The JPL ROMS team is working hard to get ready for the daily ROMS prediction of the PWS 3D circulation and tides. You can find the most updated ROMS prediction at the JPL web page: http://ourocean.jpl.nasa.gov/PWS. We plan to post our six-hourly nowcast and the 48-hour forecast daily, usually available on the web page in the morning. Currently we are getting satellite measurement of sea surface temperature from national centers. As more in situ and HF radar data become available next week, we will assimilate them into ROMS so that our nowcast and forecast can be improved. We will make a number of side-by-side (ROMS vs Data) comparisons so as to assess the ROMS performance and prediction skills. A web-based drifter trajectory tool has been developed to track the locations of the various drifters being deployed as well as produce ROMS-predicted drifter trajectories to assess the model performance and to enable adaptive sampling (or deployment planning). If we have access to the JPL supercomputers (shared with 5000+ JPL employees), we plan to produce ensemble ROMS predictions: making multiple ROMS predictions using slightly different initial conditions, atmospheric forcing and lateral boundary conditions. The goal for this ensemble prediction is to estimate the uncertainty of the ROMS predicted drifter trajectory, similar as the "track forecast cone" using by the hurricane predictions, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_forecast_cone.
Working with Prof. Peter Olsson at UAA, we are also display real-time comparisons between the observed wind and WRF-predicted wind with a goal to assess the skill of the atmospheric wind prediction. A good ROMS ocean circulation forecast depends heavily on the accurate atmospheric forecast, including wind, air-sea heat flux, and rainfall.
Starting tomrrow July 15, we will issue our daily summary describing the state of PWS meteorology, oceanography and the operational status of ROMS nowcast/forecast.
If you have any questions and need to reach us, please feel free to contact the PI (Dr. Yi Chao, Yi.Chao@jpl.nasa.gov, cell phone 818-434-9612) and the JPL ROMS team (Dr. John Farrara, Dr. Gene Li, Dr. Peggy Li, Dr. Xin Jin, and Quoc Vu).
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Shelter Bay CSS Blues
Sunday July 12, 2009 – 9:00 am:
Yesterday we put up the receive antenna, finished tweaking on the genset, finalized the Hughes Net and turned the CODAR on. We saw some EMF interference with the engine controller so we moved the transmit antenna further away from the huts and that solved the problem. After running the CODAR for a few minutes we saw that no cross-specra were being processed so we began to debug. After many hours of trying and no success we sent an email to customer support and now await the report. Today we’ll continue tweaking on the genset and CODAR until we are happy with their performance. If the CODAR starts behaving normally we’ll conduct antenna calibrations and head on back to Knowles Bay for a check up, since it’s been almost 4 days since we left that site and it is probably getting lonely without us. ;-)
HS
Yesterday we put up the receive antenna, finished tweaking on the genset, finalized the Hughes Net and turned the CODAR on. We saw some EMF interference with the engine controller so we moved the transmit antenna further away from the huts and that solved the problem. After running the CODAR for a few minutes we saw that no cross-specra were being processed so we began to debug. After many hours of trying and no success we sent an email to customer support and now await the report. Today we’ll continue tweaking on the genset and CODAR until we are happy with their performance. If the CODAR starts behaving normally we’ll conduct antenna calibrations and head on back to Knowles Bay for a check up, since it’s been almost 4 days since we left that site and it is probably getting lonely without us. ;-)
HS
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Shelter Bay Activities
Friday July 10, 2009: 7:50 am
On Thursday morning we were again greeted by a black bear and bald eagle on the beach. Finishing touches were applied to the Knowles Bay site, the antennas calibrated, the genset tweaked and our gear carried back to the beach for transport to the Auklet. The hut housing the SeaSonde electronics was getting really warm, so it was ventilated in order for the system to work properly. At 3 pm we departed Knowles Bay, and by 5 pm we had the entire crew on the beach at Shelter Bay. To our surprise both fiberglass huts had pitched forward, half suspended in the trees over the edge of a small cliff. Whoops! We can only assume that at some point a blast of wind caught the 2m Starband satellite dish and caused the whole assembly to flip.
