed as part of the CentNet development tests.  ISFS will supply power, ethernet, and a serial port to ingest data from this analyzer.

Christoph Thomas (OSU) will deploy 3 fiber-optic temperature sensors to form a transect across the gully.  The data system for this will require a network connection and power (TBD).

Christoph will support the fiber system with 9 towers, each with 2-D sonic anemometers and thermohygrometers along one side of the transect.  Data from these towers will be acquired by 2 CR3000 data loggers that will require a network connection (for monitoring) [and power??].  These loggers have data cards that will need to be manually exchanged and copied to an OSU FTP site every 11 days.

Christoph also will deploy a mini sodar with a support trailer near the C tower.  This also will require a network connection and power (TBD).

note that 1.9 and 3.1 cm, as well as 0.6 and 4.4m, are equidistant from 2.5 cm Ech2o and TP01 sensors and separations are 1.3, 1.2, and 1.3 cm.  Also 4.4 cm is 0.6 cm above heat flux plate, same as depth of highest soil temperature.