Friday, November 30, 2018

Weather for NearSys Station, November 2018

The air and ground temperatures continue their decline except during the last five days of the month. We experienced four rainy days that brought a total of 0.62 inches of rain and there was no snow. The average pressure decreased over the month, but there were two exceptions of high pressure.






Monday, November 26, 2018

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 25 November 2018

The cold air at NearSys Station became very humid before sunrise and not long after sunset.


Sunday, November 25, 2018

24-hour Photometer Data at NearSys Station, 25 November 2018

Below is the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet photometer data collected today.



UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 25 November 2018

The UAVSonde was launch around 12:50 PM MDT. Data indicates that visibility is in excess of 50 miles. The conditions on the ground were 46.3 degrees and relative humidity of 50.7%. At flight level 4, conditions were 44.4 degrees and relative humidity of 48.6%.


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East

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South

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Paul's SciTrek: Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum

Prehistoric Museum 155 East Main Street, Price, Utah

On November 17th, I visited the Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admissions are listed as follows,

Ages 2 - 12: $3
Adult: $6
Senior: $5
Military: $5
Family: $17
Military Family: $14

Parking is free and the museum does give tours with advanced notice. The museum in Price is one of the five accredited museums in Utah and is your one-stop destination to discover eastern Utah's prehistory.

The museum is two stories tall and consists of two wings. One wing is dedicated to dinosaurs (paleontology) while the other wing is dedicated to the Fremont People (archaeology). One corner of the paleontology wing is set aside for children to play through hands-on educational activities.

Older than a dinosaur, a Dimetrodon. This animal's descendants lead to mammals and not reptiles.

Stegosaurus, notice the bony bib protecting its neck.

Chasmosaurus belli, a 73 million year-old armored dinosaur.

The Utahraptor greeting you at the museum.
The large diorama in the archaeology wing. Human versus Mastodon.

A replica petroglyph of the Fremont People.

Some of the pottery on display.

Everyone's favorite, a Saber-toothed Cat (note, this is not a tiger).

A Short-faced Bear. These bears where 50% larger than modern bears and the largest predatory land mammals ever in North America.


A dire wolf. These big wolves were living in North America when humans crossed the Bering Strait.


Sunday, November 11, 2018

UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 11 November 2018

The UAVSonde was launched at 14:00 MST today to collect data. Images indicate the visibility is at least 50 miles. The tilt in the images, especially east-looking one indicates there was a lot of wind at Flight Level 4. The upper troposphere is becoming more humid on account of the increasing amount cirrus clouds and the longer contrails present.

Conditions at the surface were,
Temperature: 54.5 degrees
Relative Humidity: 24.6%

At Flight Level 4:
Temperature: 53.2 degrees
Relative Humidity: 22.4%

East

North

South

West

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 10 November 2018

In the chart below, it can be seen where the sun shield for the datalogger was blown over between noon and 4:00 PM. This means the datalogger was exposed to direct sunlight During this time. During this time frame, NearSys Station experienced partly cloudy skies which gave rise to the fluctuations observed in the temperature.

Saturday, November 10, 2018

24-hour All-sky LED Photometer for NearSys Station, 10 November 2018

The LED Photometer required two repairs before it could start collecting data again. So there have been no reports since May. I finally had time and inclination inclination to troubleshoot and repair it. Below is the proper output from the working photometer. It can be seen that between 2:00 and 3:30 PM MST NearSys Station experienced partially cloudy skies.

Unlike past reports, the photometer now includes red data. However, the photometer still operates from a four "AAA" alkaline cell pack. So I plan to switch it and the UV-B Photometer over to a 5V rechargeable battery pack. Then perhaps place them inside the weather-proof can I partially 3D designed and built. Then assemble the GPS recorder for the buoy???


Monday, November 5, 2018

24-hour LED Photometer for NearSys Station, 5 November 2018

The LED Photometer is finally working again. But I still need to find out what's going on with the red LED, it's not producing an output. Perhaps it's a bad trace.

From the chart below, it's apparent that we had partly cloudy skies.



Sunday, November 4, 2018

24-hour Temperature and Relative Humidity for NearSys Station, 3 November 2018

Below is the graph of air temperature and relative humidity created by the Amprobe TR200A.


Saturday, November 3, 2018

24-hour UV-B Flux for NearSys Station, 3 November 2018

The UV-B photometer I purchased from AdaFruit recorded the following UV-B flux today. We were mostly overcast with cirrus clouds off and on all day,


UAVSonde Data for NearSys Station, 3 November 2018

The UAVSonde was launched 10:35 AM MDT. The data indicates the visibility is at least 50 miles, since the Boise Mountains were visible in the east. Below is air temperature and relative humidity results.

At the surface,
Temperature: 59.0 deg
Relative Humidity: 37.5%

At Flight Level 4,
Temperature: 57.0 deg
Relative Humidity: 35.5%

East

North

South

West