Summary of Salt Lake City VTMX Planning Meeting of April 20-21
This is a summary of the VTMX planning meeting held in Salt Lake City and is based on notes taken at that meeting. A few changes have been made to bring the information more up to date by factoring in various developments that have occurred since that time.
The meeting began with a report by various groups on the status of their preparations for the October 2000 field campaign and on what instruments they are currently planning to bring to the field.
NCAR
NCAR will be setting up in the south end of the Salt Lake Valley near the Traverse Range and next to a gravel pit and the Jordan River. Site coordinates are 40° 27.8' N and 111° 55.9' W, altitude 4490 feet. They plan to install a multiple antenna radar profiler (MAPR), a RASS, surface sensors for T, RH, P, wind, and radiation, and a sodar. They are looking into the possibility of adding a tethered atmospheric sounding system (TAOS), a high resolution backscatter lidar (SABLE), and a second met station. They also plan to launch rawinsondes from this site. They are planning to use a generator to supply power and cell phones for communication; they will look into installing a relay station for radio modem communications back to the Meteorology Department at the U. of U.
PNNL (Whiteman)
Dave will have an array of 4 tethersondes along a slope of the Oquirrh Mountains. The approximate end points for this array are 40° 32.8' N, 112° 3.6' W and 40° 32.3' N, 112° 1.15' W. The base elevations at these two points are about 5180 and 4850 feet, respectively. There will also be a mini-sodar borrowed from ANL and a profiler and RASS from Dugway. The profiler will be at the intersection of Highway 111 and 11800 South; coordinates are 40.539° N, 112.060 W. (Note that these values were taken off a map and differ slightly from the GPS values provided by Al Astling.) Finally, a scintillometer and a PNNL or ASU sonic will be located nearby. ANL may provide a second scintillometer and a minisodar.
Three perfluorocarbon tracers will be released at the top of the tethersonde array from three different heights. An array of ground level samplers will be deployed on arcs at the mid-point and the bottom of the array along with two balloons that will carry tracer sampling lines to elevations of about 200 m AGL.
NOTE: AS OF 18 MAY SOME DIFFICULTIES HAD ARISEN IN GETTING PERMISSION FROM KENNECOTT COPPER FOR USE OF THE LAND. THIS ISSUE HAS NOT YET BEEN RESOLVED.
Dave Boswell of Arizona State and Boeing is planning to fly a model airplane over this area to measure temperatures and, possibly, winds. The idea is to fly the plane along the slope during the evening transition period and look for a propagating front of descending cool air. He hopes to install a Vaisala GPS unit in the plane and therefore needs a Vaisala receiving unit to receive the signal. One has not been identified at this time.
University of Massachusetts
U. Mass will bring their Turbulent Eddy Profiler (TEP), an FMCW radar, and a sodar. The TEP will also be equipped with a RASS. If a suitable site is found, they will also bring one or two sonic anemometers they will borrow from Penn State so that they can measure turbulent fluxes. So far they have been unable to get permission to set up at the site they had originally picked out last September and they are currently looking over several other possibilities. One is at the Salt Lake Community College around 4500 S, 1700 W. People at the school are encouraging but the site is a bit close to the locations of some other profilers and is not a good one for measuring fluxes.
Two other sites are also being studied. One is at a visitors center around 7200 West and I-80; the second is around 6000 West and 21st South. There is yet another possibility around 48th West and 21st South but this is again getting closer to other planned profiler locations.
LANL
LANL is planning to bring a 915 MHz profiler, a RASS, and a sodar. They hope to set up in the parking lot of the ZCMI warehouse at 2200 South and 900 West. Another possibility is in Glendale Park adjacent to the Raging Waters recreation site at 17th South and about 1240 West.
LANL will also be bringing their UV lidar to measure water vapor fluctuations. They plan to set up near the east end of Whiteman's slope flow experiment where commercial power may be available.
ANL
The ANL site is the Old Mill Golf Course just outside Big Cottonwood Canyon. (It is not marked on most maps because the golf course is fairly new). The coordinates are 40° 38.3' N, 111° 48.4' W. They will deploy a profiler, a RASS, a tethersonde, a mini-sodar, and a low frequency sodar (vertical only).
There will also be some chemistry measurements taken at this site - PAN, ozone, nitrogen oxides - and there is additional space at the site if others would like to make observations there.
