All Sky Photometer for NearSys Station, 31 August 2017

All sky photometer data was collected starting at 6:00 AM. Below is a chart of the collected data. The spikes seem in the red data are not as strong as last week. I will probably rotate the Photometer to see if the pattern persists.

Sunspot Report for NearSys Station, 31 August 2017

Tiday's sunspot image shows three large sunspots.

A calculation of the size of the largest sunspot determines it's umbra is 13,856 miles in diameter and it's pemumbra is 30,483 miles in diameter.

Compare this to Earth with a diameter of 7918 miles.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 31August 2017

Based on UAVSonde images, the visibility is estimated to to be 15 miles.

Looking East

Looking North

Looking West. The sun's light shows just how bad the smoke is.

Looking South. Again the sun's light makes it abundantly clear how lots of smoke fills the valley.

Sky Temperature at NearSys Station, 31 August 2017

The smoke lifted yesterday, but has returned today. Otherwise, there are no clouds.

Slightly smoky overhead.

The thermal imager detects a temperature of -22 *F. Tharmr's one degree Celsius warmer than last week.

The temperature towards the North appears to be warmer than towards the south.

I'm interested in making these measurements again once the smoke has left the valley,

UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 31 August 2017

UAVSonde were collected at 4:30 PM. Here are the data.

Altitude: 2,339 feet
Temperature: 93 *F
Relative Humidity: 7%
Pressure: 918.4 mb

Altitude: 2,804 feet
Temperature: 93 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 918.4 mb

Sky Temperature at NearSys Station, 27 August 2017

Smoke from forest fires has poured back into the Treasure Valley. This got me to wondering if this will change the temperature of the sky above me. It can certainly change the appearance of the sky. Then I got to wondering if cloud height might be determined by monitoring the temperature of the ground and the sky.

So for the next several weeks, I'll photograph the sky (and any clouds and their height) and get a thermal image. This should be done at the same time, I would think. However, the sun's position changes from day to day. So perhaps this measurement should be done when the sun is at the same elevation.

Here's my first attempt to gather this data. Let's see where it goes.

Blue skies overhead and not a cloud in the sky.

The temperature overhead was -21 degrees. That's the temperature at an altitude of 22,500 feet. Is this a significant measurement? Only time will tell.

Sunspot Report for NearSys Station, 26 August 2017

I am going to investigate making weekly sunspot counts using a Sunspotter telescope and a cell phone camera. I want to find a procedure using Fiji image analyzing software to increase contrast of the image and count the number of sunspots.

Here's the first image. Unfortunately I haven't been able to design a procedure to detect and count sunspots yet. I expect the procedure will involve thresholding the solar image.

At least the image has been enhanced. Next is to sharpen it and then threshold it to isolate sunspots. Fiji the could count them more consistently than I can. Note, there's one sunspot group near the middle of the disk.

All Sky Photometer Data for NearSys Station, 26 August 2017

Photometer data was collected on the 26th starting at 6:00 AM. Below is the chart created by the data collected.

Red sky light experienced unique dips around 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM.

UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 26 August 2017

UAVSonde Data were collected at 11:30 AM. Here are the data.

Altitude: 2,562 feet
Temperature: 84 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 917.6 mb

Altitude: 2,683 feet
Temperature: 82 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 916.9 mb

Visibility is estimated to be around 30 miles based on the ability to just see the base of the Owyhee Mountains to the south. The order of the UAVSonde images are east, north, south, and west.

Total Solar Eclipse

What an event! And what a lot of data! I'm still waiting for dataloggers I sent to Texas, so there'll be more to report on by next week. But here's a first stab.

Rachel safely observing the solar eclipse

So Rachel and I traveled to the Ontario Regional airport to launch a near spacecraft and to observe the eclipse. Frazier Aviation is the FBO of the airport and had set up a really nice solar eclipse event. I brought a few science instruments and the gear to launch a near spacecraft. And with the help of attendees, we were able to gather a lot of really nice data.

The sun was active with at least groups of sunspots.

The solar telescope I brought made it safe for the families flying in to observe the progress of the eclipse. I was quite surprised by how active the sun was on the 21st. That's a good sign that the solar corona will be anything but small and symmetrical around the sun.

Successful launch number 173.

It was easy to round up volunteers for the balloon filling and launch. Since the launch took place at an airport, we had to be scheduled for take off like the airplanes and jets at the airport.

Leaves on trees and bushes make great pinholes.