We unloaded 16 batteries, the Biodiesel genset and the biodiesel drums from the Auklet to the zodiac and then onto the beach. From the landing beach we transported all of the gear 150 m along the beach, up the bank and the down the meadow to the sites. Then, we decided to have a go at turning our huts back over. Steve and Mark disassembled the dish and removed enough brush so that the huts were free to be overturned while Hank, Rachel and Leslie emptied propane tanks from the A-frame structure that will house the biodiesel generator. We attached the come-along to the dish mast and then started the hauling process. As soon as the tension began to lift the hut, snap! The line parted, and Mark called an end to operations for Thursday. Back on board the Auklet, we regrouped and put some food into our systems. Not long after, a group of Humpback whales put on a show for us blowing, tail wagging and then the full Free Willy out of the water breach. Wow, what a spectacle. We all turned in pretty early and have awoken this morning to our first grey, rainy day. We’re about to organize gear on deck and then start transporting it to the beach when the tide comes up a bit.
HS
Saturday July 11, 2009 -- 8:45 am:
It’s Saturday morning, where are the cartoons? First off here’s a quick note, don’t swim in Prince William Sound, there’s SHARKS!!! We will probably not be making the swim call anytime soon as we have observed the definitive dorsal fin of a salmon shark circling our boat for the last two days.
Yesterday we made tons of progress on the shelter bay site starting with overturning those huts that were blown over. Once upright, we emptied out all the water and much that had accumulated inside and started to install the Hughes net satellite communications system. While Steve and Rachel worked out the comms, Mark and I installed the battery bank, the power panel and began the assembly of the Ample Power genset. All of our various projects came to a full stop when a big blonde grizzly wandered by on the hillside above our camp, we only saw him for a few seconds before he disappeared into the trees but his presence put us all on edge for the rest of the day. Leslie, our media and outreach specialist, took on the job of bear spotter and at one point thought she heard the bear on the beach in front of us. Yikes! A radio call to the Auklet verified that it was imagined but still, the thought of a hungry bear circling our little CODAR camp was creepy. Besides that, at 3 pm Leslie left us on a float plane ride back to Cordova so we were on our own.
We worked another twelve hour day yesterday and came back to the Auklet to the fantastic news of a Halibut catch by the second mate, Kevin. He pulled in a 37 pounder and decided to share it with us. David baked it up to perfection and a feast was had by all. Today we’ll be putting the finishing touches on the Hughes Net comms system, plumbing in the genset, wiring it to the power panel and installing the CODAR. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we don’t see Blondie the Bruin today.
On Thursday morning we were again greeted by a black bear and bald eagle on the beach. Finishing touches were applied to the Knowles Bay site, the antennas calibrated, the genset tweaked and our gear carried back to the beach for transport to the Auklet. The hut housing the SeaSonde electronics was getting really warm, so it was ventilated in order for the system to work properly. At 3 pm we departed Knowles Bay, and by 5 pm we had the entire crew on the beach at Shelter Bay. To our surprise both fiberglass huts had pitched forward, half suspended in the trees over the edge of a small cliff. Whoops! We can only assume that at some point a blast of wind caught the 2m Starband satellite dish and caused the whole assembly to flip.
We unloaded 16 batteries, the Biodiesel genset and the biodiesel drums from the Auklet to the zodiac and then onto the beach. From the landing beach we transported all of the gear 150 m along the beach, up the bank and the down the meadow to the sites. Then, we decided to have a go at turning our huts back over. Steve and Mark disassembled the dish and removed enough brush so that the huts were free to be overturned while Hank, Rachel and Leslie emptied propane tanks from the A-frame structure that will house the biodiesel generator. We attached the come-along to the dish mast and then started the hauling process. As soon as the tension began to lift the hut, snap! The line parted, and Mark called an end to operations for Thursday. Back on board the Auklet, we regrouped and put some food into our systems. Not long after, a group of Humpback whales put on a show for us blowing, tail wagging and then the full Free Willy out of the water breach. Wow, what a spectacle. We all turned in pretty early and have awoken this morning to our first grey, rainy day. We’re about to organize gear on deck and then start transporting it to the beach when the tide comes up a bit.