PNNL (Shaw)
Will will install a profiler with RASS, a 10 m tower with a sonic anemometer, and a minisodar. He may also have a bistatic sodar on loan. The site originally picked out is now unavailable so two new sites are being considered. One is the South Valley Water Reclamation site around 7200 South and 1300 West. The other is a reclaimed toxic waste dump slightly to the east of the reclamation site. The latter site is a more open one that might be better for installing tall towers for flux measurements but it may be too close to the freeway for the profiler.
NOAA/ATDD
ATDD is hoping to put four sonic anemometers on an exiting tall tower in the Salt Lake Valley. They can provide a 30 m tower of their own but would prefer to use existing radio towers. If they bring their own they would look at the possibility of collocating at or near Will Shaw's site. So far they have looked at the KSL tower in the Salt Air area near the Great Salt Lake, and there are additional towers near 5400 South and 6000 South near 1300 West. An attraction of the Salt Air site is that it may be available; disadvantages include heavy air traffic in the region and lake breezes that might complicate efforts to interpret the turbulence data. The LongEZ will be looking for elevated turbulence layers. When found, they hope to fly at that level and then above and below it for sampling. They would also look to fly over the tower on which they have sonics, and over the slope flow experiment to the southwest during the transition periods. In general the plane cannot fly below 300 m over congested areas but can get lower in less populated areas, such as the southwest sections of the valley.
ATDD will also put out a microbarograph array in a 1 km square around the tower that they finally choose.
ETL
ETL will bring their Doppler lidar as well as a met station to record T, RH, and winds. They were looking at a number of sites in the general vicinity of the Salt Lake City Municipal Airport No. 2 and a bit to the east. A promising reservoir site was found but there are some permission issues still to be resolved.
Arizona State University
ASU will initially set up adjacent to the Mt. Olivet cemetery near the southwest corner of the University. Coordinates are approximately 40° 45.2' N and 111° 51' W, with an elevation of about 4760 feet. They will be flying two tethered balloons to carry packages to measure winds, temperatures, and humidities, and to sample aerosols. They will also have a ground met station and two sonics for deployment on one or two towers (11 and 13 m). Two small cup anemometers for wind shear measurements will be set up as well.
The plan is to fly at the cemetery for approximately two weeks and then spend another week at the location of the slope flow experiment. They would move one of their sonics to the slope flow site at this point if one were not already installed there.
PNNL (Fast)
Jerome is still sorting out options for locations of approximately 50 tracer samplers. He would like to collocate samplers at various meteorological measurement sites and Department of Environmental Quality sites. So far about 25 possible sites have been identified but none actually confirmed. Siting requirements are fairly minimal so obtaining permission is not expected to be a major problem. He also has several met stations that he will deploy to fill in gaps in existing networks.
DRI
DRI plans to install about 10-12 CO sensors, mostly in the downtown area, and another 10-12 particulate sensors in both downtown and outlying areas. No sites were nailed down at the time of the meeting.
PNNL (Allwine)
Jerry has a project with the DOE Chemical and Biological Nonproliferation Program (CBNP) to do an urban diffusion experiment with both SF6 and perfluorocarbon tracers. He is working with people from Idaho Falls (NOAA), Lawrence Livermore (DOE), and Dugway to provide a lot of extra equipment. At the moment there are plans for about 100 samplers to measure SF6 and another 40 to measure SF6 and perfluorocarbon tracers. He will also have an open path FTIR, about 20 surface weather stations, 48 temperature loggers, 2 sodars (one at Mt. Olivet cemetery and one on a building in downtown Salt Lake City) and a number of 2-D and 3-D sonics. Most of these instruments will be in the downtown area.
Kirk Clawson from NOAA has also offered to provide a profiler and sodar for use beginning a few days after October 1. A site has been located for that instrument just outside of Parley's Canyon at the Sam Park Reservoir. Negotiations are in progress to see whether that will work out.
BNL
Russ Dietz will be supplying 7 perfluorocarbon tracers and approximately 70 samplers for the experiment. He is also designing and making the balloon-borne tracer release and sampling systems that will be used in Whiteman's slope flow work.
University of Utah
John Horel pointed out that there is a sodar at the Glendale Water Reclamation Facility. This is located at 3300S and 900 W. John also has a number of 3-m towers that he can make available for use.
