BLOG! (AKA diary!)

Welcome back to our blog describing our research progress. So just a brief review - we installed our instrumentation during January and February visits and after visits in April and May we have returned again to complete data collection and pack up our equipment for shipping back to Cornell. The site is considerably less busy than during our last visit as all others excepting DTU have concluded their sampling (during the 6-week Intensive Operating Period). We have had a few questions about why the Post Docs haven't joined us for these fun trips to Portugal - don't worry they have been working hard keeping our year-long measurement campaign in New York state running (click here for details on that experiment ).

Thursday 29th June

After presenting initial results at the Wind Energy Science conference in Copenhagen (Monday-Thursday of this week) we flew from Copenhagen to Madrid and then drove 4.5 hrs over to Perdigao .. arriving at mid-night (two very weary travellers). As before we are staying at the Herdade da Urguera hotel and as always appreciate their warm welcome and quiet, clean and comfortable hotel. The descent into Madrid was pretty bumpy and we encountered some heavy down-pours during our drive over, Per Hansen (DTU) says they had significant rainfall here in Perdigao region too.

Friday 30th June

Really good luck! The temperatures are very moderate (highs of about 24C) so pleasant for working! Drove to the Ops Center (via a 'new route' as they are repairing the road into Alvaide!) and prepared for the grand take down! Our focus for today was removal of the seismometers, cleaning and packing for shipment. So FOR THE LAST TIME - we climbed up the ridge --- heavens that gravel road has taken a beating and is becoming ever more tricky for passage with a saloon car! The power to the seismometers was cut on year day 168 so unfortunately could not do a controlled ceasation of data acquisition and instrument removal, but all seems well - and all GPS have episodically synced so the time slippage we were concerned about should not be too bad.
WARNING BORING BIT HERE...
Just to confirm for our records here are the lists of equipment from each site (we took them down in this order)
RiSW06: Geophone 5002125 (2544 written on top). GPS 2685. DAS 9388. Data card: 1011345 has data from 2017:135 to 2017:168.
RiSW05: Geophone 5002167. GPS 4192. DAS 91FD. Data card: 1016187 has data from 2017:135 to 2017:168.
RiSW03: Geophone 1002351. GPS 3222. DAS 9405. Data card: 1015402 has data from 2017:135 to 2017:168.
Copied data from the SD cards to the PASSCAL computer and SP's Mac. The quick look indicates pretty good data coverage!
Per Hansen and Preban (from DTU) along with Steve Oncley (from NCAR) were up on the SW ridge removing NCAR equipment. We cleaned the geophones and other instruments up, packed them, and prepared to send them back to PASSCAL -- thanks for the loan!! Jose Carlos has kindly agreed to transport them to INEGI headquarters for collection by DHL so they can start their journey home... We then left Ops center at 6:10pm (local) and went and had dinner and a good nights sleep.

Removing equipment and power cords from RiSW06. A lot of animal activity here so the cable protection was a smart move!

The instrumentation from RiSW06

Everything removed from RiSW05!

'Digging in the dirt'

The final one is nearly done... I can afford to smile (I'm looking forward to a shower (and a glass of wine) though!)!

Saturday 1st July

After a nice breakfast and a shot of espresso we were ready to go again and drove to the Orange Grove. They clearly came and removed the trailor yesterday but had left behind the garbage and boxes from inside which were blowing around! So while Rebecca collected data from the Galion and ZephIR units, Sara did a bit of impromptu clean up so we can leave the site in good order for the owners.... (Serious hand washing followed!). The Galion and ZephIR appear to have mostly been running well, though some data have been lost by thermal shutdowns (we have heard rumours of 45 deg C during the IOP!). One of the shutdowns appears to have caused a computer glitch on the Galion but Raghu (from Notre Dame) kindly did a restart, so we lost little data. The temperature is a little warmer today (up to about 29.5 C) with episodically breezy conditions and clear skies. The air is very clean - the Galion was reaching to the wind turbine (so approx. 1km) but not as far as on other days (when we have easily been achieving ranges of 1.2 km). After data collection and site clean up we disposed of the trash at the Ops Center and then went on to the Olive Coop. Unfortunately it seems there was no power at the Olive Coop from 17-29 June so there are no data from either lidar from this period. Also alas the APS clearly over-heated on 24 May! (aghhhh just after we left last time) and stopped data acquisition. Ah well, such is life - how lucky that we brought it in April so we have some data. The SpiDAR has been continuing the somewhat sporadic writing of files but we have 10-minute averages for MOST periods. To be on the safe-side we made a backup of data from the SpiDAR (AKA 'watching paint dry'!). We took down the APS and associated computer so as soon as the file transfer concludes we'll take it to the Ops Center and pack it. Only other piece of news - Per Hansen and the DTU crew have kindly returned our sonics to their shipping containers - thanks again Per!

A glorious day (though T's are rising) - back at the Orange Grove!

Beautiful photo from the Olive Coop looking up towards to WT

Never underestimate the joy of shade (or the importance of keeping hydrated)!

Sunday 2nd July

A day of mixed fortunes. We went to the Olive Grove site to remove the ZephIR and SpiDAR only to be attacked by a swarm of wasps.... Unfortunately wasps had make a nest in a small 'nook' within the ZephIR and we were subject to very vigorous attack! Alas I (Sara) am highly allergic so by the time we drove back to the hotel my hand was severely swollen and very painful! Anyway after some Anti-histamines and a lot of ice I was able to drive to a supermarket to buy wasp killing spray and sadly had to take fairly radical action and apply it to our wasps.... While it worked and we both nursed our bites we went off to the Orange Grove.. Temperatures are really rising quickly and its not that pleasant to be outside.... +40C! ... So our next challenge was packing down the Galion and ZephIR the latter was easily dealt with. The Galion much less so... It has gone into thermal shutdown and is not 'contactable'... So we carefully moved it and the other instruments back to the Ops Center with the help of Preban and Per. Then it was time for a nice dinner....

Shipping crates at the ready!

Powering off- just before the wasp attack

ZephIR from the Orange Grove loaded up and ready to go

A final look back at the Orange Grove

Dinner with Per and Preban of DTU!

Monday 3rd July

Sara woke to a massively swollen hand and a lot of pain.... Not much to do except take more Anti-histamines and 'suck it down'... The two ZephIRs, SpiDAR, sonics and APS are all packed ready to go - the Galion computer is not contactable and after some frustrating attempts we did managed to get it to park and put it in its box ready for shipment back to the USA.

Tuesday 4th July

Happy 4th July! So today we are waiting for the shipping company to come and collect our shipment to return the equipment to the USA. Nothing really to do but clean the Ops Center and WAIT! ...... We had bought a nice bottle of wine for the couple who have allowed us access to their land at the Orange Grove site and Jose Carlos kindly took Sara to present this VERY small gift to them. They have been so generous to allow so many of us to use their land and we feel so grateful for their hosting our instruments. The Portugese subcontractor arrived, collected everything and we set off back for the 4.5 hour drive to Madrid. A long day but at least it is over!

These storks were just chicks during our visit in Jan ... bye to them and our kind Portugese hosts

Wednesday 5th July

Flew back to Denmark. We are frankly exhausted....! Anyway lots of data in hand and we are ready for some analysis! Bye for now...

Go to blog for January 2017
Go to blog for February 2017
Go to blog for April 2017
Go to blog for May 2017
Go to project overview
Go to Professor Pryor's home page