Field Report: Willie Field AWS and Radiation Shield Test Site

Dates:  31/Jan/2010
        1/Feb/2010

Time:  Sunday - ~1 pm to 3:30 pm
      Monday - ~10 am to 1 pm

Team Members: Matthew Lazzara and Lee Welhouse

Measurements:

Radiation Test Facility sensor bar: 34 inches (0.86 meters) above the surface (37 inches (0.94 meters) below the surface)

AWS:
* Delta-T:         0 inches (0 meters) - raised to 33 inches (0.84 meters)
* Acoustic Depth Gauge:  22.5 inches (0.57 meters)
* Lower Solar Panel:     29.0 inches (0.74 meters)
* Junction Box:          19.75 inches (0.50 meters)
* Electronics Box:       55.0 inches (1.40 meters)
* Upper solar Panel:     131.0 inches (3.32 meters)
* Boom (I-beam):         153.75 inches (3.91 meters)


Battery voltages: (AWS Only - taken at the junction box)

From Solar Panel - 12.6 volts
To Electronics Box - 11.89 volts

UNVACO GPS:  Yes on Monday (not on Sunday)

Work Description:

Radiation Shield Test Site:  The removal of the radiation sensor bar and the batteries took the majority of both days.  The electronics enclosure for the test site was completely buried. Also to our surprise was 8 battery boxes - not 4.  In any case, the system was removed today, and returned to Crary.  All of the batteries are recharging very quickly in the lab.  We will bring the entire setup to Science Cargo for installation at South Pole.  We showed the gear to Science Cargo, and feel other than putting the batteries on a pallet, the rest will be loose loaded onto the LC-130 for transport to Pole.  We have not unwired the electronics at all.  We still need to install a new card (or reformatted) (which we did leave the cards here and did not pack into retro - yet).  One item of note - the power cord that is taped to the AWS test site tower no longer is hooked up to the batteries (since they are all gone now).  I taped up the other end of the cord (at the plug I found buried).  It would have to be dug up to use again - after hours of digging, we did not do this.  All other parts of the test facility were recovered.


AWS: Turning to the AWS on site, we found that the delta-T was touching the snow surface, and hence we raised that up only.   The junction box and lower solar panel should be raised next year - and the ADG needs to have the arm its on have a 2nd brace to attach it to a full face (two poles) of the tower.  This ADG like others we have, need to evolve to using a "portico" system - with a second tower or pole to support it so it won't vibrate too much, creating noisy data.  The biggest issue we found was that the wind bird was not aligned correctly, and indeed we found that the whole pipe was really lose!  We tightened the pipe as best as we could (Lee has the touch), put tape under the clamp so it bites - but we didn't have the plumber's tape nor the other clamp with the notch on us.  If this fails again next year, we'll know we have to use that clamp (especially it is found to be working at Pegasus) or we need to come up with a better system for mounting RM Young wind birds.