John is also lining up a number of students to help before and during the experiment. For example, some will help with tethersonde flying and sonde launches and others will help in the operations center. John made a list of people who requested student help; if you have not contacted John about this you should do so soon.
IOPs
Following the status reports there was a discussion on intensive observing periods (IOPs). Up to 10 IOPs will be held, with tracers being released on 6 of those. IOPs would also feature releases of radiosondes at several sites (see below), operation of the TEP in its full data gathering mode, slope flow measurements with Whiteman's tethersonde array, and operation of the tethersondes at other locations as well. The ATDD LongEZ will probably only be available for a two week period, approximately October 15-31; during that time they would fly at every opportunity, regardless of whether an IOP was being conducted.
A poll was taken on what kind of conditions should be sought for IOPs. There was general agreement that periods with weak synoptic forcing were desirable, preferably with clear skies but also with cloudy conditions in a couple of cases. A suggested definition of light winds was an expectation of speeds less than 7 m/s at mountain top level. If a multiple-day stable period develops, that would also be a good time to have an IOP even if tracers were not released on each day of that IOP. In general there should be a one or two day break between tracer releases, although it might be desirable to keep a couple of samplers running on those days. Dave noted that he planned to conduct three tracer experiments during the evening transition period and three at night.
There was also some interest in clear conditions with stronger winds aloft so that turbulent erosion could be studied. These conditions would not be so good for tracers but the ATDD group was particularly interested in studying these with their airplane. Interest was also expressed in having IOPs during periods in which a lake breeze develops and also bracketing a frontal passage. Flying tethered balloons during those times might be difficult, however. Finally, days with significant cold or warm air advection aloft were suggested as candidates for IOPs.
In setting priorities, it was suggested that conditions favorable for tracer releases should have the highest priority.
On non-IOP days, data would still be collected from instruments that can normally run unattended, such as the wind profilers. Instruments such as the TEP, however, would not run in their full data gathering mode. It was also agreed that participants were expected to be available every day, .i.e., there will be no scheduled days off unless it is clear that the weather conditions will preclude any IOPs for several days. Participants should check in every day with the operations center for an update on the status of the experiment.
Forecasts and IOP discussions
On every day in October there will be a weather briefing and a discussion of whether to conduct an IOP. The meeting will be at 11 AM at the operations centers for the VTMX experiment, which will be located in Room 802 of the Browning Building. At that time we would decide whether to declare an intended IOP for the following day, beginning in the late afternoon. The next morning the weather situation would be reviewed and a go/no go decision issued for the IOP. Notification of the status of an IOP will be posted on the web and also on voice mail on a phone line in the operations center.
Rawinsondes
NCAR hopes to launch between 30 and 100 sondes from their site near the south end of the Salt Lake Valley. Arrangements are being made with the National Weather Service to launch a total of 4 sondes per day during IOPs. We also hope to launch 13 GPS sondes per IOP from the area east of I-215 and about 7400 South. Several sites are under consideration. The proposed launch times are 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2300, 0100, 0300, 0500, 0700, 0800, 0900, and 1000. Sunrise and sunset on October 1 are 0627 and 1808, respectively, and on October 31 are 0700 and 1723. All times listed are LST. We are currently trying to get a transfer of sondes from the ARM program and arrange to replace them. Rich Coulter has said we will probably be able to use ANL's Vaisala receiver system.
People to launch the sondes are needed. John Horel can get us student help but there should be a senior (old) person involved as well. Greg Poulos has offered to help in one shift and John Archuleta may be able to get someone from Los Alamos for another shift. Joe Shinn of Livermore has volunteered to pick up the cost of the sondes and perhaps some of the costs for student help.
Sonic Anemometers
A poll was taken asking who planned to bring sonics to the field and how many. Responses were: ANL - maybe; PNNL -2; ASU -2; ATDD -4; Dugway-2; NOAA (Idaho Falls) -2; U. Mass -2 (maybe).
The Dugway and NOAA instruments will be located in the downtown area, with several tentatively planned for the tops of buildings at various heights. ATDD's 4 will go on a tower as discussed earlier. The final deployment of the others is still being discussed but efforts will be made to have one at the slope flow experiment, one at Will Shaw's site, and - for the first two weeks at least - two at the ASU cemetery site. U. Mass will want to deploy one near their TEP if the site is suitable but would prefer not to be responsible for the sonics (to be borrowed from Penn State) if they are not used there.
