24-hour Air Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 26 January 2019

The nights are so cold that the air becomes saturated with water. On the plus side, the air temperature increased slightly after 24 hours.

ROV Test at Mission Bay, San Diego

Last week I attended a science teacher conference. While there, I was able to test the ROV several times in the bay. A problem experienced was how murky the east bay was. The ROV went as deep as 10 according to the sonar buoy I deployed. The ROVs inability to surface when it went below 5 feet indicates it's time to switch the buoyancy method from compressible fism to incompressible air tanks.

Here are some data and images collected.

Near the dock and not very deep

The ROV made several excursions during this test. Notice how dark the water becomes as the ROV dives lower.

The murky bottom

24-hour Photometer for NearSys Station, 26 January 2019

Bright blue skies and high temperatures in the 40s. Not bad for a late January.

Visibility for NearSys Station, 26 January 2019

After replacing the motors in my Blade Chroma UAV, I launched it to collect visibility data. I did not collect air temperature and relative humidity data because I am not confident in this data. I will purchase a thermocouple for the UAV and before collecting this data.

The visibility is in excess of 50 miles.

East

North - burning is taking place

South - note the fig beyond the Snake River

West

ROV Test, 13 January 2019

I tested the new ROV at Wilson Ponds in Nampa, ID. It carried an OnSet MX2202 temperature and light intensity sensor and a small action camera. A fish swimmer past the ROV during its test.

The ROV made many vertical excursions, turns, and tilts. So the light intensity varied a lot.

 Changes in water temperature is slower to be detected. I will need to keep the ROV stationary for long periods of time to get more accurate water temperatures. 

A fish seen during the ROV test

A clip of an ROV flight through a pond

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 12 January 2019

It was warmer on Saturday morning than night.

24-hour Photometer for NearSys Station, 13 January 2019

This is the first photometer chart I created for my new LED Photometer. It was a foggy and overcast day. Why is the UV-B sensor generating such a high value in the afternoon? Let's see if this is typical.

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 5 January 2019

A warm front arrived last night. Look at the rise in air temperature at a time the temperature should have decreasing.

New LED Photometer Results

I revamped my 24-hour photometer by increasing the memory, adding a temperature sensor, adding the UV-B sensor, and updating the datalogging code and spreadsheet. Next, I plan to add an infrared thermometer to measure the sky temperature. I will also build am enclosure for the photometer to protect it from the weather.

You can see the yellow LED needs to be replaced in the chart below.

I am recording the maximum and average values for each color. I hope to use those numbers to normalize the charts so they can be compared to each other.

Weather for NearSys Station, 2018

As expected, the air temperature peaked at the end of July and beginning of August (The Dog Days). NearSys Station experienced three heat waves, one at the end of January, a second at the end of October, and a third in mid-December. The relative humidity was its lowest during the hottest time of the year, but none of that data was collected during the winter to get a complete picture. We had 6.5 inches of rain and 4.7 inches of snow. That is a lower than average amount of precip. There was no precip during July, August, and September. The ground temperature followed the trends in the air temperature, but with a delay.

Weather for NearSys Station, December 2018

The temperature at NearSys Station rise above average during the middle of the month. We experienced eight days of precipitation, some of that snow (2.6 inches). The air pressure was higher at the beginning of the month while the ground temperature has bottomed out.