Contents

1. Operations Manual for Lincoln field site (LHM) during HMT-West/CalWater 2011:Skywater Doppler RadarGPS Balloon Sounding System

2. Contents • Section 1: Startup when first arriving for an IOP. • Section 2: Normal radar operations. • Section 3: Additional Sonde instructions. • Section 4: Additional generator instructions. • Section 5: Shutdown after the IOP is over and crew is going home. • Section 6: Panic switches.

3. Section 1: Startup instructions when first arriving for an IOP.

4. Door combo 9340 Gate combo 2115 Flashlight hidden on railing behind corner post. Return it there! Needed to see combo lock at night. Back door combo 9340 Container combo 6588

5. Set backup generator switch to “ARM” position.

6. Diesel Backup Generator Hit FAULT RESET if there are errors, then hit AUTO and make sure AUTO indicator is selected and READY/AUTO LED is on. Turn on CONTROL ON to activate controls. Main breaker: leave this on. AUTO indicator

7. Upon arrival at the start of a test period, check the 2 bubble levels at the rear of the trailer (red arrows) and level the rear of the trailer if necessary using the 4 jacks. Jack handles are in the antenna room. Adjustments will probably be needed rarely once things settle.

8. External Data Disks • At the beginning of an IOP: • If Carroll has emailed and said that he has a disk for you to pick up: • Before leaving Boulder, pick up a disk from Carroll • Once at the radar, plug in the disk and power it on (USB cable is on top of computer rack and 1 end is already plugged into the computer)

9. ACQ machine display There are 4 PC’s that comprise the data system. User is Administrator and Pw=<cr> for the Windows PC’s since they are never on the internet. Morticia runs linux. Morticia display Display machine display #2 Display machine display Control machine display Coffee. Do not spill!

10. Clear Display Disk • If Carroll’s email states that he has all the data: • Once at the radar, on the display machine, click on the C Shell shortcut (see next slide). • Type “./clearDisk” in the C Shell window • NOTE: • If you haven’t heard from Carroll DO NOT type “./clearDisk” on the display machine

11. On the display machine, click on the C Shell shortcut.

12. On Morticia, Username=rcp, PW=radar%.

13. On Morticia: If not already running, double-click on StartHMT and StartAll. This should be all you need to do on Morticia.

14. These are the three displays you will generally have on Morticia.

15. On ACQ PC: If not already running, start Dwell Engine by double-clicking shortcut “Shortcut to Dwell Engine”.fff

16. If for some reason you ever need to stop the Dwell Engine, make sure the high voltage is off because you will kill the radar trigger. A warning window will probably pop up to remind you. Dwell Engine: you shouldn’t have to ever touch this after starting.

17. On CONTROL PC: If Radar Controller is not already running, after Dwell Engine shows “Wait for New_Vol” in state display (see arrow on previous slide), start Radar Controller by double-clicking icon on Control machine. Note: If you ever stop the Dwell Engine (ACQ program), you must stop the Radar Controller program. The Dwell Engine must be started before the Radar Controller or the communication sockets will not hook up.

18. This is the Radar Controller screen. Open the Skywater Radar Control screen by single-clicking SKYWATER RADAR CONTROLS button.

19. Compressor LED and switch should already be on, indicating that the compressor is on. If not, click switch to turn on waveguide compressor/drier and prime as explained later. Compressor LED indicator Click red “DONE” buttons to close the popup windows in The Radar Controller program. Compressor switch

20. If you needed to turn the compressor on because it has been off for an extended period, open the bleed valve behind the antenna to prime the waveguide with dry air. Leave the valve open for 30 seconds minimum. Then close it. (90 degree rotation in either direction opens it.)

21. Click Standby to begin warming up the radar. After 12 minutes, HV Ready should light.

22. On DISPLAY PC: First, double-click the PPServer shortcut.

23. This is the PPServer window that will pop up. Next, click on the C Shell shortcut (if you opened a C Shell to run ClearDisk you can use that window).

24. After you bring up the C Shell window, type “./run”.

25. Many windows will pop up. Here are the ones that will be used most of the time for this project. The blue window contains the controls for selecting and adjusting the fields that will be displayed in the PPI and RHI windows. Select scan type for display you want to modify. We will be using PPI and RHI. Select field to display for selected scan type. Change scale on colorbar for selected display. Keep the borders of the PPI and RHI displays completely onscreen or gifs won’t work. The displays don’t need to be on top.

26. DO NOT do other tasks on the 3 data system Windows PC’s. • DO NOT pop up explorer windows or data will get lost. • DO NOT under any circumstances install any applications or services on these 3 machines. • DO NOT move files to different directories. Paths to support files can get screwed up. • You can browse NWS from Morticia or laptops.

27. Once the transmitter is warmed up, the estimated time counter will read 0.0, and the LEDs should look like the panel below (note HV ready is now on). The HV on button is now enabled. At this point, click HV ON to turn on the transmitter. If it is later desired to turn down the transmitter without turning off anything else, click HV OFF (which the HV ON button will turn into if the transmitter is on).