Several changes were noticeable as totality approached. For one, every where you could find a pinhole, you would see a crescent sun. Shadows changed in appearance, also.

Shadows had fuzzy edges before the eclipse.

As totality approached, shadows grew darker and their edges sharper.

My first total solar eclipse. It's a shame it only lasted 88 seconds. However, the solar corona was just amazing to look at. It was spikier than my picture would indicate (Fiji FinePix). 

A Bailey Bead was visible in the the solar telescope. Look at the right edge of the sun for a break. A Bailey Bead is where a mountain or crater peak is obscuring the sun. 

Shortly after totality ended, Rachel and I headed out on the chase. The balloon reached 90,496 feet before burst and landed 23 miles away from the Ontario Near Space Port.

At 60,000 feet, the balloon changed directions (towards the west) and slowed down.

APRS position reports from the balloon  trackers where received throughout the flight with no drop outs. The same couldn't be said for Internet service over smart phone. That left us without an adequate map to find a convenient route to drive to the near spacecraft. So we had to drive home and regroup. Fortunately, Internet service at home is good and I as able to discover the nearest road was actually only 1,000 feet away from the near spacecraft. So I drove 16 miles back to the recovery site to get my stuff back.

Little did I realize that the balloon was 700 feet above the road! 

This was probably the most difficult extraction I've ever encountered. The mountain was steep in many places and filled with scree. At times it was one step forward and two steps back. Or pick yourself up and fall over again. The extraction process took over two hours on account of the difficult terrain and that fact that only one person was hauling out the equipment. 

I'm going through a lot of data now, but you can expect more reports on this near space flight soon. There were some surprises in the results and a few lessons learned. I hope to apply those to the next total solar eclipse in 2024. Meanwhile, it's time to prepare presentations and at least one article.  

Onwards and upwards

Visibility for NearSys Station, 18 August 2017

Based on UAVSonde data, the visibility at NearSys Station is estimated to be greater than 50 miles. This afternoon, the Boise Mountains west of NearSys Station were visible.

Looking west towards the Boise Mountains, which are about 50 miles away.

Looking north.

Looking south towards the Snake River and the Owyhee Mountains.

Looking west towards the Snake River and Homedale 

UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 18 August 2017

UAVSonde data were collected at 5:30 PM MDT. Here are the data.

Altitude: 2,201 feet
Temperature: 93 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 917.6 mb

Altitude: 2,572 feet
Temperature: 93 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 916.1 mb

Visbility for NearSys Station, 12 August 2017

Based on UAVSonde images, the visibility at NearSys Station is estimated to be around 15 miles. This morning, the north face of the closest Owyhees were visible. This is definite improvement from last week.

As the smoke clears out, I will learn how to estimate visibility better.

Looking East

Looking North

Looking South

Looking West

UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 12 August 2017

UAVSonde data was collected at 10:15 AM. Here are the data.

Altitude: 2,352 feet
Temperature: 93 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 918.8 mb

Altitude: 2,811 feet
Temperature: 86 *F
Relative Humidity: NA
Pressure: 914.6 mb

All Sky Photometer Data for NearSys Station

I'm going to try and record potometer data for the sky for an entire day light, andI hope to do this on a weekly basis.

For my first set of data, I have compared a smokey and cloudy day to a smokey and sunny day. Eventually I will standardize the reports and add ultraviolet data.

August 6th was both a smoky and cloudy day. Between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM, we saw partial breaks in the clouds.

August 8th was merely a smoky day.

Smoke in the Treasure Valley

I've sent my drone up 400 feet to get a view of how bad the smoke filling the valley looks. From the picture below, I would estimate our visibility is down to 10 miles. What a shame, normally we can see the mountains over 30 miles away.

Looking towards the East to the town of Homedale and the Snake River. Where did the Owyhee Mountains go?

 Next, I need to see if there's more science I can do from up here.

UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station. 5 August 2017

UAVSonde Data were collected at 9:00 PM. Here are the data.

Altitude: 2,257 feet

Temperature: 97*F

Relative Humidity: 41%

Pressure: 917.6 mb

Altitude: 2,690 feet

Temperature: 96*F

Relative Humidity: 0%

Pressure: 913.1 mb

The Treasure Valley was very smoky during the UAVSonde flight, so I have to wonder what it is doing to the weather sensor readings.

July Weather at NearSys Station

There was no precipitation this month, just heat. Several days of data are missing due to travels. Otherwise, you can see our high temperatures where flirting with the triple digits. August is starting off on a strong and hot footing.