HS
Saturday July 11, 2009 -- 8:45 am:
It’s Saturday morning, where are the cartoons? First off here’s a quick note, don’t swim in Prince William Sound, there’s SHARKS!!! We will probably not be making the swim call anytime soon as we have observed the definitive dorsal fin of a salmon shark circling our boat for the last two days.
Yesterday we made tons of progress on the shelter bay site starting with overturning those huts that were blown over. Once upright, we emptied out all the water and much that had accumulated inside and started to install the Hughes net satellite communications system. While Steve and Rachel worked out the comms, Mark and I installed the battery bank, the power panel and began the assembly of the Ample Power genset. All of our various projects came to a full stop when a big blonde grizzly wandered by on the hillside above our camp, we only saw him for a few seconds before he disappeared into the trees but his presence put us all on edge for the rest of the day. Leslie, our media and outreach specialist, took on the job of bear spotter and at one point thought she heard the bear on the beach in front of us. Yikes! A radio call to the Auklet verified that it was imagined but still, the thought of a hungry bear circling our little CODAR camp was creepy. Besides that, at 3 pm Leslie left us on a float plane ride back to Cordova so we were on our own.
We worked another twelve hour day yesterday and came back to the Auklet to the fantastic news of a Halibut catch by the second mate, Kevin. He pulled in a 37 pounder and decided to share it with us. David baked it up to perfection and a feast was had by all. Today we’ll be putting the finishing touches on the Hughes Net comms system, plumbing in the genset, wiring it to the power panel and installing the CODAR. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we don’t see Blondie the Bruin today.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Meet Members of the Team
Hello from the Sound.Hank reports the new biodiesel gensets are running smoothly and sends along a link to his Picasa album.
Photo: Mark Johnson
Additional team members currently prepping materials for data collection: Mark Johnson, Rachel Potter and Steve Sweet.
Hank notes that the Auklet makes for 'close quarters.' This wouldn't appear to phase Rachel.
Photo: Hank Statscewich
Posts from the Field
July 6
UAF HF Radar crew drove down to Valdez with 5,000 lbs of gear and met Auklet at 9am in Valdez. Unloaded most of the lighter equipment from the trailer at the dock due to low tide and then used the commercial fishing fleet’s crane to load 8 barrels of biodiesel, 32 batteries, the generators, CODAR equipment, spares, satellite dishes and all the tools to put everything together. Left the dock at 12:30am and arrived at Knowles Bay by 5pm. First trip to shore at 5pm and worked till 8pm. Took ashore 4 containers of biodiesel, tools, power panel and genset. Cleared brush, started dismantling the A-frame and huts, and got ready to set things up. Flat calm conditions today were near perfect for beach landings with our heavy gear.
MJ and HS
July 7, 2009: 21:24 hrs PWS HF Radar experiment Day 2
Today we started with a superb breakfast of French toast and sausages before spotting a black bear on the beach 100 m north of our site. We kept our bear spray at the ready on our first beach assault of the day. Once ashore, the final touches were put on clearing out the A-frame. That 600 lb genset was a bear to move! The old Starband satellite dish was removed and the Hughes Net dish installed. By lunchtime, the new genset was well on it’s way to being installed, and we nearly had high speed internet. We took advantage of the high tide after lunch to move 16 batteries to the beach, one of us (Steve) even carried two 70 lb batteries at once. By the early afternoon, the CODAR antennas were installed, the batteries all checked out and the Hughes Net Satellite was found. Mark worked assertively with the fuel pump, earning excellent remarks all around.
A small glitch with the Hughes Net modem held us up from posting this blog yesterday, but by the end of the day, the high speed internet was installed, the genset was working, and the CODAR is almost there. David Janka had an awesome dinner ready of Alaskan shrimp, red beans and rice. We followed up a steamy hot day of work with an appropriate swim call and are now basking in a hazy glow of exhaustion.
HS
Weds July 8th
Eagle and bear on beach in the morning. Mark’s pics of bear are from this morning, below the “hanging log”. Calm weather still in place. Set up SeaSonde electronics. Put them in second hut. Installed and tested biodiesel generator. Tightened belt. Moved up propane to upper beach. One tank self-depressured. Steve put it north of our location. Put up tarp. Configured network. Leslie Abramson flew out on charter flight. Used our network and had problems with her cellphone modem. Came ashore around noon. Moved transmit antennae to eliminate RF interference. Put 25m north of the electronics hut which reduced interference. Steve (David’s crew) suggested twisted shielded cable to help fix the RF interference. Put conduit on all the cable that was set on the ground. Unspooled and respooled cable.