28. Section 2: Normal Radar Operations Once the transmitter has been turned on, it is time to start scanning the radar. Our approach to scanning is dependent on how the Sacramento NWS WSR-88D radar (KDAX) is operating. KDAX imagery can be viewed on the internet by perusing the web browser on Morticia (there should be a bookmark). The “KdaxPredict” window on Morticia provides information about the scan strategy or Volume Coverage Pattern (VCP) that KDAX is executing, the start time of past volumes and the predicted start time of future volumes. See next slide for an example of what this looks like.

29. Morticia will show past volume start times for KDAX (blue arrow), the VCP executed in those volumes (red arrow), estimated upcoming volume start times (yellow arrow) and the Skywater scan queue we desire to execute (green arrow). KdaxPredict window on Morticia

30. When there are precipitation echoes in the KDAX scanning domain, it will usually operate in VCP 12 (360° azimuth PPI surveillance scans at 14 different elevation angles). The repeat cycle of VCP 12 varies between 255-261 sec (4 min 15 sec to 4 min 21 sec). Our desire is to execute a Skywater scan strategy that closely matches the timing of KDAX VCP 12. The Skywater scan queue that best meets this objective is called “s11_s9_cr2_s8_ar2”. This queue is composed of the following scans:

31. To start start the s11_s9_cr2_s8_ar2 queue (or any other named queue), click on “SCHEDULE SCAN TABLE/QUEUE”.

32. Click on browse button to select the desired queue (QUEUE) file. Look in the C:\CalWater directory. Then set desired repeat count (-1 = forever) and click “START QUEUE NOW”. Browse button “DONE” closes Popup window

33. This is the control display when a queue is scheduled. Start time for queue will be viewable here

34. The s11_s9_cr2_s8_ar2 queue takes ~13 min to complete, which is close to the repeat cycle of three consecutive KDAX VCP 12 volumes. Over the course of a few hours, the synchronization between Skywater and KDAX may drift. This can be assessed by comparing the start time of the current Skywater queue (see previous slide) with the start times of KDAX volumes as shown in the KdaxPredict window on Morticia (there is a 8-9 min. delay in receiving information about KDAX volumes, so we have to predict upcoming start times that have relevance to synchronization with Skywater). If the synchronization drifts by more than one minute, a restart of the Skywater queue will be necessary. To do this, either hit the “START QUEUE NOW” button a few seconds before the projected start time of a KDAX volume, OR……..

35. … start the queue at the desired time. To do this, first click on “COPY CURRENT TIME TO START TIME”, then click on button to open clock.

36. This is the clock adjust box. Highlight hours or minutes or seconds and use up/down buttons to adjust. Click OK when done.

37. Click on “START QUEUE TIMED” to add the queue to the scheduler. Don’t do this very far in advance because it will terminate the current schedule. Antenna positioning time will depend on where the antenna is to start with, so you may decide to start queues a few seconds early to give it more time for the initial position, or stop previous queue using STOP NOW button when antenna is near the desired starting position (currently az=212). ti Current time from GPS Set repeat count = -1

38. Additional considerations: If KDAX operates in a VCP other than 12, use the Skywater scan queue named “s11_r4” and try to remain synchronized within 2 minutes. If KDAX stops operating, use the Skywater scan queue named “s11_r4” and don’t worry about synchronizing. If there is a need for modifying a queue or scan table, the following slides describe the procedure.

39. If you need to modify a scan table, this is done through the “Build/Edit/View Scan Table” window. You shouldn’t need to do this once the experiment starts.

40. Section 3: Additional Sonde instructions • See the separate sonde manual for instructions on launching sondes. • Fill out a sonde log sheet for each sonde (found in blue 3-ring binder). • Keep empty helium bottles on opposite side of seatainer from full bottles. • Balloon seatainer lock combination is 6588.

41. On surfaceMet PC, D:\EtlData\Csi\SurfaceMet\Daily, open the latest .met file. Columns are as follows: Datalogger ID/Year/Julian Day/HoursMinutes/Pressure (mb) (offset of -400mb)/Temperature (C)/Relative Humidity (%)/Scalar Wind Speed (m/s)/ Vector Wind Speed (m/s)/Wind Direction (degrees)/Wind Direction std dev (deg)/ Battery Voltage (V)/Precipitation (mm)/Maximum Wind Speed (m/s). Use the necessary values to initialize the sonde.

42. Instructions for copying sonde files to Morticia so they get sent to Boulder: -Each sonde will generate three files that need to be copied to Morticia.

43. Double-click on WinSCP shortcut.

44. Click on Login to log into Morticia.

45. Drag file to copy from left window to right window. First file has .dc3db extension and lives in D:\SoundingArchive. This is the default directory when you open SCP.

46. Use browse button to navigate to C:\DigiCORAIII\messages and copy the two .txt files that were just created to the window on the right. Then exit WinSCP.

47. Section 4: Additional generator instructions

48. To open the diesel generator cover, pull on the latch on the left while pulling on the handle on the right.

49. Oil dipstick.

50. To start the generator manually, press MANUAL to switch to manual mode, then press ENGINE START. There will be a 20 second delay as shown in the display window before engine starts. Press ENGINE STOP to turn it off. If you are not leaving for Colorado, switch back to AUTO mode.