Radiation plot calculating sun blockage at Thunderhead in local time.Another update from scientist Chuck Long, lead for the total sky imager (TSI) and radiation instruments. Yesterday was a nice clear day, so I was able to quantify the extent of the direct sun blockage on the radiometers at Thunderhead. In the morning, the sun cleared…

Editor’s Note: Scientist Chuck Long is the instrument lead for the total sky imager (TSI). He shared a quick note from his review of the video taken by his instrument up at Storm Peak Lab (SPL) last weekend. To see the footage that the TSI captured of the first snow on October 8, view the…

Sadly this is the last full day for Durga Kafle and Michael Ritsche.  They will be heading back to the Chicago area after 17 days here at Steamboat Springs.  Michael, Durga, Karen and Mike Turner spent the day doing calibration checks on the surface meteorological systems.  The ORG, PWD, Barometer and T/RH probe were all…

Another good day at the valley site.  The telescoping tower was tipped down to check on the PSP and PIR, which were giving some strange readings.  We weren’t too worried as we had not yet updated the coefficients and serial numbers in the datalogger program.  Once we changed those to the proper values, errors were…

Today the AMF2 received its first visitors.  Connor Flynn, Luc Rochette, Chuck Long, Kevin Widener and Nitin Bharadwaj showed up to work on the various instruments they are responsible for.  Including the six AMF2 personnel already onsite, conditions are cozy to say the least. Connor and company were working on the ASSISTII (the AMF2’s version…

With most systems running in some sort of mode we head into the last three days of installation activities.  Several mentors are expected this week to install their equipment.  Travel to and from the mountain site could be interesting, since some need to work at night (likely that means we might as well !!!??).  That’s…

After a disappointing end to the day on Friday we gave ourselves an extra hour in the morning to recover.  After returning to the site we began to work on some of the issues that remain. Tim Martin began work on setting up the Virtual Machines and installing a guest network hub and a hub…

Today was a sad day as Dick Eagan and Brad Orr both flew home to Chicago, IL.  Brad and Dick’s humor and experience will be missed. The weather has been great.  It starts out a bit cool early in the morning but by mid-morning we are taking off layers as the sun is still pretty…

We continued installing sensors on the ground radiation (GNDRAD), Sky Radiation (SKYRAD), Surface Meteorology (MET),  Total Sky Imager (TSI) and Multi-filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR).  All sensors were installed and the task of connecting the myriad of cables has begun. The Met tower has been tipped vertical now that all the sensors have been installed…

Setup continues under nearly ideal conditions.  Installation of the rather complex communications is underway.  Having the main AMF2 data system in the valley, two instrumented mountain sites and final transmission of the data out through the Storm Peak Lab connection is a non-trivial task.  Other activities included the installation of several radiation sensors.  The AMF2…