First data collected and sent to Fairbanks.
Shrimp scramble for breakfast and burgers (beef, Garden, and/or salmon) for dinner.
MJ
UAF HF Radar crew drove down to Valdez with 5,000 lbs of gear and met Auklet at 9am in Valdez. Unloaded most of the lighter equipment from the trailer at the dock due to low tide and then used the commercial fishing fleet’s crane to load 8 barrels of biodiesel, 32 batteries, the generators, CODAR equipment, spares, satellite dishes and all the tools to put everything together. Left the dock at 12:30am and arrived at Knowles Bay by 5pm. First trip to shore at 5pm and worked till 8pm. Took ashore 4 containers of biodiesel, tools, power panel and genset. Cleared brush, started dismantling the A-frame and huts, and got ready to set things up. Flat calm conditions today were near perfect for beach landings with our heavy gear.
MJ and HS
July 7, 2009: 21:24 hrs PWS HF Radar experiment Day 2
Today we started with a superb breakfast of French toast and sausages before spotting a black bear on the beach 100 m north of our site. We kept our bear spray at the ready on our first beach assault of the day. Once ashore, the final touches were put on clearing out the A-frame. That 600 lb genset was a bear to move! The old Starband satellite dish was removed and the Hughes Net dish installed. By lunchtime, the new genset was well on it’s way to being installed, and we nearly had high speed internet. We took advantage of the high tide after lunch to move 16 batteries to the beach, one of us (Steve) even carried two 70 lb batteries at once. By the early afternoon, the CODAR antennas were installed, the batteries all checked out and the Hughes Net Satellite was found. Mark worked assertively with the fuel pump, earning excellent remarks all around.
A small glitch with the Hughes Net modem held us up from posting this blog yesterday, but by the end of the day, the high speed internet was installed, the genset was working, and the CODAR is almost there. David Janka had an awesome dinner ready of Alaskan shrimp, red beans and rice. We followed up a steamy hot day of work with an appropriate swim call and are now basking in a hazy glow of exhaustion.
HS
Weds July 8th
Eagle and bear on beach in the morning. Mark’s pics of bear are from this morning, below the “hanging log”. Calm weather still in place. Set up SeaSonde electronics. Put them in second hut. Installed and tested biodiesel generator. Tightened belt. Moved up propane to upper beach. One tank self-depressured. Steve put it north of our location. Put up tarp. Configured network. Leslie Abramson flew out on charter flight. Used our network and had problems with her cellphone modem. Came ashore around noon. Moved transmit antennae to eliminate RF interference. Put 25m north of the electronics hut which reduced interference. Steve (David’s crew) suggested twisted shielded cable to help fix the RF interference. Put conduit on all the cable that was set on the ground. Unspooled and respooled cable.
First data collected and sent to Fairbanks.
Shrimp scramble for breakfast and burgers (beef, Garden, and/or salmon) for dinner.
MJ
 |
| From Prince William Sound July 2009 |
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Look and feel
Hello PIs -
[snip-new masthead added] This blog is for the PIs to share observations, ideas, concepts... GREAT photos and tidbits of what is going on.
If (as a PI) you want to contribute to the blog and you have a gmail account you can email ocean.observing@gmail.com from your gmail account and I'll go add you in as an administrator and contributor to this blog.
Thanks, Hank for setting this up.
AS A COURTESY - if you post using ocean.observing@gmail.com please put your name in the salutation at the end of your post.
Janene (the helpful gal in the office)
[snip-new masthead added] This blog is for the PIs to share observations, ideas, concepts... GREAT photos and tidbits of what is going on.
If (as a PI) you want to contribute to the blog and you have a gmail account you can email ocean.observing@gmail.com from your gmail account and I'll go add you in as an administrator and contributor to this blog.
Thanks, Hank for setting this up.
AS A COURTESY - if you post using ocean.observing@gmail.com please put your name in the salutation at the end of your post.
Janene (the helpful gal in the office)
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