It would be nice to have some additional sites with sonics at them and some options will be explored in the next couple of months.
People responsible for sonics are asked to store the data in 30 minute blocks beginning on the hour and half hour and to save the raw data files if possible.
Equipment Delivery
Joe Shinn offered to arrange for a receiving agent and location so that people can ship equipment to Salt Lake City prior to the experiment and ship it out after. Details will be passed on when arrangements are finalized.
Profiler Configurations
Three beam systems (ANL, LANL, Dugway) will sample at 60 m and 200 m (the latter being 400 m and oversampled). Corresponding values for the five beam system operated by Shaw will be 60 m and 100 m. Consensus files for winds will be generated every half hour and RASSes will be operated for 5 minutes at the beginning of each of those half hours.
NEPA and Safety
There was a brief discussion about environmental compliance requirements and safety issues. We are hoping to get a categorical exclusion from having to file detailed descriptions of our activities showing how we will have essentially no impact on the environment. This does not excuse anyone from behaving responsibly and in accordance with various local, sate, and federal regulations. In general, there should be NO adverse effect of your measurements on the environment, wildlife, or sensitive historical or cultural places.
Investigators are urged to take steps to ensure the safety of each person working on a project as well as the safety of the public. Particular care will be necessary in driving because of the long and late hours or work that will be required for the experiment.
Communications
Each group will be expected to have a cell phone (left on!) or regular phone so they can be easily reached. This will be particularly important for those groups intending to launch balloons or fly tethersondes. A list of phone numbers will be compiled and distributed near the beginning of the experiment.
Operations Center
As noted earlier this will be in Room 802 of the Browning Building on the U. campus. We're hoping to have internet access, a workstation or PC or two, a printer, and a phone. The center should be staffed throughout each IOP. Some display products will be prepared that show winds from the profilers, possible local air mass trajectories during an IOP, sounding information, and other analyses.
ANL has agreed to set up a hub for collecting profiler data from the ANL, LANL, and Dugway profilers. We may be able to add the NOAA/Idaho Falls profiler as well. These data will be downloaded at least once per day and can be viewed on a web site they will set up.
Data
It was agreed that if you use someone else's data for your own study, then appropriate acknowledgment should be given to that person in any publications that result. "Appropriate" may range from co-authorship to simple inclusion in an acknowledgment section. VTMX program participants should have first access to the data before it is made available to the general public. Participants were asked to try to have their data processed to some extent and submitted to a data archive by about 6 months after the experiment (April 2001).
Joe Shinn offered to provide assistance in providing a data base manager and setting up a data archive through the CBNP. He would like to see the data eventually available on a CD-ROM. Prior to that, data would be available to VTMX and CBNP scientists via restricted ftp access from a Livermore web site. The VTMX and Livermore web sites would also keep a catalog of what data were collected and what data have been delivered and are available as people send in the various sets.
Data should be stored in ASCII format where possible. For some instruments other arrangements will be needed. All data should be time stamped at least with the UTC time. If you want to use local times, that should be an additional option, not a replacement.
Housing
It was estimated that about 50 people will be coming to Salt Lake to work on the experiment. Although there are a lot of motel rooms currently available in the area, John pointed out that there is an Amway convention scheduled for October and that is a major event that will fill up a lot of those rooms. Thus, people should be making plans and reservations for housing very soon. There are a couple of Residence Inns and a Homestead Village that offer some discounted rates for extended stays. The Chase Suite Hotel is also apparently willing to negotiate. The University Guest House rate drops to $40 per night if you stay for 30 days or more. There was some hope that an even lower rate could be negotiated if we had a group of 10 or more staying there but that didn't work out.
Future Meetings and Workshops
No firm date was set for another meeting prior to the experiment but there was some talk of having one in July. At this point it is not obvious that another mass meeting is needed this summer, so unless situations develop where one might be required we probably will not get together again until the last week of September shortly before the experiment actually begins.
Contact: J. Christopher Doran (509) 372-6149, e-mail: christopher.doran@pnl.gov
Last updated: May 19, 2000
